Coercive decontextualized manipulation

David Fitch using unnecessarily big words - we are reacting against a coercive decontextualized manipulation of the gospel* - but otherwise making good sense in his new blog post: What the Missional Church is missing: Proclaiming the Gospel.

I like a lot of what David Fitch writes, though it puzzles me that he has such a strong focus on spending quite so much time in Starbucks - not on mission but on coffee.  However, as he notes in his third point: An understanding  of what it means to be with people, so as to listen long enough to create the opening whereby you are invited to proclaim the gospel as it most makes most direct sense within this person’s life. That's probably what Starbucks is all about....

Fitch's recent book, Prodigal Christianity, has had some mixed reactions - I haven't had a chance to read it yet (I'm in a P T Forsyth mode at the moment, thanks to Jason Goroncy), but I'll aim to get onto it at some point.  One Amazon reviewer wrote about it: Take a bit of David Bosch, combine him with Darrel Guder and Lesslie Newbigin, shake in Tim Keller, Scot McKnight, Alan Hirsch and bake on a broad Augustinian base, and you'll get Prodigal Christianity, an unique and filling book that Christians living in the 21st century should read.



*Or: there’s an epistemological shift here that goes way beyond the cognitive enlightenment modes of communication most Americans are addicted to.

What if Starbucks ran its business like the church?

This can only be described as scary....because it's too close to the truth.



By the time you get to the end of this, you'll either be screaming (because of the overdose of coffee slogans) or because you wonder where Jesus might have gone on this particular morning...?

Gordon MacDonald notes that Starbucks closed down for a few hours recently for staff training. It was a bit of a shock to the American system, but they coped. He wonders what would happen if churches closed down 'for a few hours' to check out where they're at. Some have, with mixed results. Check out the full article here: Trouble Brewing.

In an earlier article, David Swanson talks about how working as a part-time barista showed him that too many churches are like coffee shops where the customers turn up, get their coffee and go away again. Takeaway Churches, as it were. As a result of his part-time work, he's begun a group that just gets together to 'connect', 'relate' and learn about each other as disciples of Jesus. Read about it in Coffeeshop Connections/