Who was Lesslie Newbigin?

Lesslie Newbigin was a British missionary to India.  His teachings and writings have been very influential on many, and that influence seems to continue to grow.  His reflections on the relation of the church and the gospel to the culture have been particularly helpful to me.  Some of his writings include:

• The Open Secret:  an introduction to the theology of mission
• Foolishness to the Greeks
• The Gospel in a Pluralist Society
• The Good Shepherd

For more info on Newbigin, go to www.newbigin.net or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lesslie_Newbigin.  For the continuation of his thinking and work, see www.gocn.org

The Good Shepherd 3

From chapter 4 of Lesslie Newbigin’s The Good Shepherd, on “Leading the Church’s Worship”:

• We are made for God.  To worship God with heart and soul and mind and strength is the highest exercise of all our powers.
• Christian worship is the corporate response of all Christ’s people to what God has done for the world through Jesus Christ.
• …true Christian worship is an offering on behalf of the whole of mankind.  The Church as a whole is called to be God’s holy priesthood for all of the human family.  It should never become a self-enclosed community shut off from the rest of mankind.  This means, for example, that in our worhsip we should try to offer up to God all that is best in the art and music and thought of the world around us.  All of it belongs to God, and all of it should be offered to God in our solemn acts of worship.
• Christian worship is a testimony to the reality of the living God in the midst of a world which does not know him, and it is a protection against false and unworthy ideas of him.
• The action of the Eucharist is the most simple and profound form of testimony to what God has done for the world in Jesus Christ.
• Christian worship is a protection for those who take part in it against the false standards and convictions of the world.  To be drawn week after week into this act of adoration and self-giving to the living Lord who is revealed to us in Jesus Christ is itself the most powerful possible antiseptic against the infection of worldliness.