This is a synopsis of the MISSIONAL CHURCH, prepared and distributed by John Arn, Eastern District Conference Missions Committee, Mennonite Church USA.
"Rather than occupying a central and influential place, North American Christian churches are increasingly marginalized, so much so that in our urban areas they represent a minority movement." p. 2
"Our concern is the way that the Christian churches are responding to this challenge." p. 2
"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." p. 4
"In particular, we have begun to see that the church of Jesus Christ is not the purpose or goal of the gospel, but rather its instrument and witness." p. 5
"Neither the structures nor the theology of our established Western traditional churches is missional. They are shaped by the legacy of Christendom." p. 5
"For this reason, we ask ourselves here, What would an understanding of the church (an ecclesiology) look like if it were truly missional in design and definitions?" p. 7
"We have arrived at a shared consensus that our definitions of the church should focus on and arise out of the formation of particular communities of God's people, called and sent where they are as witnesses to the gospel." p. 9
"We are persuaded that any responsible missional ecclesiology must be centered on the HOPE, the MESSAGE, and the DEMONSTRATION of the inbreaking REIGN OF GOD IN JESUS CHRIST." p. 10
"The church of Jesus Christ is, and has always been, clearly visible to the observing eye. This is as it was intended when God called it into being as a community that is distinctly God's people in the midst of a world of people whom God has made and upon whose lives God makes a claim." p. 12
"It is no accident that the church is called 'the body of Christ.' It continues as an INCARNATE EXPRESSION of the life of God." pp. 13-14
"Its vocation to live faithfully to the gospel in a fully contextual manner means that it can sometimes find itself either unfaithful or uncontextual." p. 14
"The world of North America is a modern one." p. 20
"Freely choosing, autonomous individuals, deciding out of rational self-interest to enter into a social contract in order to construct a progressive society, became the central ideology of modernity." p. 25
"Modernity is the story of this struggle to create society on the bases of objective scientific truth and the construct of the autonomous self." p. 25
"The nation-state as a political construction was the logical extension of rational principles and social contract theory. It is implicit within social contract theory that persons possess a collective identity that supersedes the family, ethnicity, or cultural tradition. The nation-state became an ideological framework for implementing this identity.... It guaranteed citizens personal rights and freedom in exchange for their primary allegiance to the state." p. 26
"Capitalism arose as one of the shaping institutions of modernity and has steadily become the organizing principle of the economics of the modern world." p. 27
"As Western societies increasingly organized their economies along those lines, profound societal changes followed. Persons migrated from the basically self-sufficient economic unit of the family toward an expanding array of wage-earning jobs in the factories and commerce of growing towns." p. 27
"...the culture of modernity roots a person's identity in one's achievements and place in the social order, especially the economic social order." p. 28
"The expansion of technology and technique serves as the primary driving force behind the pattern of constant change so often associated with modernity." p. 29
"The acceptance of technological and technique-driven change has spawned a number of important myths that are deeply embedded within modernity.
-- One is that THE NEW IS SOMEHOW BETTER AND MUST NECESSARILY REPLACE THE OLD ONCE IT IS INTRODUCED.
-- Another is that WHAT IS EFFICIENT IS MORE DESIRABLE AND MUST NECESSARILY REPLACE WHAT IS ONLY WORKABLE.
-- A third is that THERE IS A TECHNIQUE SOLUTION TO EVERY PROBLEM, AND SCIENCE CAN ADDRESS ANY AND EVERY PROBLEM WE ENCOUNTER IF WE JUST WORK AT IT WITH ENOUGH INTELLIGENCE, OR LONG ENOUGH: 'WE CAN DO IF, IF WE WILL.'" p. 29
"Modernism is the birth-twin of modernity, but the two are NOT identical twins." p. 30
Modernity is "... a search to find meaning by exploring feeling, experience, and desire." p. 30
"The modern self exists within a social order structured around citizenship and nation-state authority. Its shaping dynamics include the posession of personal rights, perpetual consumption, development of a constructed identity, the use of efficient technique, and a search for intense experience. Each of these dynamics creates an unresolved tension. ...these unresolved issues are now fueling a revisioning of truth, self, and society toward what many call postmodernity, or postmodern condition." p. 31
"The United States' version of the modern project was also significantly formed by a belief that the early English Puritan settlers transplanted to this country: that GOD HAD DIRECTLY INTERVENED TO CREATE A PARTICULAR PEOPLE IN THIS PLACE AT THIS TIME." P. 33
"Canada lacks the type of national myths that provide for patriotic loyalty and personal sacrifice for a higher cause." p. 34
"This bicultural character made Canadians more tolerant of diversity and more committed, at least in principle, to pluralism." pp. 34-35
"This version of the democratizing traditions within the development of Canada has fostered the expectation that the government will provide solutions to problems." p. 35
"The social order increasingly searches for a new set of shared norms to guide public behavior. This shift has had consequences for the church. Its historical support of the earlier tradition of English civility has implicated the church in efforts to resist change." p. 35
Postmodern condition:
"This move recognizes that all persons live within particular contexts. Therefore they possess specific cultural perspectives that are historically conditioned and shape the way they understand, see, and experience life. This tends to relativize every point of view." p. 40
"The emerging postmodern approach to understanding truth is more holistic by pointing to a variety of ways of knowing through rational intelligence, emotional intelligence, and intuitive intelligence." pp 40-41
"For the church to live out an intimate engagement with the narrative of God's action in Jesus Christ that shapes its life and thought, it must use personal and communal ways of knowing that reach beyond the merely rational." p. 41
"The collapse of confidence in the modern self ... moved the locus of attention to society's influence and social norms' shaping human behavior.... All of these developments served to decenter the importance of the individual and to diminish confidence in personal, rational choices as determinative of human action". p. 42
"Globalization is now leading to multiple ethnic cultures and racial traditions living together in the same neighborhoods." p. 42
"The context of modernity, with its philosophy of individualism and personal freedom, assumed that persons shared some sense of communal identity. This condition no longer exists for most people as a primary framework for understanding life." p. 43
"The form of community fostered through the extended family during earlier modernity gradually declined in importance as people moved into urban areas and social mobility accelerated in a capitalist economy. Even the nuclear family that replaced the extended family as a basic social unit has undergone significant change, with rising divorce rates, increasing in the number of single-parent households, the prevalence of two-income families, busy lifestyles, and diverse definitions of what constitutes a family." p. 43
"The church itself is often also trapped in identities formed under the notions of modernity and the social structures pervasive in an earlier era." p. 43
"Today's Generation Xers, the first postmodern generation, find little in the church that promises an answer to their quest for meaning and connection." p. 44
"The postmodern openness to perceiving life in a variety of ways has contributed to the reemergence of spirituality as a viable and necessary part of the human struggle for meaning today." p. 44
"The church confronts the challenge of disengaging itself from the privileges of a previous church culture (United States) or semi-establishment (Canada), while rediscovering its own identity as a social community in the midst of a broader national community of communities." pp. 44-45
"Globalization and expanded immigration have brought increased ethnic and cultural diversity to both the United States and Canada. This diversity challenges the church to be a social community that creates true unity among different people, even as it affirms particular identity." p. 45
"This situation makes it even more critical for the church to demonstrate the reconciling power of the gospel in multicultural communities." p. 45
"In the postmodern condition, whatever is 'NOW' is privileged as the primary reality....Persons think less in terms of the consequences associated with their choices." p. 45
"Postmodern persons tend to live in the present, a present that thrives on surfaces, images, and experiences. In this context, the church bears a gospel that is rooted in actual history, a gospel that takes seriously both consequences and contingency, and a gospel that offers a genuine hope for a real future." p. 45
"The historical accident of multiple churches from diverse traditions occupying the same space created a dilemma for the church....Part of the solution found for this dilemma was the new organizational structure, the denomination. This structure gradually took shape as diverse churches began to accept one another's legitimacy and forge working alliances where possible." p. 50
"Similar in function to the emerging free market of capitalism, a type of religious economy developed in this context where the various denominations competed for adherents." p. 50
"This type of establishment fostered a unique version of church-state relations in the United States, and it is this establishment that has passed through several phases of being disestablished." p. 50
"First Disestablishment: SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE." p. 50
"Second Disestablishment: PROTESTANTS, CATHOLIC, and JEWS" p. 52
"Third Disestablishment: THE INDIVIDUALIZATION OF SOCIETY." p. 54
"The impact of the British was initially felt through the Hudson Bay Company, and latter through the direct imposition of British rule within several provinces. Since the Anglican Church enjoyed exclusive established status in England, it naturally became the established church within these emerging provinces." pp. 55-56
"Canadian churched culture sought to introduce English civility and certain morals into Canadian public behaviors." p. 57
With regard to morality, four moral behaviors in particular became the responsibility of the church to inculcate into the social order. These were abstinence from alcohol, and the prohibition of gambling, dancing, and smoking." p. 57
"In addition to helping shape a moral society, the churches also build national, denominational structures following the confederation." p. 57
"These new, national, denominational structures took on the major responsibility for spreading Christianity and civilization throughout the emerging nation of Canada." pp. 57-58
"The formation of the United Church of Canada in 1925 ... the Congregationalists, Methodists, and Presbyterians merged to create a national church rivaling the Anglican Church in both size and prestige." p. 59
"It is clear at this point that the compelling logic that once supported regular church participation no longer held sway. While people still maintained their membership in the institutional church of their heritage, they simply stopped regular participation." p. 60
"The FIRST phase of denominational formation ... created denominations based on voluntarism and ethnicity...." p. 64
"The SECOND phase of denominational formation witnessed the rise of the purposive missionary associations after the Revolutionary War....proved effective in starting hundreds of new congregations on the expanding frontier." p. 64
"The THIRD phase of denominational formation took place during the latter half of the nineteenth century, when ... they built vast institutional systems of ministry for their members that carried them from the cradle to the grave." p. 65
The FOURTH phase of denominational formation took place ... "After the turn of the century, as the science of organizational management begun to develop, denominations adapted these insights by shaping themselves as corporate organizations." p. 65
"This change meant that the point of reference for persons joining such congregations became a denominational loyalty that was rooted in a common structure and theological tradition, and was administered through a shared set of organizational programs." pp. 65-66
"The FIFTH phase of development in denominational forms has occurred since the 1960s, in the aftermath of increased internal diversity, stagnation or decline of membership growth, and the loss of prestige in the broader culture. In this form of the denomination, the model of the regulatory agency became dominant. The regulatory denomination pays attention to administering rules and securing compliance from member congregations." p. 66
The SIXTH phase of development in denominational forms has occurred. Rather than serving primarily as local franchises of a denominational program, congregations now increasingly organize themselves around a set of distinctive lifestyle choices....such a lifestyle congregation represents a new type of constructed social community, one reflecting some of the characteristics of the emerging postmodern condition." p. 66
"Most denominations take a biblical-theological position as the starting point for explaining their existence." p. 68
"Other denominations representing historical traditions usually provide some biblical principles for their existence but rely on a confessional statement as the primary rationale for their legitimacy." p. 68
"Biblical-theological approaches to justifying the legitimacy of denominations have problems." p. 68
"A missiological reading of the New Testament makes clear that no one church form existed in that context. The early church was developmental in character and found expression in a number of different organizational arrangements." p. 68
"Establishing legitimacy for the church on a confessional statement has a similar problem, especially when the particular confessional statement used was developed to define that church over against a false church." p. 68
"Denominations exist. They now represent the primary form of the church in North America and, in many ways, in large parts of the church throughout the world." p. 69
"The historical reality of particular denominations has often been turned into sacred history by its adherents. This transformation occurs when key events in a denomination's story are declared providential, and key leaders given legendary status. These events and figures then become part of the rationale for the denomination and often function as an authoritative guide for interpreting its true essence. A denominational ethos is transmitted through the retelling of the story in these terms. These stories usually function as important interpretations or applications of a denomination's formal ecclesiologies and polity. {Henry Warner Bowden, "The Death and Rebirth of Denominational History", in Mullen and Richey, eds, "REIMAGINING" 17-30}" p. 69
"...most denominations tend to organize themselves around particular social characteristics such as ethnicity, race, social class, shared traditions, discrete cultural characteristics, and even gender and age." p. 70
"From a biblical perspective, however, it is critical that the church benot just a vehicle for people to associate with others who are socially the same. The church is called to be God's divine presence on earth, and as such, it lives by an eschatological set of values that brings people with different social characteristics together through the common bond of mission under Jesus Christ." p. 70
"A missional ecclesiology challenges the church to be intentional about its unique social potential. Congregations should reflect the full social mix of the communities they serve, if they are truly contextual. In like manner, denominations as larger communions of congregations should seek to reflect the broad social reality of the North American population." p. 70
"The denomination is a voluntary association....Implicit in the nature of the denomination, then, is the freedom of every individual to make or break their commitments....Personal freedom is important, but it needs always to be framed for Christians by the biblical perspective of THE COVENANTAL COMMUNITY OF GOD'S PEOPLE SHARING AN INHERENT UNITY. This inherent unity critiques as inadequate the assumptions of Western individualism and the current practice of voluntarism in organizations." p. 71
"The denomination is also an organization....Organization needs to, not determine the nature of the church with its duality of being both divine and human.... Unless we do so, we may fall subject to THE ILLUSION that MANAGING the organization IS equivalent to BEING the church." pp.71-72
"Denomination Building....What is overlooked in this process is a fundamental rethinking of the nature and purpose of the denomination as a FORM of church." p. 72
"Church Renewal....Though it still persists, this movement appeared to run out of steam in the 1970's as the culture began to fragment. By then the church was reeling before a much larger set of problems that could not be addressed merely by updating obsolete forms." pp. 72-73
"Church Growth.... church growth tended to view the church primarily as a social organization that could be planted, marketed, and managed. The first phase of this movement peaked by the late 1980's as a more complex understanding of the organizational makeup of the church took hold." p. 73
"Since the 1980's, a number of movements have been at work in the North American church, all associated with the concept of effectiveness....But often they tend to end up offering just more versions of organized management, albeit very sophisticated versions in comparison to those proposed by earlier movements. They still do not address fully the nature, ministry, and organization of the church." p. 73
"Beyond its host of denominational forms, the church in North America finds expression through literally hundreds of Christian organizations that are by definition not traditional denominations....These paralocal or parachurch organizations are described in a number of ways, including mission societies, faith missions, and special-purpose organizations....These organizations exist primarily for a specific religious activity or function, often defined as a biblical purpose in the form of a specialized ministry role." p. 74
"Paralocal structures find precedents for their existence in the local and mobile expressions of ministry in the New testament....The itinerant apostolic missionary teams would be one example of such a ministry that was not bound to a congregation." p. 75
"A missional ecclesiology takes seriously the organizational life of the church both in its expressions of local missional congregations and in paralocal missional structures....The church's nature as both ONE AND CATHOLIC [GENERAL] means that these structures must exist in a symbiotic relationship with local congregations and their denominational structures." p. 75
"We do not believe, however, that the context itself defines the mission and message of God's people. Rather, we understand the investigation of the cultural context to be one necessary part of equipping of the church for its missional vocation. The critical doorway into the discussion of this complexity is THE BIBLICAL MESSAGE OF THE FORMATION OF THE CHURCH as the sign, foretaste, firstfruits, and agent of THE REIGN OF GOD that Jesus announced and inaugurated." p. 76
"Two things have become quite clear to those who care about the church and its mission. On the one hand, the churches of North America have been dislocated from their prior role of chaplain to the culture and society and have lost their once privileged positions of influence.... At the same time, the churches have become so accommodated to the American way of life that they are now domesticated, and it is no longer obvious what justifies their existence as particular communities." p. 78
"Discipleship has been absorbed into citizenship." p. 78
"The churches shaped by the Reformation were left with a view of the church that was not directly intended by the Reformers, but nevertheless resulted from the way that they spoke about the church. Those churches came to conceive the church as 'a place where certain things happen'." p. 79
"The Reformers emphasized as the 'marks of the true church' that such a church exists wherever the gospel is rightly preached, the sacraments rightly administered, and (they sometimes added) church discipline exercised." pp. 79-80
"This perception of the church gives little attention to the church as a communal entity or presence, and it stresses even less the community's role as the bear of missional responsibility throughout the world, both near and far away." p. 80
"In the twentieth century,... Unlike the previous notion of the church as an entity located in a facility or in an institutional organization and its activities, the church is being reconceived as a community, a gathered people, brought together by a common calling and vocation to be a SENT PEOPLE." p. 81
"By mid-century, ... The church became redefined as the community spawned by the MISSION OF GOD and gathered up into that mission." pp. 81-82
"...missionary practice must be grounded in the person and work of Christ, seeded by 'trust in the reality and power of the Holy Spirit' and rooted in a practical faith that discerns 'God's fatherly rule in the events of secular history, . . . in the revolutionary changes which are everywhere taking place in the life of the world.'" p. 82
"Recent theology has made a similar rediscovery ... that 'the nature of God is communion'." p. 82
"From this point of view, the church is learning that it is called to be a 'finite echo or bodying forth of the divine dynamics', 'a temporal echo of the eternal community that God is.'" p. 82
"One more point of theological recovery that is particularly relevant to this discussion involves the importance of THE FOURTH of the NOTAE, or characteristics, of the church mentioned in THE NICENE- CONSTANTINOPOLITAN CREED (AD 381). This creed affirms belief in 'ONE, HOLY, CATHOLIC, AND APOSTOLIC CHURCH'". p. 83
"'The historical church must be called "apostolic" in a double sense: its gospel and its doctrine are founded on the testimony of the first apostles, the eyewitnesses of the risen Christ, and it exists in the carrying out of the apostolic proclamation, the missionary charge.'" p. 83
"'The church is apostolic not just because it represents the apostles' teaching, but because it re-presents Christ.'" p. 83
"The gospel portrays the coming of Jesus, and particularly his death and resurrection, as the decisive, truly eschatological event in the world's history. Therefore a community with origins in the gospel is 'an eschatological community of salvation'." p. 86
"The gospel is Jesus Himself." p. 87
"The churches of the New testament proclaimed Jesus as the Christ, the reigning Lord, by virtue of his crucifixion and resurrection....Their gospel was not only ABOUT Jesus --- it was also the gospel OF Jesus whom they announced as the risen Christ of God, the living Lord of the nations, embodied the message spoken from his lips. Jesus' good news that THE REIGN OF GOD IS AT HAND is clothed with meaning by his continuing presence as the risen, reigning, and glorified Lord. Believing IN Jesus Christ also means believing Jesus Christ about the reign of God." p. 88
"It is striking to note, in this light, Paul's brief passing notes about the character of the reign of God. During an extended conversation about diverse opinions on dietary practices, he comments, 'For the kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness [justice] and peace [shalom] and joy in the Holy Spirit' (Rom. 14:17). The prophet vision is there, joined now to the presence if the Holy Spirit, who enables it." p. 91
"The reign of God most certainly arises as God's mission to reconcile the creation accomplished in the death and resurrection of Jesus." p. 91
"Ruling by way of a cross and a resurrection, God thwarts the powers of sin and death that distort the creation once good at its beginning." p. 91
"Two tendencies in the long history of Christendom help to explain this troublesome pattern [(why)... this central affirmation of good news has suffered a pattern of omission or 'eclipse']. FIRST, the church has tended to separate THE NEWS OF THE REIGN OF GOD from GOD'S PROVISION FOR HUMANITY'S SALVATION. This separation has made salvation a private event by dividing 'my personal salvation' from the advent of God's healing reign over all the world. SECOND, the church has also tended to envision itself in a variety of ways UNCONNECTED TO what must be fundamental for it -- its relation to THE REIGN OF GOD." p. 92
"Typical Christian conversation on this subject speaks of 'building' or 'extending' the reign of God." p. 93
"Those who imagine the church's role as 'building' the reign of God may also use words like 'establish', 'fashion' or 'bring about'. The reign of God in this view is perceived as a sales project. The church is sent out by God to achieve that project, to create it. This view tends to place the reign out there somewhere, where we go to construct it as its architects, contractors, carpenters, or day laborers." p. 93
"Others say the church is sent to 'extend' the reign of God. they speak in terms of 'spreading', 'growing', or 'expanding' the reign of God. This treats the church's mission as a sales project. The church attempts to provide an expanded place where the reign of God may reside. Functionally, the church becomes the CEOs, promoters, or sales force for the reign of God." p. 93
"But...The verbs TO BUILD and TO EXTEND are NOT FOUND in the New Testament's grammar for the reign of God. The announcement of God's reign NOWHERE includes an invitation to go out and build it, nor to extend it. These ARE NOT New Testament ways of speaking about the reign of God." p. 93
"The New Testament employs the words RECEIVE and ENTER." pp. 93-94
"These two verbs ...Taken together ... indicate the appropriate way for a community to LIVE when it has been captured by the presence of God's reign." p. 94
"For example, the reign of God is, first of all, A GIFT one RECEIVES. The reign of God is something taken to oneself. It is a gift of God's making, freely given. It calls for the simple, trusting ACT of receiving." p. 94
"In addition to being a gift, the reign of God is equally A REALM one ENTERS. Here the imagery is quite different, for the reign of God is cast as a domain INTO WHICH ONE MOVES." p. 95
"This realm of the reign of God into which we are welcomed to enter is never equated with a particular human political regime. "...'inhabiting' the reign of God includes the prospect of a future destiny. The reign of God is an inhabiting for which we are destined." p. 95
"RECEIVING and ENTERING are actions that mark a turning FROM other hopes and loyalties that we may accumulate TO a singular hope in the one true God." p. 96
"Daily life becomes a discipline of asking how one may move more squarely into the realm of God's reign and how one may welcome and receive it into the fabric of one's life this day more than ever before." p. 97
"The church would witness that its members, like others, hunger for the hope that there is a God who reign in love and intends the good of the whole earth." p. 97
"The community of the church would testify that they have heard the announcement that such a reign is coming, and indeed is already breaking into the world." p. 97
"They would confirm that they have heard the open welcome and received it daily, and they would invite others to join them as those who also have been extended God's welcome." p. 97
"In the interpretation Jesus gave to the parable of the weeds in the field, ... The messianic community is here construed to be the children of the divine reign, on the way to shining like the sun in that reign which is coming." p. 98
"The church is constituted by those who are ENTERING and RECEIVING the reign of God. It is where the children of the reign CORPORATELY MANIFEST the presence and characteristic features of God's reign. The divine reign expresses itself in a unique, though not exhaustive or exclusive, fashion in the church." p. 99
"It is the community which has begun to taste (even only in foretaste) the reality of the Kingdom which can alone provide the hermeneutic of the message." p. 100
"The church represents the divine reign as its SIGN and FORETASTE." p. 101
"As a sign represents something else and as a foretaste represents something yet to come, the church points away from itself to what God is going to complete." p. 101
"The church bears the divine reign's authority (the authority of the "keys" Mt 16:19) and (the authority of forgiveness Jn 20:19-23). It engages in the divine reign's action (living in terms of the lordship of Jesus over all creation)." p. 101
"The church is representative in the sense of an embassy ('ambassadors for Christ 2 Cor 5:20) of the divine reign." p. 102
"By its very existence, then, the church brings what is hidden into view as sign and into experience as foretaste. At the same time, it also represents to the world the divine reign's character, claims, demands, and gracious gifts as its agent and instrument." p. 102
"...the church's own mission must take its cues from the way God's mission unfolded in the sending of Jesus into the world for its salvation. In jesus' way of carrying out God's mission, we discover that the church is to represent God's reign as its COMMUNITY, its SERVANT, and its MESSENGER." p. 102
"Jesus believed it was his mission to embody the reign of God by living under its authority. He was the willing subject of God's reign.... He claimed the role of fulfilling all righteousness. Therefore he bore the same covenant obligations Israel had borne, but fulfilled them as Israel never had." p. 103
"The church shares this calling with Jesus. In the church's case, though, its vocation is CORPORATE, not individual. Jesus, the one who represented Israel, is now represented by the NEW ISRAEL, the church." p. 103
"Like Jesus, the church is to embody the reign of God BY LIVING UNDER its authority. We live as THE COVENANT COMMUNITY, a distinctive community spawned by God's reign to show forth its tangible character in human social form." p. 103
"The church displays the FIRSTFRUITS of the forgiven and forgiving people of God who are brought together across the rubble of dividing walls that have crumbled under the weight of the cross." p. 103
"It is the harbinger of the new humanity that lives in genuine community, a form of companionship and wholeness that humanity craves." p. 103
"But there is another reason for this mission of being the community of the reign of God. 'You are the light of the world', Jesus said (Mt 5:14)." p. 104
"We are a noticed and watched people. The genuineness of our identification as the disciples of jesus is observed only in our love for each other (Jn 13:35). Jesus seeks our oneness with one another 'so that the world may believe' that he indeed has been sent by his father (Jn 17:21)," p. 104
"Just as Jesus exhibited his union with his Father in obedient submission to God's rule and thus could say. 'Whoever has seen me has seen the Father' (Jn 14:9), so too God has designed it so that when people have seen God's 'peculiar' people, they have in a real sense caught a view of God." p. 104
"...the church represents the reign of God by its deeds as the SERVANT to God's passion for the world's life." p. 105
"Going to all the earth, the church bears the mission TO DO all that Christ commanded just as it is TO TEACH others to do the same." p. 105
"The church carries Jesus' mantle .... Our responses of compassion and service, like our actions for peace and justice, are deeds of authority and therefore signs that the reign of God is present now in our world and is on the way as its future." p. 106
"Whatever our responses may be, they bring wholeness and dignity to the world and thereby provide a taste of a future in the reign of God under the rule and authority of Christ's lordship. These are signs that INVITE people TO 'ENTER AND TASTE MORE, to eat and be full.'" p. 106
"The church ... identifies the reign of God by announcing its authority." p. 107
"The declaration of the message entrusted to the church gives substantial content and definition to what its BEING and DOING signify." p. 107
"To proclaim the divine reign is to ADD THE SIGNATURE OF JESUS..." p. 107
"If in our BEING the church, the world SEES God's reign, and by our DOING justice, the world TASTES its gracious effect, then THE CALL to all on the earth TO RECEIVE AND ACKNOWLEDGE THAT REIGN begs to be expressed. That is WHY Jesus said it is necessary that his followers preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins IN CHRIST'S NAME to all the nations, so that all the nations may hear...." pp. 107-108
"In summary, the church in mission may be characterized as THE SIGN of Messiah's coming. Our BEING, DOING, and SPEAKING are SIGNS that his coming is 'already' and 'not yet'." p. 108
"Finally, the three facets of mission ... signal three basic priorities for the church's recovery of its missional soul.
--- FIRST, in a free world of the autonomous and decentered self, and with a gospel of RECONCILIATION IN CHRIST, the churches must revive what it means to be COMMUNITIES of the reign of God.....
--- SECOND, in a secular world of privatized religious faith and with a gospel of CHRIST'S REIGN OVER ALL THINGS, the churches must discover what it means to ACT FAITHFULLY on behalf of the reign of God WITHIN THE PUBLIC LIFE of their society....
--- THIRD, in a plural world of relativized perspectives and
loyalties, and with a gospel of THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD THROUGH
THE INCARNATE CHRIST, the churches must learn to SPEAK IN
POST-CHRISTENDOM ACCENTS AS confident yet humble
MESSENGERS of the reign of God." pp. 108-109
5. Missional WITNESS: The Church as Apostle to the World (Lois
Barrett)
"The Bible sometimes describes the missional church as BEING 'in' THE WORLD but NOT 'of' THE WORLD. That is, the church is in the midst of the world, both geographically and culturally, but it is not of the world. It does not have the same VALUES as the world, the same BEHAVIORS, or the same ALLEGIANCES. The missional church differs from the world because it looks for its cues from the One who has sent it out, rather than from the powers that appear to run the world." p. 110
"The church always lives in and among a culture or group of cultures....But they are called to point beyond that culture to the culture of God's new community." p. 114
"The faithful church CRITIQUES its cultural environment, particularly the dominant culture; AFFIRMS those aspects of culture that do not contradict the gospel; SPEAKS the languages of the surrounding cultures and of the gospel; constantly TRIES TO COMMUNICATE the gospel in the surrounding cultures; and IS CULTIVATING AND FORMING the culture of God's new community, a culture not of the world. To do so is part of its being APOSTOLIC, sent into the world." pp. 114-115
"To begin with, 'CHRIST' and 'CULTURE' are NOT parallel concepts." p. 115
"'CHRIST' (from Greek = 'MESSIAH', from Hebrew) usually refers to the church's title for the specific person Jesus of Nazareth and his continuing relationship with the church." p. 115
"By contrast, 'CULTURE' is a very general term. It involves an ongoing aspect of human society in every time and place." p. 115
"Jesus himself told his disciples, 'If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me." (Mark 8:34)....The church is CALLED to be this community, NOT CONTROLLED by the idolatrous powers, NOT CONFORMED to the common sense of the surrounding culture, BUT SHAPING its life and ministry AROUND Jesus Christ, his life, his death, and his resurrected power, and LIVING NOW according to THE PATTERN of the resurrected life in the age to come." p. 117
"This NONCONFORMITY to the world -- and CONFORMITY to Christ -- is part of what the New testament means by the church's being 'HOLY'. To be 'HOLY' is to be SET APART on behalf of God. The church must have as its direction to be 'HOLY' as God IS holy.
"In contrast to contemporary understandings of the church,... one of the most important understandings of the church in the New testament is a political one: THE CHURCH AS HOLY NATION." p. 117
"A word just as political but more frequently used in the New Testament is KINGDOM...." p. 118
"Even the word CHURCH has a political connotation....it often refers to an assembly gathered for decision making, a town meeting." p. 118
"Thus the church is that gathering of the reign of God assembled to be a sign of that reign, to proclaim the reign of god in word and deed, to make decisions, and to give allegiance to their Ruler. Participants in this gathering are citizens of heaven (Phil. 3:20)." p. 118
"The New Testament also claims that, in jesus' death and resurrection, Christ has defeated the 'RULERS AND AUTHORITIES'...." p. 118
"Such language is a dramatic challenge to the powers, governments, authorities, and institutions of the world." p. 119
"These political claims for Christ and for the church as the people of God demand that people make a choice, a choice of allegiance." p. 119
"The 'HOLY' people will be those who have been set apart for Christ's service. They are the people different from those around them, different because they have given their ultimate allegiance to God through Jesus as Lord." p. 119
"The symbol of the church's alternative political identity is WORSHIP." p. 119
"In its most concrete origins, the Hebrew word for WORSHIP denotes the physical act of falling on one's face on the ground in homage before one's ruler. thus God the Ruler is at the center of the church's worship." p. 119
"The church's allegiance grows out of its covenant with God through Christ." p. 119
"In every cultural context, no matter how benevolent or hostile the governments and societies around it may be, the church is called to demonstrate an alternative culture." p. 119
"The church's alternative allegiance may express itself culturally in a variety of ways. For example, the church usually has an alternative vocabulary, an alternative economics, and an alternative understanding of power." p. 120
"Christians share the language of the cultures that surround them, but they speak with a distinctive vocabulary that expresses realities that they experience and are now able to identify through the agency of the Holy Spirit." pp. 120-121
"This different vocabulary ... includes simple words like SIN, GRACE, and HOLINESS, words reflecting equally complex realities but seldom used in everyday speech in north America." p. 121
"...distinctive words are needed to signal the new and different life Christians find themselves living in communion with God's holy nation and in allegiance to God's present and future reign." p. 121
"The alternative community is called to an alternative economics as well." p. 121
"Even where the early church did not hold all goods together, it still practiced economic sharing." p. 121
"This practice of mutual aid...has manifested itself in the formation of intentional communities and voluntary service units, as well as in various formal and informal means of meeting economic needs with congregations." p. 122
"The church is called to an alternative economics that puts needs ahead of wants." p. 122
"The church as holy nation also has an alternative understanding of power. The church takes its cues for the exercise of power from Jesus." p. 122
"the church today is likewise called to practice Jesus' kind of power." p. 123
"this rejection of violent power is based primarily on Jesus' example and teaching." p. 123
"...the church is a people that relies on the power of God's love, both now (in a provisional way) and in the end (as the fulfillment of God's promises)." p. 124
"Understanding the church as an alternative culture for the sake of its missional faithfulness goes against the grain of the dominant Western culture with its legacy of Christendom." p. 124
"One of the frequent criticisms ... is the charge of irresponsibility." p. 124
"Another frequently voiced criticism ... emphasizes the problem of so-called sectarianism." p. 125
"The term SECT arose in Europe.... Any Christian movement that 'cut itself off' from the established church was, by definition, 'sectarian'." p. 125
"...the sects [perform] an important role in religious renewal.... the sect ...[has] an essential transformative function in the life of the total religious community." p. 126
"An important task of the church is to discern what are those key points at which to be different from the evil of the world." p. 127
"The communions that emerged from the Radical Reformation [such as Mennonites] have much to say to the entire church about the importance and implications of such witness....To discern those points of dissent is to be a missional church." p. 127
"The church must be different from its surroundings in order to make visible and witness faithfully to the inbreaking reign of God." p. 128
"....mission is not just what the church DOES; it is what the church IS." p. 128
"Saltiness is not an action; it is the very character of salt." p. 128
"Similarly, light or a city on a hill need not do anything in order to be seen." p. 128
"So too it is with God's 'people sent'". p. 128
"...if particular communities of the church demonstrate by their life together that different races and genders can, in fact, be brothers and sisters in Christ sharing leadership and responsibility, then they will be not only a faithful but visible city on a hill." p. 129
"...the church that sets up victim-offender reconciliation programs and promotes equitable economic opportunities for communities where crime is the main escape route from financial despair is not only faithful but a remarkable light to the world, a city on a hill." p. 129 "The church that is holy, set apart, nonconformed, different from the dominant culture, will often be hated by some and marginalized by others." p. 129
"The dominant culture has little tolerance for those who do not play by its rules." p. 130
"The church as holy nation lives according to the way of the cross." p. 130
"Believing is trusting that Jesus' way of living is the right way, and trusting it enough that one is willing to live that way --- and die that way." pp. 130-131
"...the Anabaptist leader Hans Denk (said): 'The medium is Christ, whom no one can truly know unless he follow him in his life, and no one may follow him unless he has first known him." p. 131
"Another Anabaptist, Leonhard Schiemer, wrote, 'It is true, Christ's suffering destroys sin but only if he suffers in [a person]. For as the water does not quench my thirst unless I drink it, and as the bread does not drive away my hunger unless I eat it, even so Christ's suffering does not prevent me from sinning until he suffers in me.'" p. 131
"This willingness to suffer for the cause of Christ is missional." p. 131
"Sharing Christ's suffering comes as a package with sharing Christ's resurrection glory." p. 132
"Thus the church that lives in the way of the Christ is, in its being, a sign of the reign of God." p. 132
"The Synoptic Gospels identify three main tasks of Jesus before his crucifixion: preaching, teaching, and healing." p. 133
"These activities --- preaching, teaching, and healing --- are also the vocation of Jesus' disciples." p. 133
"Repeatedly, Jesus told the disciples that his work was also their work." p. 133
"That apostolic work still belongs to the church two thousand years later." p. 133
"The New Testament word for 'preaching' is a rather political word. It means 'to announce' or 'to proclaim publicly." p. 135
"Jesus' public good news is summarized in Mark 1:15: 'The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news!" p. 136
"Making public announcements about the actions of God and the reign of God is an apostolic task of the church." p.136
"The church publicly announces the reign of God because it is an embassy full of ambassadors of the reign of God (2 Cor. 5:20)." p. 136
"Announcing the reign of God in public will have an impact on individuals." pp. 136-137
"Public announcements of God's actions in the world are a call to conversion, to turning around, to giving up idolatries, and to placing one's loyalty in the one true God and God's reign." p. 137
"The church's task of announcing the reign of God will mean moving beyond the four walls of the church building, out of the safe group of people who know and love each other, into the public square." p. 137
"The Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5~7) contains a summary of Jesus' teaching for the reign of God, the new practices that differ from the accepted wisdom..." p. 137
"It is the constitution of the reign of God, or the manifesto for life under God's government." p. 137
"Within the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes (Mt 5:1-12) provide a summary within a summary of the behavior that belongs to the reign of God
(1) "The dominant culture says, 'How fortunate you are if you have your life under control and do not need anyone else.' Jesus said, 'Blessed are the poor in spirit', those who have the spirit of the poor, who know that they do not have their lives under control and need other people in order to make it. These are the people who know that they must depend upon God." p. 137
(2) "The dominate culture says, 'You will be happy if you avoid any situation that exposes you to other people's suffering or that causes you yourself to suffer or mourn or sacrifice.' On the contrary, Jesus pronounced blessing on those who mourn. God will comfort those who sorrow over the state of the world, injustices, oppression, their own sin, the sin of others, and the situations in which evil seems to have the upper hand." p. 138
(3) "The dominate culture says, 'You will be happy if you can get back at those who are hurting you, no matter how you do it.' Jesus blessed those who are meek....This is not a call to be passive but to remain nonviolent, to be gentle and to trust in God's way of deliverance from the wicked." p. 138
(4) "The dominant culture says that it is proper to hunger and thirst after material things.... Jesus says that the proper thing to hunger and thirst after is righteousness.... In other words, justice is present when the covenant is being followed." p. 138
(5) "The dominant culture teaches that good relationships depend on performance ('I will love you if . . . '). In the Beatitudes Jesus praises those who are merciful, who give others better than what they deserve." p. 139
(6) "The dominant culture today hardly ever uses the word PURE, except in a chemical sense.... The beatitude speaks of being 'PURE' or 'CLEAN' in heart." p. 139
(7) "The dominant culture says, 'You will be happiest if you stay out of conflicts and let other people fight it out.' Jesus said, 'Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.'... The peacemakers Jesus means are those who are actively working to see shalom (peace, wholeness, health, economic prosperity, right relationships, and justice) come about." p. 140
(8) "The dominant culture says, 'You will be happy if everybody likes you all the time. By the same token, it is terrible if someone does something bad to you, especially something you in no way deserve.' Jesus pronounces blessing on those persecuted for the sake of righteousness and justice, on those who are falsely accused, and on those about whom people say bad things." p. 140
"To do the Beatitudes requires commitment and practice in the context of the Christian community. This requires acts of the will empowered by the Holy Spirit. Acting in these ways is part of the culture of the community of disciples who are learning to follow Jesus and to live as he lived." p. 140
"The apostolic tasks of the church are not complete without an intentional process of teaching within the church....to help form each other into citizens of the reign of God, who can preach, teach, and heal in the name of Jesus and can share his sufferings and resurrection life." p. 141
"The apostolic work of healing is intended to draw people into the reign of God by a demonstration of God's love and compassion." p. 133
"...the dominant culture is generally skeptical of spiritual healing, particularly healing of the physical body.... Nonetheless, the missional church believes that God continues to act in the world, for healing of the world." p. 134
"Healing --- of mind, body, and spirit --- is a sign of the work of God in the world, a sign that the reign of God is near, a sign of the love and the power of God. The missional church points to these signs as it gathers people into the reign of God." pp. 134-135
"The first healing task of the church is to become a reconciled and reconciling community itself. It is a kind of demonstration project, a sign that kingdom living is possible." p. 135
"The missional church is called not only to demonstrate healing among its own members but also to be a peacemaker and justice-maker in the world." p. 135
"The church is called to promote peace to those near and to those far off (Eph. 2:17 together with 2 Cor. 5:18-20). Where such healing happens, it is a sign of the nearness of the reign of God and an invitation into that reign." p. 135
"'The Spirit of God is the dynamic, life-giving power of the Church, the unseen Lord, Master, Guide, and Inspirer of the Christian community.'" p. 142
"...the Nicene Creed identifies the Holy Spirit as 'THE LORD, THE GIVER OF LIFE'." p. 143
"This fundamental understanding of the Spirit is grounded in the biblical witness to the Spirit as the animating principle of all life." p. 143
"God's Word commands and the Spirit, or breath or wind, carries it out: 'By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all their host by the breath of His mouth.' (Ps. 33:6)" p. 143
"That which lives does so because of the Spirit: 'The spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life' (Job 33:4). As the giver and lover of life, the Holy Spirit is the totally and thoroughly involved presence of the transcendent God -- 'the beyond in our midst'." p. 143
"...the Creator Spirit is an eschatological reality, the dynamic actualization of the ESCHATON ... the fulfillment of God's creative purpose." p. 144
"Although the wholeness or consummation of God's reign awaits Christ's coming in glory, even now in the midst of the brokenness of human life the Spirit enables faith in Jesus Christ and thus brings believers into new life." p. 144
"This communal reality of holy living, mutual support, and sacrificial service the New Testament calls KOINONIA." p. 145
"Challenging the old competitive order of independence, self-interest, and private privilege (IDIOS), Christian community indicates a new collaborative order of interdependence, shared responsibility, mutual instruction, and commonality (KOINOS)." pp. 145-146
"While the Spirit is "the unseen Lord", the movement of the Holy Spirit has real and visible effects. The experience of the Spirit brings 'the touch of God's presence, the power of God's healing, the liberating experience of forgiveness, the reality of fraternal community, the joy of celebration, the boldness in witness, the blossoming of hope, and the fruitfulness in mission.'" p. 146
"Life 'according to the Spirit' is lived in keeping with the commitments and norms of God's promised reign inaugurated by the resurrection of Christ and empowered by the gift of the Holy Spirit." p. 146
"A missional people walking in the Spirit, led by the Spirit, and sowing the Spirit manifests the fruit of the Spirit." p. 147
"Far more than simply desirable human virtues, the 'fruit of the Spirit' is none other than the Spirit's bearing in and through the believing community's life and witness the righteousness that characterizes God as revealed in Jesus Christ." p. 148
"Through social interaction within the community of God's sent people (the sharing of stories, friendships, and projects), we learn what it is to lead a life worthy of our calling." p. 149
"...culture is not some inert abstract reality but is always in process, both in the sense that it is always affecting us but also in the sense that it is always being actively produced." p. 151
"As the church interacts with all cultures, the issue is ... to, name, and critique the ways in which various social realities form or make --- cultivate --- a people." p. 151
"The aim of the church is not simply to make a given culture more just or more caring, but to shape a people into an alternative way of life." p. 152
"Missional communities representing the reign of God will be intentional about providing the space, the time, and the resources for people to unlearn old patterns and learn new ways of living that reveal God's transforming and healing power." p. 152
"The church is a social reality that continually engages in the practices that cultivate a people of truth, peace, wholeness, and holiness." p. 153
"As a people sent to and for God's reign, missional communities are cultivated through participation in particular social or ecclesial practices." p. 153
"...those practices that cultivate Christian communities are distinctly historical, communal, experiential, and dynamic." p. 154
"First...We learn the patterns of faith, the practices of the church, from those who have learned and practiced them before us. We participate in a received tradition." p. 154
"Second...Ecclesial practices are communally defined, communicated, and transformed." p. 155
"Third...The benefits of an ecclesial practice can be gained only through participation in that practice." p. 156
"Fourth...ecclesial practices are dynamic; they grow and change as the community is open to and receives the Spirit's empowering presence. The more deeply we participate in a practice, the more we are empowered to engage in that activity in fresh and creative ways." p. 157
"Open to the movement and the illumination of the Holy Spirit, we grow and change, so that we more closely resemble the One to whom we pray." p. 158
"Through the transformation of attitudes, expectations, and behavior the witness of missional communities is that of a living prayer." p. 158
"The ecclesial practices of missional communities are many and varied." p. 159
"Incorporation into the new humanity of God's reign comes about through the ecclesial practice of baptism." p. 159
"The meaning of the ecclesial practice of baptism is found in Jesus' fulfillment of John's eschatological anticipation of the promised reign of God." p. 160
"More than merely a symbol, instructive analogy, or rite of passage, baptism actualizes the radical reorientation that humanity needs and only God can bring about." p. 160
"The practice of baptism introduces persons into a radically new kind of social relationship; no loner isolated individuals, they have become brothers and sisters adopted into the body of Christ to live a communal life as a sign of God's reign in the midst of human history." p. 161
"Consequently, democratic principles and values are not the basis for Christian equality --- baptism is the basis." p. 161
"Because baptism links believers with the death as well as the resurrection of Jesus Christ, missional communities participate in his suffering and self-giving ministry (cf. Phil. 3:10)." p. 162
"Missional communities of the baptized are sustained and nourished in their ongoing life and ministry by breaking bread together as they gather around the Lord's Supper." p. 163
"Breaking bread together is an ecclesial practice of remembered hope." p. 163
"'Since food and drink nurture and restore life, they are exemplary gifts of God's care.'" p. 164
"The Lord's Supper gathers committed believers in communal meal and prayer to offer thanksgiving to God as they support and share with one another in daily life." p. 164
"The Lord's Supper is a protest against and an alternative to the world's use of food and community." p. 164
"The community formed by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit participates in the firstfruits of the reconciling work of Jesus Christ, a new way of eating, drinking, and living together as a people." p. 164
"The community formed around the Lord's Table is a redeemed and transformed society where love, hope, forgiveness, and mutual accountability are palpable and the divisive attitudes and actions of hostility and hate spurned." p. 166
"Reconciliation --- CONFESSION, JUDGMENT and FORGIVENESS --- is not an individual and private matter, but an ecclesial practice that fosters, shapes, and sustains missional communities." p. 166
"Jesus' call to repentance moves beyond personal sorrow, guilt, or remorse to a profound and far-reaching METANOIA: "Turn around! Change your ways! Receive a whole new identity!"
"To 'BIND' means to hold someone accountable or to obligate, while to 'LOOSE' means to free from obligation or to forgive." p. 167
"Forgiveness is less a legal word of acquittal than a transformative mode of relationships that form a community of forgiven sinners." p. 167
"'SIN' in this context is not a violation of abstract divine law but a personal offense or estrangement jeopardizing the love, unity, peace, and thus the ministry and witness of the community." p. 167
"As a community of forgiven sinners accepting God's forgiveness, Christians are able to forgive those who sin against them." p. 169
"...the communal practice of Christian reconciliation is experienced through participation in face-to-face groups that covenant together for mutual accountability." p. 170
"Within communities of mutual accountability, the living of the Christian way of life -- a life worthy of our calling -- is not the responsibility of isolated individuals. It involves the shared insight, the tangible support, and the committed obedience of the entire community." p. 171
"The ecclesial practice of discernment in missional communities ... is a process of sorting, distinguishing, evaluating, and sifting among competing stimuli, demands, longings, desires, needs, and influences, in order to determine which are of God and which are not." o. 172
"It is the role of the Spirit to convict, convince, and lead those who profess faith in Jesus Christ into God's truth." p. 172
"Through baptism and faith in Jesus Christ all have received gifts of the Holy Spirit for the edification, encouragement, and consolation of the entire body. Therefore it is important that all be involved in discerning what God requires of them." p. 173
"The Holy Spirit works through group process --- the interaction of the two or three gathered together in the name of Jesus Christ." p. 174
"Within a discerning community, when a decision 'has been prayerfully tested with the authority of Scripture and the presence of the living Christ, seriously taking into account subjective feelings, factual evidence, and the testimony of other Christians and tradition, and the result is a deep sense of peace, love, joy, and humility, we can trust that we have discerned god's will.'" p.175
"As the baptized body of Christ that gathers around the Lord's Table, missional communities are called to be peacemakers --- reconciled and reconciling communities --- making God's peace visible through the quality of their life and ministry as model and invitation." p. 176
"Through the practice of Christian hospitality the church participates in God's peaceable kingdom." p. 177
"Christian hospitality that represents the reign of God includes but is not limited to the offer of aid and comfort to the visitor or outsider." p. 178
"...missional communities are called to cross society's boundaries, to eat as Jesus ate, to be a people of openness and acceptance, of gratitude and generosity." p. 179
"Missional communities ... take the time to create gracious and caring space where they can reach out and invite their fellow human beings into a new relationship with God and with each other." pp. 179-180
"The cultivation of faithful missional communities is an ongoing process of formation and transformation." p. 180
"Regular and intentional participation in ecclesial practice is God's way of cultivating the missionary people who are sent as the witness to the gospel into the world." p. 180
"Through the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit, these social processes ... are actions of God, in and with, through and under what men and women do. Where they are happening, the people of God is real in the world." p. 180
"Therefore all ecclesial practices that cultivate missional communities, shaped by historical, communal, experiential, and dynamic elements, while varied, share a common pattern. Fundamentally, they are always based on and shaped by the witness of Scripture." p. 181
"The ecclesial practices are never esoteric or supernatural, but involve ordinary human behavior: joining and sharing, eating and drinking, listening and caring, testing and deciding, welcoming and befriending. They relate not to an abstract or private religious realm but to the real challenges of contemporary moral and social issues: social inequality, economic injustice, destructive conflict and alienation, lack of personal dignity and esteem, fear and hostility." p. 181
"Salvation is not a private transaction between the individual and God, but a social reality of transformed relationships." p. 182
"The cultivating of missional communities through ecclesial practices is not simply an instrumental means to a desired end, but manifests in itself the very mission of the church...." p. 182
"The key to the formation of missional communities is THEIR leadership." p. 183
"The Spirit empowers the church for mission through the gifts of people." p. 183
"Leadership is a critical gift, provided by the Spirit because, as the Scriptures demonstrate, fundamental change in any body of people requires leaders capable of transforming its life and being transformed themselves." p. 183 "The purpose of leadership is to form and equip a people who demonstrate and announce the purpose and direction of God through Jesus Christ." p. 183
"Ephesians 4:11-13 indicates that certain ministries in the form of individuals (apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastor-teachers) are given to the church by Christ, 'in order that the church fulfill her present task (vs. 12), and, at the end, reach the goal set for her (vs 13).'" pp. 184-185
"Missional leadership is shaped by the revelation of Jesus Christ." p. 185
"Missional leadership is shaped by the Spirit's formation of the post-Pentecost community." p. 187
"Missional leadership is shaped by the recovery of eschatology." p. 187
"Eschatology is not only about the end of the world. It is about the future breaking in today with an alternative order known as the reign of God." p. 187
"Missional leadership shapes a people who demonstrate and announce God's intention for creation." p. 188
"Although the unity of creation has been broken, God's purpose is to make it one and whole again." p. 189
"This divine missional intention is carried forward through God's Son, the outpouring of the Spirit, and the creation of the redeemed community." p. 189
"In order to understand the ways in which this apostolic leadership should be formed in the context of North America, it is necessary to examine briefly how elements of our heritage have altered our images of leadership away from this apostolic identity." p. 190
"By the time that Constantine [emperor of Rome 306-337 AD] began the process of establishing Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire, a priestly model of church leadership had already emerged in response to the pressures of heresies and the need to disciple the converted." p. 190
"The emerging priestly order removed church leadership from ordinary existence, as priestly leaders were expected to practice a specialized order of life different from everyone else." p. 191
"No longer based on gift and function, ordination was state sanctioned and an institutionalized office gained through rank and study." p. 191
"From a community of God's people, the church became a 'place where' one received grace through a state-sanctioned priesthood." pp. 191-192
"The apostolic, as in missional, nature of leadership evaporatedunder these conditions." p. 192
"The Reformation challenged and reformed the inherited priestly categories of leadership only to create a more pedagogical identity for the clergy in which such leaders became the keepers and guarantors of the Word." p. 193
"Teaching and preaching, oversight of right doctrine, and proper administration of the sacraments became the normative forms of Protestant leadership." p. 193
"The Radical Reformers, or Free Church movement, created alternative ... ecclesiologies. Rejecting Christendom, they sought to recover a more apostolic and functional leadership based on neither a priestly-sacerdotal nor pastoral-pedagogue model of leadership." p. 193
"Although this recovery of an organic, lay-led church [sought] to restore pre-Constantinian images of church and leadership, [it] remained a minority movement...." p. 193
"From the mid-seventeenth century to the mid-eighteenth century, ...the Enlightenment particularly challenged the church ... to respond to the new demand for a foundation rooted in reason." p. 194
"In the nineteenth century...a new model based on the scientific study of religion's role in culture ... [created] a paradigm for the religious leader as a professional among other professions and the theological faculty as equals to their counterparts in the empirical sciences." p. 194
"This shift essentially placed the training and functioning of church leadership in a new setting organized or controlled by Enlightenment categories of competency." p. 195
"Therefore the priesthood of all believers is continually undermined by the practices of ordination." p. 195
"The modern notion of the INDIVIDUAL engendered a revised form of pastoral leader.... Clinical and therapeutic models of leadership began to dominate pastoral education." pp. 196-197
"Modernity required leaders shaped by management and organizational skills.... These management skills have become central images of church leadership." p. 197
"The church RENEWAL movement emphasizes inner organizational design." p. 197
"The church GROWTH movement focuses on effectively reaching specific target groups of people." p. 197
"The church EFFECTIVENESS movement stresses leadership paradigms with ecclesial assumptions rooted in modernity." pp. 197-198
"Technology is the handmaiden of an anthropocentric church." p. 198
"When training institutions equip leaders with a variety of techniques, the value system inherent in those techniques easily becomes the operational ecclesiology, defining the church's nature." p. 198
"Making a transition from the optimism of modernity to the humility of a people in EXILE evokes the experience of brokenness." p. 200
"Denominations are ceasing to be important markers for religious life." p. 201
"FIGURE 1 illustrates the relationship between the larger culture and the understanding of the church as the vendor of religious goods and services to the wider social context. ... In this series of concentric circles, the inner circle (A) represents the committed core of a church community .... The next circle (B), the congregation, includes the core (A). ... The final circle (C) represents the context. ... The focal energy of leadership is directed toward getting people into the center, (A), but the location where the leader expends most of his or time and energy is in circles (B) and (C). All of this assumes a reductionistic gospel of meeting personal, individualistic needs." pp. 202-203 "The pointer in FIGURE 2 indicates this eschatological direction that must shape all that the church IS and DOES in a context. The image of THE PILGRIM PEOPLE, moving in and toward THE REIGN OF GOD, is the center of the church's life and identity." p. 204
"The understanding of missional leadership that we are developing is based on a way of interpreting the nature and structure of the particular community or local congregation. To develop this interpretation, we propose to use concepts taken from sociological analysis: BOUNDED and CENTERED SETS." p. 205
"Denominations once provided BOUNDED-SET identity." p. 206
"CENTERED-SET organizations do not define membership and identity at the entrance points or boundaries. The centered-set organization invites people to enter on a journey toward a set of values and commitments." p. 206
"The dotted line in FIGURE 3 indicates that entrance on the journey is not a bounded-set commitment. ... Many of those in congregations are confused about what it means to be a Christian. ... A centered set invites such people to go on a journey." pp. 206-207
"Within the centered set will form a covenant community, illustrated by a second ellipse in FIGURE 4. ... Missional leaders would focus their time, energy, and thinking on the formation of this covenant people. ... In such a community, disciples of three types would form a secular order. They would be spiritual disciplines of A COMMON LIFE, disciplines of LEARNING, and disciplines of MISSION." pp. 207-208
"'SECULAR ORDER' means that people commit themselves to an ordered, covenant life within the reality of their everyday callings...." p. 209
"FIGURE 5 places the centered and bounded set in a relationship of continuous movement from the one to the other. ... Those in the congregation are invited to become novices in the new orders of God's missional people. ... The priesthood of all believers and the understanding of baptism as ordination to Christ's ministry will merge in a disciplined exploration of one's gifts, calling, and opportunities to minister as part of a missional community." pp. 209-210
"In this model, the orientation of leadership ... plays primarily an apostolic role. Pastoral gifts remain critical but are relativized by the nature, purpose, and directional movement of the missional community ... Being at the front means that the leadership lives into and incarnates the missional, covenantal future of God's people. The model may now be completed (FIGURE 6)." p. 212
"To summarize, missional leadership will require skills in evoking a language about the church that reshapes its understanding of its purpose and practices." p. 214
"These leadership gifts will not be found in a single individual." p. 214
"Apostolic, missional leadership will be learned through apprenticeship within communities." p. 214
"Missional leadership moves away from current models of SOLUS PASTOR." p. 214
"...denominations and seminaries ... and their paradigms of leadership preparation need to be altered fundamentally in order to participate in the creation of missional congregations for North America." p. 216
"The learning process would be shaped by COVENANTS and AN INTENTIONAL MISSIONAL THRUST." p. 216
"Classrooms would become communities, and the initiates would live in these communities shaped by ecclesial practices and disciplines of accountability." pp. 216-217
"The actual learning of SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES and SPIRITUAL DIRECTION would need to shape all the work of the gathered community that made up the school." p. 217
"...skills of system transformation and formation ... require far more than learning methodologies." p. 217
"Exile requires ... Leaders ... who can think deeply about the faith in a contextual and significantly theological manner." p. 218
"The seminaries ... themselves may need to discern how to become COVENANT COMMUNITIES in order to equip leaders for the church." pp. 218-219
"Denominational judicatories ... need forms of credentialing that work with the process of formation outlined above." p. 219
"The credentialing process should be opened up so that alternative forms of leadership for missional communities emerge and attract gifted candidates for such leadership."
"Our basic assumption has been that God's mission is carried out through the calling and setting apart of a particular people for God's purposes." p. 221
"The New Testament description of the church as the 'BODY OF CHRIST' ... stresses the concrete, tangible, visible presence of the church in the world as the evidence of the gospel." pp. 221-222
"Three principles for the structuring of the missional church in North America emerge out of the theological approach we have developed:
1. THE SCRIPTURES function AUTHORITATIVELY in the FORMATION of the churches' structures.
2. The church's CATHOLICITY demands a necessary CULTURAL DIVERSITY for its structures.
3. THE LOCAL PARTICULAR COMMUNITY is THE BASIC MISSIONAL STRUCTURE of the church." p. 222
"The same Holy Spirit who formed the church at Pentecost empowers that community to encounter and respond to God's Word in Scripture from generation to generation." p. 223
"... Scripture is the Holy Spirit's powerful tool to guide our formation in the mission community that God has called us to be." p. 223
"This means for the church, at every time and in every culture, a continuing process of correction, admonition, repentance, conversion, encouragement, growth, and change." p. 224
"The early church was developmental in character and found expression in a number of different organizational arrangements." p. 224
"These communities adopted behaviors that expressed their witness." p. 224
"Each community appears to have arranged its structures of leadership for its particular mission: elders or overseers were chosen, apostolic emissaries were sent, qualifications of leaders for the communities were defined." pp. 224-225
"Although form follows missional function in the New Testament church, the scriptural witness does show us how missional communities are planted and nurtured in particular contexts." p. 226
"In every particular cultural setting, the structural decisions of the church are a basic form of witness to the gospel." p. 227
"Two central themes of the biblical message are especially important
for the structuring of the missional church: ...
(1) ...the kingdom or reign of God, and
(2) ...the role of eschatology for the ministry and witness of
the New Testament community." p. 228
"In every cultural formation of the church there is the danger of idolatry." p. 229
"The reign of Christ is jeopardized when any organizational structure becomes an end in itself." p. 229
"With the assistance of biblical exegetes, the church must hear Jesus' exposition of the character of the kingdom (e.g., the parables of the kingdom) as highly relevant equipping for the realities of North America." p. 230
"We need to understand not only what the New Testament means by 'COMMUNITY', 'SERVANT', and 'MESSENGER', but we must also study how THE APOSTOLIC COMMUNITIES structured themselves for this task." p. 230
"When the church succumbs to such reductions of its vocation, it denies the future orientation of the gospel." p. 231
"God's faithful movement toward the eschatological consummation of salvation requires the continuing conversion of the church." p. 231
"Concretely, this openness will mean that the constitutional definition of every ecclesial organization must contain procedures that call for the biblical and theological assessment of its structures and provide for ways to alter them." p. 231
"The church lives in the eschatological confidence that God will complete what he has begun in it." p. 231
"From the outset, the church of Christ was mandated to be multicultural: to witness in the distinctive contexts of Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." p. 231
"The Spirit was given to empower the apostolic community to translate the gospel into particular cultures as it expanded across the world." p. 231
"The church's task in every culture is to find the visible organizational form that is worthy of its calling to be the witness to Christ in that particular place." p. 232
"To summarize, ... the church is essentially multicultural .... The resulting organizational diversity demonstrates that the gospel is being witnessed to the ends of the earth." p. 233
"The basic form of Christian witness is a company of followers of Jesus called by God's Spirit and joined as God's people in a particular place." p. 233
"The New Testament concept of KOINONIA defines the Christian church as all those who have Jesus Christ and his mission in common." p. 233
"This community, shaped by God's word, is sent to be the concrete witness to the gospel of Jesus in its particular place." p. 233
"The primary organizational challenge for the church is to find ways to structure the life of the particular communities so that they can carry out faithful witness in their places, always in responsible connection to the entire church around the world and cultivated by the ecclesial practices that God's Spirit provides." p. 234
"The concrete life of the particular community is the essential expression of 'our rootedness in the particularity of Judaism and Jesus'." p. 234
"...the geographical parish provided a workable organizational pattern in the churched culture of Christendom...." p. 234
"In North America...our history of emigration and voluntaristic system of church affiliation have produced ... Local churches ... in competition with one another from early on, modifying the geographical parish model brought across the Atlantic from Europe." pp. 234-235
"Now...everything is changing, and these changes threaten traditional structures.... We move for our jobs, our schooling, our families, and our retirement." p. 235
"In the American voluntaristic system, ... One chooses one's congregation as one does one's clubs, social activities, and professional services." p. 235
"... the electronic church allows large numbers of people to experience religious servicing without forming any face-to-face relationships with members of a particular community." p. 235
"...user-friendly megachurches offer... a myriad of services to the religious consumer." p. 236
"In the formation of a missional ecclesiology for North America, ... Shaped by Scripture, creatively translating its witness into the multicultural diversity of North America, the traditional parish must emerge as a missional community...an authentic community of the reign of God." p. 236
"We now propose that the structural formation of the church in North America for its mission must be a disciplined, intentional process.... Particular churches should place their organizational processes under the scrutiny of Scripture to see where they need to repent and be transformed." p. 237
"The disciplined process we envision here must be rigorously biblical and theological." p. 238
"The testing of any community's structural integrity is its continuing articulation of the evangelistic invitation." p. 238
"However Christians structure themselves, they will have missional leadership and their common life will have a focus on the ecclesial practices that cultivate them as missional communities." p. 239
"However they are configured, they will constantly struggle with how to be in and not of the world, how to relate to their culture as a sent but still alternative community, and how to incarnate Jesus Christ where they are." p. 240
"The challenge confronting the church in North America is ... an adequate purpose for any particular community or ecclesial structure." p. 240
"Business as usual will not work if our local congregations are to become missional." p. 240
"A missional ecclesiology for North America will ... ask:
(1) What is our particular expression of the mission to be
Christ's witnesses?
(2) What are our charisms for that ministry?
(3) What is our sense of vocation as a sent community?
Then it will provide the biblical and theological resources for communities to find their answers to such questions." p. 241
".... in spite of our confessional diversity, there is a strong consensus
among the Christian traditions as to the purpose of worship. That
consensus includes at least four basic affirmations:
(1) Worship is the PUBLIC CELEBRATION of the presence and
reality of God;
(2) Worship is the community's GATHERING to acknowledge,
praise, and thank God;
(3) Worship focuses on THE PROCLAMATION OF THE GOSPEL
in Word and Sacrament and our response to it; and
(4) Worship provides Christians assurance, comfort, and
encouragement." p. 242
"A missional ecclesiology for north American will need ... to learn how worship concretely calls and sends us into Christ's service, and how it is a facet of our mission itself." p. 242
"In worship we learn how to celebrate our ordination to God's service with every baptism, and we learn how to claim the real presence of Christ nourishing us to live as his witnesses at every communion service." p. 242
"By definition ... the EKKLESIA is a public assembly, and its worship is its first form of mission." p. 243
"...the conversion of worship to its missional centeredness will come about as communities are gripped by their vocation to be Christ's witness and begin to practice that calling." p. 243
"As currently practiced in much of the North American church, the definitions and disciplines of church membership reveal the poverty of our missional self-understanding .... MEMBERSHIP has long been associated with an individual's supposed salvation status." p. 244
"In the voluntaristic church structures of North America, church membership ... (are) little more than a matter of organizational affiliation." p. 244
"Membership is easily changed, and in many denominations members have low levels of biblical literacy plus even weaker understandings of the distinctive tenets of their traditions. The frequently used term NOMINAL MEMBERSHIP is symptomatic of this sad situation." pp. 244-245
"One of the immediate implications of a missional ecclesiology for North America is a critical rethinking of the meaning and practice of church membership." p. 245
"Venerable terms like NOVICES or CATECHUMENS may even become useful again. The term MEMBER may also be UNUSABLE for the covenant community as well." p. 245
"The missional sense of the covenant community is not that it is a spiritual elite." p. 246
73 "Membership cannot therefore be defined in terms of achievement, or completion, or having arrived." p. 246
"The calling of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost began to produce what 1 Peter calls a 'RACE, PRIESTHOOD, NATION, AND PEOPLE OF GOD' (1 Peter 2:9-10), a worldwide multicultural fellowship of witnesses." p. 248
"The theological formation of the missional connectedness of the church should be centrifugal in nature." p. 249
"In his high priestly prayer (in John 17:20-23), Jesus set out the purpose of the church as the community of communities...." p. 250
"One of the most important and earliest ways in which the church's universal connectedness witnessed to the gospel was the process of canonization of Scripture itself." p. 251
"Another distinctive missional task of connecting structures has been the formation of doctrine and confessions." p. 251
"The church's structures of connectedness are elements of the church as institution." p. 252
"Institutional forms of connectedness can express the church's unity and catholicity, or they can dilute these features." p. 252
"The formation of a missional ecclesiology will most radically address the concrete realities of ecclesial institutions." p. 253
"The process of naming and defining the 'MARKS OF THE CHURCH' at Nicea in the fourth century was ... important example of missional connectedness at work." p. 254
"The Nicene Creed proclaimed (that the marks of the church were) 'ONE, HOLY, CATHOLIC, and APOSTOLIC'." p. 254
"The Reformation (added), ...the true church (is) wherever the Word is properly preached, the sacraments rightly administered, and ... Christian discipline practiced." p. 255
"The church is apostolic in that it is based on the teaching and preaching of the apostles, carries forward their legacy, and, ... actually embodies their succession." pp. 255-256
"The catholicity of the church is demonstrated in all the ways that the church at every level witnesses to the one gospel that draws all people unto Christ." p. 257
"'CATHOLICITY' should be understood in its original Greek sense: KATA HOLON, 'according to THE WHOLE, or appropriate to THE WHOLE.'" p. 257
"The World Council's Fourth Assembly at Uppsala (1968) defined this catholicity as 'the quality by which the church expresses THE FULLNESS, THE INTEGRITY, and THE TOTALITY OF LIFE IN CHRIST.'" p. 257
"A particular mission community is catholic when its way of serving Christ is appropriate to the gospel while modestly recognizing that it is not the only way to be a Christian community." p. 257
"Every particular community points consciously beyond itself to the global church as the full expression of the Spirit's work in calling and shaping God's people." p. 257
"The particular community will thus reject words or actions that divide the church or set one cultural expression of it against another, knowing that such actions are a betrayal of its mission obedience." p. 257
"Catholicity will demand special attention to the relationship, or lack of it, between the traditional denominational structures and the spectrum of paralocal or specialized ministry organizations." p. 258
"But the diversity of ministry agencies does not need to violate either the unity or catholicity of the church, if they practice their diversity in ways that are unifying and reconciling --- that is, ways that are appropriate to the wholeness of the gospel." p. 258
"The holiness of the church is expressed by the way a particular community understands itself and functions as a community set apart for God's mission." pp. 258-259
"That means that God's Spirit (the Sanctifier) works through the community's witness to heal the broken creation, to extend the salvation that Jesus accomplished on the cross." p. 259
"The community makes holy as it lives out the gospel in all its organizational processes, both internally and externally." p. 259
"Christ is our Lord, and we are his witnesses and the firstfruits of his inbreaking rule." p. 259
"However disunity comes about, the gospel addresses it and the rule of Christ overcomes it." p. 260
"The connecting structures of the church, for their part, should express and implement the mutual interdependence of all the parts of Christ's body." p. 261
"The practice of unity and unifying ministry are ethical expressions of the radical newness of the life made possible by birth from above (John 3:3-8)." p. 261
"... the unity of the Christian community is fundamental to its obedient witness, as defined by the New Testament." p. 262
"When the church in its diverse structures presents to this world a witness of competitiveness, contention, wastefulness, and mutual judgmentalism, then it is not bearing witness to the christ who makes peace and breaks down the walls of division." p. 262
"The visible church is called by Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit to be one church." p. 262
"Structural unity has to do with power, hierarchy, and uniformity of organizational forms and functions." pp. 262-263
"A spiritual unity that is neither concrete nor institutional is, by definition, not incarnational." p. 263
"When the gospel becomes flesh, it takes on organizational forms that witness to the apostolicity, catholicity, and holiness of God's missionary people." p. 263
"The church's oneness must carry out and demonstrate its mission. Unity is witness." p. 264
"...structures of connectedness are susceptible to the misconception that they are themselves the reign of God." p. 266
"The seductive impact of accumulated power often leads the connecting structures to betray the church's mission." p. 266
"...structures of connectedness ... demonstrate oneness in Christ in all the ways that they witness to the one gospel." p. 266
"The continuing organizational processes of the church, both particular and connected, need to interact with the gospel, the tradition, and the challenges of the particular cultural context." p. 267
"... institutional baggage ... no longer serves the church, both particular and connected, in its mission." p. 268
"The gospel of the inbreaking reign of God must be upheld as the sole criterion of the particular and connecting structures of the church." p.268
"In particular, a missional ecclesiology for North America will resist all attempts at uniformity of structure in favor of a missional unity in diversity." p. 268
"The connecting structures of the church will be designed as communities of communities, standing under and shaped by the same missional mandate that is normative for the church in all times and in all places: 'You shall be my witnesses.'" p. 268