Mission must be understood not just as something the church does (as missions, or more accurately witness or evangelism), but as an inherent aspect of the very nature of the church. The critical issue relative to ecclesiology is to understand that the missionary nature of the church has an impact on all of the functions of the church.
As the church engages in worship, education, fellowship, service, and witness, it does so with the sense that its very presence in the world is an act of mission on the part of God to offer redemption to a lost and broken world. This understanding shifts the focus from a “theology of missions” to a “mission theology” and from “church-shaped missions” to a “mission-shaped church.”
Rethinking Ministry: From Church-Shaped Missions to a Mission-Shaped Church, published by Christian Reformed Home Missions
brad, you reference Guder in your post responding to David Fitch and Guder’s anchor in Trinitarian theology. Which work are you referencing? thanks much!
Len, I was pretty sure it was from chapter one of Missional Church, but I didn’t find it there. He speaks around the topic a bit as he discusses Newbigin but that isn’t what I had in mind. Perhaps it was one of the journal articles I have, I will check and get back.
I know it appears as if you simply changed the order of the words…but in that change of order is a huge change in meaning…from theology of missions to a mission theology. Good thoughts!