Missiology of the Congregation

“Faithful mission is forged in crisis. This is good news. “Defend this thesis in a 1,000 -1,250-word essay (4-5 pages), using Scott Hagley’s Eat What Is Set Before You: A Missiology of the Congregation in Context to construct your argument. Your essay should include:

• a clear articulation of what Hagley means by “crisis,” with particular attention to what he terms crises of call, cultivation, and context;
• an account of how such crises together forge faithful mission, according to Hagley;
• and an affirmation of why such crisis is good news (hint: it has to do with God!). Engage with and draw on the Hagley book directly but avoid long quotations. Instead, favor brief impactful quotes embedded in your own paraphrase and explanation of his ideas.

Reference the page number where a quote or idea appears. Page numbers should be inserted in parent hoses at the end of the sentence, inside the final punctuation, like this: “At the table,” Hagley writes, “the stranger becomes the host,” creating a crisis of expectation and identity (263).

Format your paper in this way:

• Name and course
• Double-spaced
• Include the thesis in your introduction
• Page numbers in footer
• Indent the first line of paragraphs; no extra space between paragraphs
• Times New Roman 12-point type
• 1-inch margins all around
• A Works Cited list should appear at the end.

Only the Hagley book is necessary, but if you do cite the Bible or any other additional works –and again, you don’t have to! –they should be included, in this format: Scott Hagley, Eat What is Set Before You: A Missiology of the Congregation (Skyhorse, CA: Urban Loft Publishers, 2019). Note:

This assignment is an exercise in attentive, charitable reading (tracking the argument of an author with openness to its being true). If you would like to pose objections to or raise questions about this thesis (or other aspects of Hagley’s argument), you may include those at the end of your paper. We will take them up during our discussions of the book when we’re together in August.