The REAL missionary encounter

In his call for 'the energetic fostering of a declericalized, lay theology', Lesslie Newbigin states:

"And we need to create, above all, possibilities in every congregation for laypeople to share with one another the actual experience of their weekday work and to seek illumination from the gospel for their daily secular duty. Only thus shall we begin to bring together what our culture has divided - the private and the public. Only thus will the church fulfill its proper missionary role. For while there are occasions when it is proper for the church, through its synods and hierarchies, to make pronouncements on public issues, it is much more important that all its lay members be prepared and equipped to think out the relationship of their faith to their secular work. Here is where the real missionary encounter takes place. (Foolishness to the Greeks p143, emphasis mine)

I long and labor to see that sharing, and that missionary encounter take place.