Michael Horton has written a cogent piece on the ‘missional’ church, monasticism and the Reformation’s understanding of discipleship which I highly encourage you to read. As Horton states,  “Renewing our response to the Great Commission begins with the right understanding of discipleship.”

A few of his critically important observations:

The New Monasticism

1. Today we see a revival of contemplative spirituality.

2. We can observe in evangelicalism today a more “Franciscan” (active life) emphasis on true discipleship as social transformation, especially in caring for the needs of the disadvantaged among us.

3. For all of their differences, the similarities between these two forms of monastic piety are as evident today as ever.

“Living the Gospel” vs. “Preaching the Gospel”

1. Both contemplative (“spiritual disciplines”) and active (Emergent) writers tend to blur and merge commands and promises, indicatives and imperatives.

2. Although the Emergent movement reflects a more communal emphasis on social transformation, it shares the medieval, Anabaptist, and Pietist emphasis on deeds over creeds.

3. “living the gospel” is a category mistake. By definition, the gospel is news (euangelion, “good news”). You don’t “do” news; you do law and you hear gospel.

4. The specific content of this good news is the forgiveness of sins through faith in Christ’s saving life, death, and resurrection.

“Going to Church” vs “Being the Church”

1. If we build the kingdom by “living the gospel,” then it would make sense if we stopped going to church and instead practiced our discipleship in community or in neighborhood service projects.

2. The shift from proclamation of the gospel to conversation about the gospel as the community’s world transforming is evident in the worship gathering.

3. None of this is really new. Pietism made the marks of the church identified in our Lord’s Great Commission (namely, preaching, Sacrament and discipline) secondary to a host of spiritual disciplines that he did not command.

4. Just as the new monasticism collapses the gospel into law and going to church into being the church, it also collapses the church-as-gathered into the church-as-scattered.

Read the whole thing here.