a theology with missional implications
Because this goes against the grain of our inherited and ingrained practices, it is important to grasp the theological dynamics of the missional-incarnational impulse and how these two intertwined foundations of essential Christian theology inform our practices and behaviors. Firstly we can discuss the missional one.
The Mission of God
Over the last forty or so years, there has been a massive shift in the way we view missions. Some have articulated this shift as being from a church-centered one to a God-centered one. “We have come to see that mission is not merely an activity of the church. Rather mission is the result of God’s initiative, rooted in God’s purposes to restore and heal creation. Mission means ‘sending,’ and it is the central biblical theme describing the purpose of God’s action in human history. God’s mission began with the call of Israel to receive God’s blessings in order to be a blessing to the nations. God’s mission unfolded in the history of God’s people across the centuries recorded in Scripture, and it reached its revelatory climax in the incarnation of God’s work of salvation in Jesus ministering, crucified, and resurrected….It continues today in the worldwide witness of churches in every culture to the gospel of Jesus Christ…” Guder concludes, “We have learned to speak of God as a ‘missionary God.’ Thus we have learned to understand the church as a ‘sent people.’ [Darrell Guder (ed.) Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America (Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 1998), 4.] ‘As the Father sent Me, so I send you.’ (John 20:21
cf. 5:36-37, 6:44, 8:16-18, 17:18,)” as God sent the Son into the World, so we are at core a sent, or simply, a missionary people.
This ‘sending’ of all God’s people everywhere is embodied, concentrated, and lived out in the missional impulse. Bieng “sent” implies some form of movement somewhere. Even if this might not necessarily be geographical. This is in essence an outwardly bound movement from one community or individual to another. It is the outward thrust rooted in God’s mission that compels the church to reach a lost world. Therefore a genuine missional impulse is a sending rather than an attractional one. The NT pattern of mission is centrifugal rather than centripetal. And this cannot be emphasized more highly. When Jesus likens the Kingdom of God to seeds being sown He is not kidding. But applied in our missional practices it will look something like this…
All genuine mission is inspired by this so it should not be too strange to us (turn it upside down and it looks like a spiritual family tree.) What is more unfamiliar perhaps is the application of this approach to our own settings. We have tended to see mission as something we do in ‘heathen nations’ and not on home base (chapters two and three). We evangelize here, and do mission there. This has rightly been called the ‘geographic myth.’ Thankfully, this is now changing.
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Though the community of believers is essential, how would this look for individuals? How can they turn their school/work/home/thirdplace/whatever into a place to live out the mission. In western churchs in particular I see a patern where as an individual belonging to a community of believers unfortunately becomes an excuse for not turning all areas and realms of their lives into God’s mission field.
I agree…for a while now we have stopped viewing our local contexts through missional lenses. I often wonder what the western Church would look/act like if we had been been committed to mission all along.
The interesting thing guys, is that this can be viewed for what I call “apostolic mission” (the mission of the community of God, normally resulting in new churches) and the mission of the whole people of God (that is the mission to represent God, to be a ’sent one’ in every sphere or domain of life.) Either way, the diagram holds.
“I often wonder what the western Church would look/act like if we had been been committed to mission all along.”
It wouldn’t be a western Church if this was true. Just the church. Now the southern church and the eastern church have to come to evangelize the west again.
I must admit that the idea of a Kingdom being illustrated as being like the sowing of seeds stuck with me particularly in light of the parable Jesus tells in Matthew 13:24-30
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So much of the attractional “evangelism” demands that we uproot the “weeds” from within the individual without care or concern as to how we affect the good “wheat/fruit” already present.
Being incarnational seems more about accepting the good with the bad and awaiting for when Jesus might make the harvest more visible. Question being: “Will that be within this life or the one to follow?” Perhaps that question can best be answered only within the time frame of an eternal God. Missional perspective means to accept that it is not the churches, mine, or anyone else’s mission but God’s himself.
I for one am glad it is changing. I am a missionary to America. Does anyone know how hard it is to get support for America?
One dear friend told me, we are doing stuff locally and so we cannot do anything beyond our area. What do you think about that?
If it is changing I am glad. I believe you Alan.
We must think in terms of Mission and not just in terms of Missions. Do you get what I mean?
I’m back after a year of ####. My brother committed suicide our house burned down, goldwing, my wife’s car, my truck burned up and then to get Lyme disease and then two staff infections and surgery in the same elbow and God helped me survive. Now we are home and rebuilding from 2007. Finally there is light at the end of the tunnel. Sorry I missed out on so much of the discussion over the past 9 months. I missed you.
I made a big mistake when I bought into this whole missional-Incarnational concept. At least as far as my leaders are concerned. It will not be long before I am asked to be relieved of my responsibility coordinating our small groups. Yet, in my family, job, and neighborhood I am seeing this awesome awakening or birthing of this concept in people that would never step foot in an institutional church.
While I am a horrible cook I still recognize the fact that I need to eat. My pride has been wounded in the process but I must say it is exciting finding new ways to accomplish this. Of course this process has challenged my husband and at times made him ill. It is only by the grace of God that I haven’t killed him. I guess this new challenge will not either.
Speaking of food, can anyone point me to any resources or commentaries on Numbers 18
? I’m still new at reading the Hebrew Bible and do not fully grasp the culture/customs. It’s something God spoke to my heart when He first called on me, and I think I need to revisit it.
Bob Sorry to hear about you bad year. But welcome back bro. I hope you have a good year in 08
I can empathize with you Penney. Although I’m not being kicked off the church staff at this point, the missional ideas we are playing around with as a staff puts all of our occupations in a tenuous position.
The better the job we do at sending and releasing each persons gifts, the less we are needed as a staff. Our jobs may be on the line, but this is where we have to go.