Date of Award

1-2010

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Ministry (DMin)

Department

Seminary

Abstract

It is my claim that followers of Jesus in the United States are suffering from missional amnesia and are seemingly unaware of their increasingly ineffective approaches towards Christian discipleship and evangelism. It seems the Church has forgotten why they exist? Simultaneously, an emerging generation watches how the Christian faith is being played out in the United States, and has arrived at the conclusion that the "organized church" has missed the point. The world has changed and the Church's lack of response clearly indicates grand delusions of denial. The unique Christian sub-culture who were once the "natives" in the United States have now become "immigrants."1 The western Christian sub-culture has confused and justified itself as biblical Christianity, and its only chance of survival is radical reformation. I am further claiming the church in the twenty first century is living off the work, money, and energy of previous generations and a previous world order.2 If the Christian Church in the United States desires to avoid its imminent demise, the time for revelation and revolution is now. An invitation to the next "Great Awakening" and "Reformation" is upon them. I am proposing a popular culture book that will begin by nailing a new stack of "theses" to the proverbial door of the church in North America. The first half of this book will examine current approaches of discipleship and evangelism that target the emerging generation, compare them to biblical models, examine their practical theology and evaluate their outcome. The second half of this book will advocate a new theology and praxis of Christian discipleship that invites an emerging generation to dwell in the Kingdom of God now, with Christ, as they simultaneously reside in the material world. However, the realities in the Kingdom of God are what will govern their lives and belief systems in the material world, which results in much more than spiritual formation. It results in a convergence of the supernatural and the natural in an incarnational holistic experience. It results in holistic human formation.

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