Created For God's Mission
Fashioning a Great Commission Church for a 21st Century World
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DEFIBRILLATING THE HEART OF THE CHURCH
Foreword by Dr. Leonard Sweet
Hidden in my Bible lurks an unusual bookmark: a Continental Airlines barf bag. This blue bookmark is often used to take me quickly to Revelation 3:16, where God is speaking to the church of Laodicea in language that translators have laundered, thereby proving the very reason for God’s admonition in the first place:
“Would that you were hot or cold,” God says, “but because you are lukewarm [or more precisely, play-it-safe, middle-of-the-road, mediocre], I’m going to spit [or spew, or in the best translation of the Greek, vomit] you out of my mouth.”
One of my favorite gifts to pastors is a personalized vomit bag on which I write the abbreviated form of the warning this God-puke verse issues to every church: “Hot or Hurl” signed “God.”
In Holt Clarke’s book, Created For God’s Mission, the church is being called to get “hot” again, or in his vernacular, to put the “Wow!” factor back into the life of faith. But what is the church supposed to be “hot” about? For what is the church called to be in a state of “Wow?”
God’s mission in the world. It’s not the church’s mission. It’s God’s mission, missio Dei. In fact, the church’s only business is not to stay in business, but to stay in mission. The heart palpitations and fibrillations caused by the “double whammy” to the heart of Christianity [post-Christendom and post-modernity] make defibrillators like Clarke’s book all the more necessary.
In fact, after reading Clarke’s book I began to wonder if part of the defibrillator kit’s electronic shot to the heart ought to be the “firing” of all “pastors.” Everyone “pastor” with an ordination certificate needs to be fired from the pastorate, and re-commissioned as a missioner, a missionary to an emerging culture. For too long we have structured our ministries along the lines of church theology and pastoral theology and not along the lines of missionary theology. Walter Hollenweger’s words are worth inscribing on every re-commissioning certificate: “Theology in the Church of the future will have to be a missionary theology in a missionary Church.”1
Holt Clarke understands this new mission frontier for Christianity, and shows how we can reconfigure mission for a new world. There are many examples of this being done: from seeker-sensitive, purpose-driven, cell-churches (human-scale churches), to para-church and emerging-church ministries. But if they are in missionary formation, what all inherited and emerging churches share in common is this one conviction: the Water of Life is like all water, it turns bad by staying in one place.
Dr. Leonard Sweet, Ph.D. E. Stanley Jones Chair of Evangelism at Drew University, founder and president of SpiritVenture Ministries, best-selling author and a featured columnist for REV. Magazine.
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About the Book
Created For God’s Mission, is a prophetic call for the church to return to the mission going constitution of Christianity. Local churches must re-image faith and ministry in order to reach an age vastly different than the world of our forebears in the faith. The times have changed, but the Great Commission remains the same. The weakened condition among many local churches stems from a failure to understand and incarnate its basic God-given mission.
According to Dr. Clarke, “Many churches need more than a tune-up, but rather a major overhaul: the oil of ministry has not been changed in decades, corrosive rust is eating away at the missional infrastructure, the gospel tires are suffering from dry rot, the gas tanks of worship are empty, the teaching gears are slipping, and the engine of leadership is out of COMMISSION.”
Jesus commissioned the Church for mission; God’s mission! He gave the Church its purpose (Great Commission) and the power (Holy Spirit) needed to get it done! Carrying out God’s mission through congregational mission centers will foster vital, healthy, growing churches. Dr. Clarke provides practical and relevant insights beneficial for church leaders who desire to cultivate mission-oriented congregations heaven bent on transforming the world.
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The Church is created for God’s Mission! The identity of every Christian disciple is forever stamped by the missional identity of Jesus. Every disciple is a missionary called to God’s mission. Every local church exists as a “mission outpost” of God’s Kingdom.
God is fashioning a Great Commission Church to reach a twenty-first century world! God’s mission-driven Church is Spirit-storming its way into the twenty-first century, envisioning new realities that will transform the world.
By combining a unique blend of first and twenty-first century patterns of discipleship, Dr. Clarke presents a refreshing ancient/future approach to carrying out the Great Commission in today’s world!
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The church’s only business is not to stay in business, but to stay in mission. The heart palpitations and fibrillations caused by the "double whammy" to the heart of Christianity [post-Christendom and post-modernity] make defibrillators like Dr. Holt Clarke’s book all the more necessary. Dr. Clarke understands this new mission frontier for Christianity, and shows how we can reconfigure mission for a new world.
—Dr. Leonard Sweet, Ph.D. E. Stanley Jones Chair of Evangelism at Drew University and best-selling author.
Dr. Clarke’s heart burning passion for Christ and brilliant outlook toward the future of the Christian Church make this book exceptionally eminent. In addition, his globally connected ministerial practices such as in South Korea, clearly proves the viability of his vision for the twenty-first century church.
—Dr. Younglae Kim, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Christian Education at the Methodist Theological Seminary in Seoul, South Korea.
About the Author
Rev. Dr. Holt A. Clarke is a professional wedding minister and marriage coach. He is the launch leader and spiritual coach for The Rising Church on Daniel Island in Charleston, SC.
Dr. Clarke uses an Ancient/Future approach to advancing the gospel. He is an international speaker whose passion is Christian futuring, missional leadership, cultural connectivity, and church empowerment.
Dr. Clarke earned the Doctor of Ministry degree from Drew University. He earned the Master of Divinity degree from Duke University. He earned the BA degree in Psychology, Religious Studies, and Sociology/Anthropology from North Carolina Wesleyan College. He completed Youth With A Mission's six month Discipleship Training School in Honolulu, HI.
He resides in Charleston, SC with his wife Jackie, their two daughters Alexis & Kiera, and two dogs Jasmine and Queenie.
Website: www.therisingchurch.org
E-mail: holtclarke@yahoo.com