2 | WHAT'S OUR BIBLICAL
FRAMEWORK FOR MISSION?
As well as a team of Christians with ‘missionary-DNA’ we need to
ensure that the theology 'underneath' the new mission-project is coherent and understood by the key leaders. Our belief-system shape our values and
therefore our practises and choices. That means the team-leader (or minister)
needs to be a person who is well-grounded in the Scriptures and can teach with some depth and help others to engage and interpret the scriptures. It is vital that the team-leader is released to keep
learning, stretching, reading, teaching, mentoring and speaking forth
prophetically.
The Apostles realised that if their new Movement was to thrive,
they would have to focus on the foundations:
“It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of
God in order to wait on tables. Brothers and sisters, choose seven
men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will
turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention
to prayer and the ministry of the word.” (Acts 6: 2-4)
The team-leader cannot get caught up in the never ending urgency
of just running the project. She/he needs to be the ‘theologian’ or the ‘prophet’
who tells the Scripture story and who reminds people of what the Bible is
saying to them about our identity and call. It is possible for a minister/leader in a new endeavour to get so caught up with the care of the new people attending and the managing of the
burgeoning programmes that this gets lost! It becomes a reinforcing cycle –
more new people get involved, programmes grow, administration increases, funding needs to be sought, and so there is yet more ‘ministry’ to
do. As this happens the missionary-DNA gets lost, the leader’s voice is lost.
What people observe is a very busy pastor and small band of harried and faithful colleagues
serving the increasingly growing and often dependent crowds!
My observation after many years of reflection is that the idea of missional church is not about outlining a better outreach strategy.
It is not just a recognition that the West is no longer Christian and needs
evangelising, nor an awareness that church structures may be outmoded or require
refreshing, nor even that a more effective evangelistic programme is needed.
Rather, it is engaging with what our redeeming God is up to at the
intersection of our culture and church and scripture. Out of this engagement, local theology is birthed and thus
authentic Kingdom obedience and living. This is
doing the work that the leaders
from the tribe of Issachar did in the days of King David. They were people: "who understood the times and knew what Israel should do...” (1 Chron 12:32)
‘Missional church’ is not about how the existing institutional
churches can be reformed, but how God’s people can find the will to live locally into the
mission of God for this particular time and culture. It means grappling with
the narrative through fresh eyes, and letting it shape the church community’s
rule (or common practises), which in turn will form that local expression of Kingdom
community. It means incarnation into the surrounding culture not just as a
means of evangelism, but also in order to recover an understanding,
identification and appreciation of that local culture.
“… what the gospel offers
is not just hope for the individual but hope for the world. Concretely I
think this means that the congregation must be so deeply and intimately
involved in the secular concerns of the neighbourhood that it becomes clear to
all that no one and nothing is outside the range of God’s love in Jesus
Christ.” (Newbigin
Lesslie, A Word in Season: Perspectives on
Christian World Missions. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1994.)
This is something cross-cultural missionaries understand and do!
They readily assert that their calling is first and foremost to live amongst
their tribal-group, learn their language (unspoken nuances and stories) and to
love them as fellow villagers. In time, culturally appropriate ways are
revealed which connect gospel-narrative and culture to faith.
The consequence of this is often the birth of a local
congregation. Planting a church is not be the primary intent of the
missionary, but a ‘consequence’ of effective engagement (See Clemens Sedmark, Doing Local Theology. Orbis
Books: Maryknoll New York 2003). Before we
ask the question: “What should the church
be?” Two other questions must first be asked:
I. “What are the stories that
sit behind our local culture?” That is; what are the narratives that shape this people?
What is their culture? What has God already been up to? And also,
II. “How is the Gospel
narrative to be shaped and heard in this culture?” What are the metaphors that will
carry it? What are the gods it will confront? What are the ‘carrier cultures’
through which it will be interpreted?
The pressing desire to see the local
church ‘grow’ healthily has made us focus on the church (ecclesiology) before asking
these more basic questions:
“I want to suggest that in the formation and development of a Missional
movement of the people of God, the church is not the starting point. In a more
technical language, ecclesiology is not the starting point! But the propensity
of Christian leaders today is to focus exhaustively and completely on the
church question. Now I realize that our preoccupation with church questions
only reveals the continuing depths of our colonization to a Christendom
imagination.” (Alan Roxburgh, Prologue as
Parable. Unpublished Article, 2006)
Here is one way to picture how Church, Culture and Church intersect, and some questions for each triangle-point to prompt reflection.
The next step then on our journey, is to keep articulating a
consistent theological framework. This is an ongoing project because the Church
as the people of God grow as they are shaped by the Word of God:
1. Gospel: What is the
biblical theology that shapes this project?
a.How do you understand the mission of God?
b.How do you understand the gospel (soteriology)?
c.How are you growing a team who can read, interpret and connect
that to their context (A community of Interpreters)
d.How do you ‘lead’ this? (teacher)
e. What values or principles shape the project?
2. Church: What is the story
and practises that form the faith community here?
a. Who are you as a community of faith? What’s your back-story and culture?
b. What Spiritual practises / disciplines shape your lives in
response to the gospel?
c. What traditions, rituals, rites of passage tell your story?
d. What is your ecclesiology?
e. How do you lead this (pastoral care)?
f. What is God up to in this faith community? What are you learning?
3. Culture: Where has God
called us to pitch our tents?
a.Who are the people you live amongst?
b.How do you form relationships, listen, understand and engage?
c. How do you understand their ‘stories’ – traditions, faith,
challenges, aspirations?
d. What socio-cultural traits are evident? How do you understand
this?
e. What is your missiology? How do we teach / orient your people to
this?
f. How do you lead and organise for mission work?
g.What is God up to in this cultural context? What are the
opportunities?
4. Leadership: How are we
keeping our key leader ‘sharp’?
a. How are you developing your key leader?
b. Doe he/she have a ministry mentor?
c. Does the minister’s Professional Development Plan reflect this function?
d. Is he/she released to focus on preaching, teaching, initiating and equipping?
e. Does the peak leadership group spend time together dreaming,
reflecting and listening for God’s voice?
f. How does the church theology shape everything else we do?
g. What processes ensure different parts of the church understand
this at an appropriate level?
