2011
Lisa Anne Gray
For God’s Sake, Step Away From the Church: Moving from Attractional Mindset to Missional Imagination
This thesis reclaims the primacy of missio Deo and a re-imagined role for the church in a 21st century context. Examining one judicatory’s attempt to revitalize itself through a diocesan-wide visioning project, it argues that ultimately, anything less than a missional transformation will result in increased irrelevance and continued decline. It takes seriously the spirit-filled conviction that it is not the church that has a mission, but God’s mission that has a church.