Calvinism Hinders Being Missional?

Southern Baptist Convention Today recently interviewed Dr. Bill Wagner.  Dr. Wagner is a candidate to be President of the Southern Baptist Convention.  The interview can be found on their website: http://sbctoday.com/2008/03/07/interview-with-dr-bill-wagner/

In the interview, Dr. Wagner states: "However, I have spoken to a lot of our missionaries overseas and its a very strange thing because our missionaries have said that we are beginning to get more and more people out on the field who are Calvinistic in their theology, and it is strange, but those that are Calvinistic are not nearly as desirous of winning people to Christ as they are about talking about theology. So I am little bit fearful, that if Calvinism begins to have too much influence, that we might go the way of some of the other Protestant denominations have gone and that is to deemphasize our missions.

Now, I know of a lot of tremendous missionaries who are Calvinists. But I say, by and large, Calvinists have a tendency to be less missional in their approach."

What do you think?  What do you think he means when he uses the word, "missional"?  Look forward to a good discussion.  The Article in Time Magazine that Sparked this discussion is titled: 10 Ideas That Are Changing the World Right Now - #3 The New Calvinism.  

Comments

[Bob Sundquist]

So how do we win people to Christ other than talking about theology?

[Mike Gibson]

My answer can be described by the following joke: What do you get if you cross a Presbyterian (Calvinist) with a Mormon? Someone who knocks on doors and doesn't know what to say.

[troy winder]

I think Dr. Wagner has a point, and it's not an accident that PCUSA is second fastest dying denomination in America. We are great debators but we have no idea how to share a story. Our theology should inform our faith story but it is not a replacement for it. In my humble opinon folks out there (outside the church)aren't comfortable with theological language, but they are very open to have a conversation about faith, espcially if it's shared in the first person.

[Joey Sherrard]

As Troy says, I think empirically this is difficult to dispute in our PCUSA denomination (though I wonder what statistics there are on the PCA's growth/missional involvement). As for the why of this, I'm sure that the reasons for this are complex and multiple, but I'll take a stab at a few and leave the rest up to folks like D.G. Hart. Suffice to say, though, I don't think it's a necessary deficiency, but we've suffered a perfect storm of sorts.

One is that we have lost and are only just regaining a fully biblical doctrine of election. The missional side of the coin has been forgotten and the salvific (narrowly defined) side has been stressed. It's only since Lesslie Newbigin and more recently Christopher Wright have offered missional perspectives on Israel and the Church's identity as elect that we've begun to recover the doctrine.

And second is that our denomination has been paralyzed by our relationship with liberalism (ideological, not political). The current discussions about sexuality are only one manifestation about our ambivalence about the role of Scripture in determining our 'values.' Go to most denominational events at Montreat or Louisville and you'll see just how ambivalent we are about evangelism and the role of Christianity among world religions.

I'm sure this is much more complex than I'm making it out to be (or maybe much more simple?) but suffice to say this is something that is much more denominational, American, and modern than it is Calvinist. See George Whitfield, William Carey (Baptist but Reformed), and our brothers and sisters throughout the world for counter-examples.

[Jack Valley]

I am one of the restored Christians that came back from an early exposer to evangalism. What brought me back was the theology of John Calvin...not PGF. I have recently joined a Presbyterian Church (6 years) and was becoming involved through studies offered by the Church...Now the evangalism PGF is starting to become more prevalent and introduced in the services (this is a turn off and a disruption for my continual seeking to be one of God's elected). I was never a supporter of MISSION's the way they are done, talking about Jesus to ignorant beings hoping for their coming to faith(?). I always (even before coming to Jesus) believed the way for a mission was to "teach a man to fish rather than give him a fish" and he would listen and be aware of just what you had to say..What I want to say is; The ruination of faithful Christiananity will be the insincere evangelism searching for the secular masses for power and money.