The Missional Church - an Introduction
I have had the good fortune of reading a very good book, seminal, in many ways. My brother in law lent it to me and I do believe I should get my own copy.
It is titled, "The Shaping of Things to Come" and it covers how the Church of the future (and in fact of today) needs to adapt to the new world that Christianity has come to consist in.
One of the primary ideas of the book is to present 3 properties of the Church as we know today and then to juxtapose each property with the alternative, "missional" Church view (When I use the word missional I use it in a very narrow sense to highlight the difference between the traditional Church and the missional Church, this will get its own post at some point).
- Attractional - A belief that people will seek out and attend our church meetings of their own accord, we thus need to make ourselves as "attractive" as we can through good music, Programs, warm and friendly people etc
- Dualistic - Spirituality and Life are treated differently and generally, don't mix
- Hierarchical - Leadership is from the top down
Now that describes the current Church modus operandi. The missional Church (i.e. the Church that will be relevant to the contemporary context, and the Church that will thrive in our contemporary context) presents it alternative.
- Incarnational - as Jesus became man, so Christians go into where the people are and meet them where they are
- Messianic - A Messianic spirituality sees Spirituality as Jesus did - no separation between Church and work, Spiritual life is relevant, present and encompasses every aspect of our daily lives
- Apostolic - a view of leadership more in line with Apostolic thought. An organic approach where leadership comes from the body.
More on this subject will definitely be forthcoming.
posted by Michael Wiles at 10:34 am
3 Comments:
Mike, please do write more on this. Particularly, what does a missional church look like? In practice I mean. And how do I tell if a church is missional or traditional? Some cases are obvious (at least obviously traditional), but I don't know how to tell say whether the church I want to join is missional or not.
Check out http://friendofmissional.org/
and also stephenmurray.co.za
Suffice to say to answer the simple question is that in the traditional context it is highly unlikely, almost impossible for a so called traditional church to be missional, they can only be moving in that direction, not there yet.
Being missional, which is really being Christian, is a major shift in thinking such that the typical church is going to find it difficult, mostly practically to make the adjustment.
I think the most obvious mark of a missional Church is in how the see the participants. i.e. do they see real community within the church community as being fundamental to the life of God's people.
The book I'm reading, which I borrowed from Andrew you will find most stimulating and give you all the tools and more to assess the local Church. Problem is, typically Church communities are not radical enough, and they approach it from a to "event driven" approach. The key to the missional church is to not be task/event driven. Jesus wasn't.
friendofmissional is great, thanks!
Is that book Total Church? I will try and get it.
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