Saturday, April 05, 2008

"Mission-minded"

"Mission-minded" is one of the buzzwords in the LCMS today.

But how about,

"Doctrine-minded"

"Liturgy-minded"

"Confession-minded"

"Gospel-minded"

or even better -

"Christ-minded"

"Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. " Phillipians 2:5-10 (ESV)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well stated.

jWinters said...

Hmnn....
Agreed agreed....but my thoughts automatically went to, "what if one these became 'the official slogan of the LCMS'?"

"Mission-minded" - Hah! That would just be patently false for the most part. "Mission-confused" would be better.

"Doctrine-minded" - At least true, but it doesn't really encapsulate everything about the LCMS. To use Forde's terms - it gets "explanation" but not necessarily "proclamation".

"Liturgy-minded" - We would need to get our churches to talk about what "liturgy" is. That would be good. However, it sounds like "jabberwocky minded" to most non-liturgical Christians...just plain confusing.

"Confession-minded" - Again, a lack of communication established with people who don't know what a "confession" is. They may assume we're really into spilling your guts to a pastor (which we should be more into).

"Gospel-minded" - I like that, but it sounds a little generic.

"Christ-minded" - Now THIS could be fun. We may be the only denomination in America with the guts to say that we're Christ minded. Are you going to start the petition or am I?

in Christ,
jW