A few months ago, I was a participator in a 50-blogger synchroblog on the word "missional" - a word that is now in common usage to describe the church's role as sent into the world. The word was coined in the 20th Century by Dr Francis DuDose. I used to direct the Page Street Center in San Francisco, under Dr DuBose, a ministry now run exceedlingly well by Eric Bergquist.
I took some video of Dr DuBose on Tuesday. He's in his late 80's and he looks GREAT.
Eric Bergquist and I had lunch with Dr DuBose and his wife at their retirement village [Dr DuBose calls it a "hotel"] at The Avenue, San Francisco. Dr DuBose was the missions professor at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary and one of the strongest voices to encourage the focus of ministry towards the inner cities of USA. He first published the word "missional" in his book 'God Who Sends: A Fresh Quest for Biblical Mission' in 1983 and since then, the word has gained international acceptance.
Want to explore the book?
Baptist missiologist Ed Stetzer has done much to reawaken and employ this term and his research has created a trail that leads back Dr Francis DuBose. Stetzer points to some online summaries by Brad Brisco.
"Brad has done an excellent job summarizing God Who Sends by Francis DuBose, the first book I can find to use the term “missional.”
God Who Sends: A Fresh Quest
• Being Sent and the Pentateuch
• Being Sent and the Historical Books
• Being Sent and the Prophets
• Being Sent and the Gospels
• Being Sent in Acts & Epistles
