Much can be learned from a cursory online search of the writings of Lesslie Newbigin. Many well known outlets feature his works, and give tidbits of biographical information. A prolific author, most of his literature revolving around the construction, operation, mandate, message and mission of the Christian church. He is touted as being instrumental to the foundation of the contemporary missional church movement. Newbigin does not consider our selected reading, The Open Secret: An Introduction to the Theology of Mission, to be a work of his own academic scholarship. He readily admits and credits the numerous colleagues who have influenced his philosophy. Parts of the material read were presented as a course at Princeton Theological Seminary in the summer of 1977. James Edward Lesslie Newbigin was preeminent as a theologian passionately devoted to the mission and unity of the church. He was born in 1909, in Newcastle-on-Tyne, England. He attended Leighton Park, a Quaker boarding school, and Queen’s College in Cambridge.
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We make the assumption that because we are a Western power, industrialized and global in our capabilities, that we have the power and right to “impose” self-righteous Christianity wherever we go. Instead we should approach our mission with humility, even weakness, relying on God’s Spirit in our expression of the gospel. Mission is not merely an external extension of the church in some foreign place, but instead the core embodiment of what it means to be the church, to redeem the
We make the assumption that because we are a Western power, industrialized and global in our capabilities, that we have the power and right to “impose” self-righteous Christianity wherever we go. Instead we should approach our mission with humility, even weakness, relying on God’s Spirit in our expression of the gospel. Mission is not merely an external extension of the church in some foreign place, but instead the core embodiment of what it means to be the church, to redeem the