The Need for a Missional Ecclesiology Part 1

Once again Dr. Brisco has an excellent post on the missional church. It explains why the leaders of so many churches are afraid to make hard decisions and think only of making the congregants happy.

In this post he quotes Hunsberger who suggests 3 views of church in the US and the West that have contributed to a consumer church. The first view he mentions is called the "Reformed Heritage" view, and it naturally developed into the second view which he call the "Contemporary Variation". Our Church falls into view 1 and because of our consumer driven culture have morphed somewhat into view 2. However, we are not alone--most churches in the West have developed form this reformed heritage. This is why I believe the church in the West needs to recognize and lament what it has become--see my Tears, Persecution, and Connection with god blog--so we can envision a new tomorrow and be the church God wants us to be: view 3 which Hunsburger calls "Missionary vision".

Here is Brisco's Blog:
http://missionalchurchnetwork.com/the-need-for-a-missional-ecclesiology-part-i/

Here is my Tears, Persecution, and Connecting with God blog:
http://davesmcmusings.blogspot.com/2009/06/tears-persecution-connecting-with-god.html

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From Market Driven to Mission Oriented

Here is a link to an interesting blog. The posting is called From Market Driven to Mission Oriented. This is definitely a shift the church needs to make. Further, I agree we don't have enough pastors trained in missiology to help us make that shift. Even more many of the "conservative" or "fundamentalist" missionaries the West has sent have no real missiological training--there form of missionary activity was to impose Western values on the churches they were serving.

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Steve Addison Quote on Apostolic Leadership

The apostolic role within established churches and denominations requires the reinterpreting of the denomination [or church's] foundational values in light of the demands of its mission today. The ultimate goal of these apostolic leaders is to call the denomination [or church] away from maintenance, back to mission. The apostolic leader needs to be a visionary, who can outlast significant opposition from within the denominational [or church] structures and can build alliances with those who desire change. Further more, the strategy of the apostolic leader could involve casting vision and winning approval for a shift from maintenance to mission. In addition the leader has to encourage signs of life within the existing structures and raise up a new generation of leaders and churches from the old. The apostolic leader needs to ensure the new generation in not "frozen out" by those who resist change. Finally, such a leader must restructure the denomination [or church's] institutions so that they serve mission and purpose.

Steve Addison as Quoted by Alan Hirsh in the book The Forgotten Ways p. 156.

Key thoughts:

1. Reinterpetation of denominational or church's foundational values in light of the demands of mission today. Reinterpretation is hard to do. What is harder--people don't like the founational values of their "institution" messed with--let alone reinterpreted. How many times have I heard. You can't be negative.

2. Vision is key! How many times do churches and denominations squelch God given vision by committee? It is interesting to note that most appointees to a vision committe are not apostolic leaders, many are not leaders at all. In my experience, when committe develops vision, the usually end of restating the same tired cliches and never think out of the box enough to reinterpret the church's foundational values for mission today.

3. The apostolic leader needs to be a visionary that can outlast significant opposition from the church denomination [church] structures and who can build alliances with those who desire change. It is hard to outlast entrenched structures that exist to preserve power and the status quo. Many times there are so few people that desire lasting change that it could take a lifetime to outlast significant opposition.

4. The apostolic leader needs to ensure the new generation is not "frozen out" by those that resist change. The church's structures generally are set up to freeze out the new generation. This is why the house church movement is growing by leaps and bounds and church planting is taking off--many postmoderns (generally those under 40) are so fed up with the institutional church that they are choosing not to be part of existing churches.

5. Such a leader must restructure the denomination's [or church's] instituations so that they serve mission purposes. But this type of questioning is not allowed in existing churches and denominations. Those that question or challenge are told they cannot negative and must be positive. How can you change structures without questioning or being negative?

Just some thoughts. I welcome other thoughts and questions!