What is a Missional Church?
Posted by Brad BriscoMar 23
A missional church is a unified body of believers, [1] intent on being God’s missionary presence [2] to the indigenous community that surrounds them, [3] recognizing that God is already at work. [4]
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[1] The importance of unity, which shows up consistently in missional literature, is rooted in Trinitarian theology. The triune God is eternally unified in His mission, and believers under the headship of Christ must be unified in the accomplishment of His mission as well. See Alan Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church (Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2006), 217–41. This concept of unity was also championed by Lesslie Newbigin in a work based on his Kerr Lectures at the University of Glasgow called, The Household of God: Lectures on the Nature of the Church (New York: SCM, 1953; reprint, London: Paternoster, 1998). See also Alister E. McGrath, Theology: The Basic Readings (Oxford: Blackwell, 2008), 31. In his latter years Newbigin decried the privatization of the church in modernity and felt it was antithetical to the spread of the gospel. See Michael W. Goheen, “As the Father Has Sent Me, I Am Sending You: J. E. Lesslie Newbigin’s Missionary Ecclesiology” (Ph.D. diss., University of Utrecht, 2000), 420.
[2] This is based on Jesus’ statement in John 20:21, “As the Father has sent me, I also send you.” This was an important cornerstone to Newbigin’s missional ecclesiology (Go-heen, “As the Father Has Sent Me, I Am Sending You,” 277).
[3] The needs of the indigenous culture have always been taken seriously by biblical writ-ers, as evidenced, for example, by Paul’s message to the Athenian philosophers on Mars Hill in Acts 17:16–34. Rodney Stark asserts that Christianity was an urban movement in the first century, with Christians especially concerned about serving specific needs in their cities (Cities of God: The Real Story of How Christianity Became an Urban Religion and Conquered Rome [New York: HarperOne, 2007], 30–31). See also idem, The Rise of Christianity: How the Obscure, Marginal Jesus Movement Became the Dominant Religious Force in the Western World in a Few Centuries (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1997), 76–94, 161.
[4] Christopher J. H. Wright, The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2006), 22–23.
What is the Missional Church Movement by W. Rodman MacIlvaine
2 comments
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Comment by Rod MacIlvaine on April 1, 2010 at 10:30 am
The above definition is causing quite a stir.
I wrote the above definition in conjunction with my doctoral dissertation on missional churches (http://www.okwu.edu/assets/institute/Dissertation_–_How_Missional_Leaders_Cultivate_Change.pdf).
Brad (we haven’t met yet, but) thanks for posting it here!
That research was then published by the theological journal Bibliotheca Sacra (http://www.dts.edu/media/publications/bibliothecasacra/#macilvaine).
But it’s raised the question, Can there be a definition for a missional church or for the missional movement? Some missional thinkers say no; the movement is too fluid, and definitions don’t work so well in the postmodern ethos of our age.
My contention is that those of us passionate about the missional movement must wrestle with definition, no matter how imperfect they might be, and even if those definitions are in flux. Definitions force creative thinking. Definitions foster the kind of healthy debate and discussion that sharpen all of us to excel still more in the missional journey.
Missional isn’t about being on the next wave of trendy thinking (although the movement does have some amazing thinkers attached to it). Being missional is about being the hands and feet of Christ. Definitions are hugely helpful in this regard, in spite of the postmodern hatred of tight categories and metanarrative.
Our church has developed a missional manifesto that has served us well in our vision casting. (http://gccbartlesville.org/about/mission_and_vision.php)
I’d welcome continued conversation.
Rod