Mission As The Organizing Principle of the Church

I am convinced that many denominations (and churches) want to shape mission to fit their polity and existing structure, rather than shape polity and structure around mission. How would things change in your church or denomination if God's mission was the organizing principle for everything you did? The implications of this are enormous.

A missio Dei (mission of God) perspective should shape our thinking in the manner we understand the form and function of the church. Typically, congregations view “missions” as simply one program or activity among many other equally important functions of the church. Therefore, the missions "program" is seen alongside that of worship, small groups, men’s and women’s ministries, youth and children’s ministry, etc. However, when the church begins to define itself as an agent of God’s mission, it will begin to organize every activity of the church around the missio Dei.

Here is a good summary quote from Right Here, Right Now by Lance Ford and Alan Hirsch

Mission as the organizing principle means that mission goes way beyond being some sort of optional activity or program for our churches. It actually is the organizing axis of the church. The life of the church revolves around it. This is not to say that we don’t do corporate worship, develop community, and make disciples, but that these are catalyzed by and organized around the mission function. Only in this way can we be truly missional. Merely adding serving events or special outreach days to our church schedules will not develop missional people nor make a missional church.

The image above is adapted from Alan Hirsch and Dave Ferguson's book titled On the Verge. This image helps to illustrate the move from “missions” as one, among many functions of the church to “mission” being the organizing principle for all other activities or ministries of the church.

In other words, if it is really all about God's mission then God's mission should inform everything else we do as a church. Therefore, we should take the "s" off of missions and put mission (God's mission) at the top to illustrate that the missio Dei should shape, or at least influence every other program and activity of the church.

Begin asking how certain programs or activities of your church would change if informed by God’s mission. How might small groups operate differently if shaped by God’s mission? How would the corporate teaching of Scripture be different? How might worship change?

For an additional perspective on how mission catalyzes community and worship, watch this short video from Michael Frost.