Last week this book arrived and I am almost half way through now. It occurred to me that it might be interesting to write a blog for every chapter. So here is the first one!
Holistic mission
In the first chapter Morisy focusses on the explanation of the subject of holistic mission, using one of the most influential books written about this subject: Transforming mission by David Bosch. Since this book came out social action gradually came back into the hearts of christians as being an integral part in ‘spreading the Gospel’
Ann Morisy also emphasises on the radically different approach that Jesus had with regards to mission: Jesus focusses not just on the poor, but even on the poor that in our human understanding deserve to be poor! When Jesus teaches us about ‘blessed are the poor’ in the Beautitudes He uses the word ‘ptochos’, the word for the poor that are not respectable.
The lesson we have learned over the last twenty years is that obedience to Jesus begins in relation to the poor and marginalized. (Morisy, 2004:8)
Obliquity
An interesting idea that the writer poses is that we should not focus on mission but on the journey out into the “Adaptive Zone”, the area where the church meets the ‘other’.
Effective mission is not achieved by giving it focal awareness. Effective mission is a fruit - a gracious outcome of other factors working effectively and appropriately. This upends all our habits and assumptions. It means that effective mission is something that emerges as a result of looking and journeying outward rather than by means of a self-conscious and self-regarding process. (Morisy, 2004:17)
Bibliography
BOSCH, D. J. (1991) Transforming mission : paradigm shifts in theology of mission, Maryknoll, N.Y., Orbis Books.
MORISY, A. (2004) Journeying Out, Harrisburg, Morehouse.
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