The summer of reruns is ending and all the major networks are getting ready to start the Fall television season. As we enter the Fall of the year, I want to do a rerun of an article that was in the newsletter several years ago. The theme of the article was “The Missional Church.” During the course of this year we are going to hear a lot about the missional church, and so I rerun this article by way of introducing you to the concept of the missional church. ~ Dana
Emil Brunner is famous for saying that, “A church exists by mission as a fire exists by burning.” If your church does not see itself as a community of believers sent into the world, then you are no longer, by definition, a church. It has also been said that if you are not doing mission you will soon become a “mission field.” Going out into the world as witnesses for Jesus Christ is essential to being a church.
Does this mean that mission is the only important thing that church does? No, Brunner’s words might be applied to worship. Surely worship is an essential characteristic of a church. John Piper (Let the Nations Be Glad) suggest that the ultimate purpose of the church is worship and that mission is what we do until “…every knee shall bow…and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord…” (Philippians 2:10)
We all know churches, which are considered “mission-minded.” By that we mean that they give a lot of money to mission and they regularly have missionary speakers and the women’s association is strong in support of mission. Now we are hearing the term “missional church.” Is this just another fancy way of changing a noun into an adjective to make it sound like something new and different? How might we describe a missional church?
In a missional church there is a basic understanding that the church family exists to be sent on a mission by God. We are called out of world to worship God so that we might be sent into the world to invite others to worship God. The meaning of the word “mission” is “sent.”
Caring for members of a church is important and exhibits the nature of the coming reign of God, but it is not enough. The missional church is more than a chapel dispensing religious goods and services to its members. It exists not simply for itself, but to be sent into the world.
Mission is not a program of the church like all other programs. It is not like the educational program or music program or a building improvement program. All of those are important to a missional church, but you can do programs without ever being sent.
A missional church reads the Bible as a missionary document. The Bible tells us that the Father sends the Son; the Father and Son send the Spirit; the Father, Son, and Spirit (Trinity) send the church into the world.
Mission is a movement from God into the world and the Church is an instrument that God has chosen for that movement.
The missional church is sent into the world to announce how God wants it to be. It is God’s world and God intends that his rule be established.
As the sent people of God, we must live as a sign, symbol, and foretaste of the coming reign of God. We must be the interpretation or illustration of how God means the world to be.
I hope this description allows us the opportunity to find a way to give a new voice to the familiar term of “missional church” so that it will get heard in a new way.
Grace and Peace,
Dana
