"MISSIONAL CONNECTEDNESS"
Chapter Nine March 28, 1999
What does it all mean? What do you think?
Ephesians 4:4-6
The idea of being "missional" has radically changed. No longer does it mean simply to send someone to a far away place, but to see the mission field right here on our doorstep. And so it’s not "someone" else, but "us" who are sent.
In earlier chapters we have been told that we are called and sent to represent God’s reign, God’s kingdom, in the context (cultural setting) in which we find ourselves. The Holy Spirit calls, gathers, and sends us. The task is that of developing and establishing communities that reflect God’s rule in the lives of God’s people. The task is greater than simply personal faith development (the vertical dimension); it is not to be static, or status quo, but moving into the future on the horizontal plane with witness to God’s rule or kingdom.
One of the basic questions is: "How should the church organize itself for its vocation?" The authors state: "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 purpose."
The issue is one of developing a missional ecclesiology – an understanding of the organized church as a community sent in service of God’s kingdom. Churches, congregations, will ask themselves, "What is our particular expression of the mission to be Christ’s witnesses?" Discussion will center on the shape of the organizational structure of the "missional community." Their terminology for the new structural pattern is "particular (mission) communities."
In the 9th chapter of the book, entitled "Missional Connectedness," the authors argue that "it is not biblical . . . for particular communities of the visible, organized church to exist in isolation from one another." The prayer of Jesus in John 17 (20-23) is a central defining passage for the purpose of the relatedness of the church.
They say that it is more than a matter of institutional unity (denominational structures), or even of efficiency. The old structural forms are not functioning in a way that makes it truly possible to witness to the one gospel of God in Jesus Christ. When the church became institutionalized, its focus was shifted to its internal structural pattern and organization rather than on its mission. It turned inward, rather than being outward looking.
"Institutional connectedness" became susceptible to cultural compromise (reflect the culture) and thus resisted the missional purpose of representing God’s kingdom to society. In institutional structures the "issues of power, money, political linkages, and influence assert themselves and seriously challenge the missional integrity of the church."
For "Missional Connectedness" the authors point to some basic understandings of the church:
These are fundamental to the connecting structures of the church.
In addition, they should express and implement the mutual inter-dependence of all parts of Christ’s body. (The body is still a good metaphor for the structure of the church.)
"They should foster dialogue, enable contacts, provide resources to their communities, and encourage the public witness to the Lord who is the Prince of Peace and who breaks down walls of separation . . . When the church in its diverse structures presents to the 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. The visible church is called by Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit to be one church."
CONCLUSION:
In the midst of our diversity (denominationally, and culturally) there is the necessity of the structures of connectedness to testify to one Lord, one gospel, one mission. The Spirit is shaping the church (particular communities) "to become multicultural, multiethnic, geographically extensive, and organizationally diverse."
(Concluding quotes)
"The continuing organizational processes of the church, . . . need to interact with the gospel, the tradition, and the challenges of the particular cultural context." "We know that we, as the church, will deny our Lord by allowing other masters to dominate and use us. We will have to break these idols and be restored to our proper
place as Christ’s disciples and apostles."
"We may welcome the disestablishment of traditional structures and the rapidly changing shape of our denominations as a God-given opportunity to shape ourselves for God’s mission." . . . "A missional ecclesiology must clearly identify and resist all
attempts to equip the church merely for its maintenance and security. It must reject every proposal to restore the trappings and privileges of Christendom. It must boldly question every temptation to indulge in compromises with worldly power and jeopardize the institutional practice of servanthood after the model of Jesus." . . . "The gospel of the inbreaking reign of God must be upheld as the sole criterion of the particular and connecting structures of the church."
"In particular, a missional ecclesiology for North America will resist all attempts at uniformity of structure in favor of a missional unity in diversity." . . . "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.’" "The church that itself is constantly being evangelized, that hears and responds to the invitation to receive and enter the divine reign of God, is the church that can be faithful in its witness to the world."