I’ve decided to do a chapter by chapter review on ReJesus: A Wild Messiah for a Missional Church.

Missional is all the rage these days. But I’m worried we may water-down the importance and meaning of missional. No I don’t think we need to have a post-missional discussion yet. I think we need to do our best to stay focused on the task at hand, which is: 

1. How do we become missional followers of Jesus from an individual perspective? How does the story of Jesus change me as a person?
2. How do we become missional followers of Jesus as people involved in a larger global community which is known as the church or God’s people?
3. How does God’s people live on-mission outside the so-called walls of the church? How do we influence culture, love our neighbor etc?

Thooughts from the Introductions

H&F asks some key questions:

 -”What ongoing role does Jesus the Messiah play in shaping the ethos & self-understanding of the movement that originated in him?”
- “In how many ways do we domesticate the radical Revolutionary in order to sustain our religion and religiosity?”
- “How can a rediscovery of Jesus renew our discipleship, the Christian community, and the ongoing mission of the church?”

“It seems to us that a constant, and continual, return to Jesus is absolutely essential for any movement that wishes to call itself by his name.”

“Surly the challenge for the church today s to be taken captive by the agenda of Jesus, rather than seeking to mold him to fit our agendas, no matter how noble they might be.”

“The challenge before us is to let Jesus be Jesus and to allow ourselves to be caught up in his extraordinary mission for the world.”

“And so any attempt to reJesus the church must also recover a real sense of the radical and revolutionary nature of what it means to follow JEsus in the current  Western context.”

“Christology is the study and examination of the entire phenomenon of Jesus, including his person and work and teachings, for the purpose of determining in what ways the various elements of his life and activity can be emulated by sinful human beings.” 

“ReJesus is an attempt to reinstate the central role of Jesus in the ongoing spiritual life of the faith and in the life and mission of God’s people. More specifically, it is an attempt to recalibrate the mission of the church around the person and work of Jesus.”