"A Response to Monthly Missiological Reflection #23"

by

Lou Huesmann

I just finished reading your article on Evangelizing Folk Religionists. It came to me highly recommended by my brother who is serving with the PCA in Italy. I am a pastor in Long Beach, CA. I found your article to be very helpful on two fronts. First, it helps to address the cultural context in which evangelism must occur, especially in the cities where the diversity is so apparent and powerlessness becomes more acute, thus making folk religion more attractive. I recommended that my entire staff read this article to sharpen our understanding on evangelism in today's world!

Secondly, I have started DMin work at Gordon-Conwell in the area of "spiritual renewal in the family of God." It combines two lines of study, the history of renewal, led by Dr. Richard Lovelace, and family systems dynamics applied to the church as a family, led by Dr. Raymond Pendleton.  In the reading I have been doing from church history, it has become more apparent to me that renewal was frequently marked by evangelism which was done in the framework of the kingdom of God (versus "conversion
theology"). Thus, it seems to me, it is imperative that God's messengers see the difference and recover the full kingdom message, as you so clearly point out. As you also point out, this means shifting the focus to God rather than on the response of the individual. This seems to support Richard Neibur's observation in The Kingdom of God in America that renewal movements in America were accompanied by a recovery of the sovereignty of God (among other elements).

I am interested in pursuing this line of thinking further, possibly for a doctoral project. Could you recommend other resources you have found helpful on the subject of "kingdom theology" as it might pertain specifically to evangelism and renewal? I have many of the standard academic explorations of the kingdom of God (Ladd, Hoeksema, etc.). I also noted that you referenced a work you have written (Communicating Christ In Animistic Contexts) after your comments on kingdom theology. Would that
address this issue more fully?

Thanks again for the very helpful article and for pushing people like me
to new clarity so that by God's grace we might be more effective in His
Kingdom.

In the grace and peace of Jesus,
Lou Huesmann