Preaching Deuteronomy Missionally
How central is mission to the message of the Bible and the identity of the church? Over the past number of years, as CRC churches here in Australia, we have been exploring these questions as we seek to be churches that are reforming to reach the lost for Christ.
In the last Recharge Conference held in Sydney (May 2013) Mike Goheen, Mark Glanville, and Erin Goheen-Glanville clearly showed how central mission is to our core identity as Christians individually and corporately as churches. This is not a novel idea created by modern day theologians and scholars. These truths are rooted deeply in the Biblical story, from Genesis through Revelation.
Recently Calvin Theological Seminary co-sponsored a conference on A Missional Reading of Scripture. Mike Goheen gave one of the plenary talks and Mark Glanville did a workshop of how to preach the book of Deuteronomy missionally. This conference explored what it might mean to read both the Old Testament and the New Testament with a missional hermeneutic, and what that might mean for missional praxis of the church, specifically preaching, theological education, and the life of the local congregation. The presenters pointed out how missions a central thread in the biblical writings and central to the identity of the church. Quoting from the conference description, "... a missional hermeneutic is a way of reading Scripture in which mission is a central interpretive key that unlocks the whole narrative of Scripture. It does not simply study the theme of mission but reads the whole of the biblical canon with mission as one of its central themes."
All the plenary sessions and workshops were recorded and can be accessed here. Of particular interest is Mark Glanville's workshop on Preaching Deuteronomy Missionally. In a recent blog Mark wrote:
Are you interested in going deeper in missional preaching? At the 'A Missional Reading of Scripture Conference', Calvin Seminary, Grand Rapids, Nov. 2013, I presented a workshop, 'Church for the Thriving of the World: Preaching Deuteronomy Missionally.' This included outlining an eight week sermon series on Deuteronomy titled: 'Radical Gratitude and the Mission of God.' If you are a preacher you may be interested in preaching through Deuteronomy missionally.
The book of Deuteronomy mobilizes the church in 2014 to live with gratitude in response to God's gifts and with generosity for the sake of the world. Reading the Bible missionally includes attending to Biblical ethics and also seeing how these biblical ethics are embedded in theology to shape a display people before the world."
A detailed description of the sermon series is available on this website. It will also be helpful to listen to the audio in preparation for preaching through Deuteronomy. I hope you find this material helpful in mobilising your community into the mission of Christ.
Check out this workshop and consider, as Mark suggests, doing this sermon series on Deuteronomy. You will find, as I did, the material very helpful and insightful.
About the author
Jack De Vries was hired on by the Christian Reformed Churches of Australia and began his work as Ministry Training Coordinator in January 2008. In 2012 this role shifted to that of Ministry Development Coach.
Jack came from Canada where he pastored three Christian Reformed churches: Alliston CRC, Alliston, Ontario(1983-87), a church plant: New Life Community Church, Pickering, Ontario(1987-95), and Bethel CRC, Listowel, Ontario (1995-2007). Jack is a graduate of Calvin Theological Seminary (Master of Divinity - 1983) and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (Doctor of Ministry - 2003) Jack and his wife Jeannie currently live in Petrie, a northern suburb of Brisbane in Queensland. They attend and are members of Bray Park Community Church. They have four adult children and seven grandchildren living in the USA and Canada.
In Isaiah 58:11 we read: "The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail." Australia has seen times of drought and floods. There is another type of drought in Australia; there is a spiritual drought. But God promises to provide refreshing rain, a never ending supply of refreshing water. The water he provides will satisfy the needs of all Australians. As we take up the missional vision God has given us we extend the life changing invitation of Jesus: "Come! Whoever is thirsty, come, and take the free gift of the water of life!" (Revelation 22:17)
