ECTIONS REFLECTIONS n REFLECTIONS n REFLECTIONS n REFLECTIONS n REFLECTIONS n REFLECTIONS n REFLECTIONS n RE THE MISSIONAL CHURCH By Ian Hussey

s you move in church circles you may hear “missional,” “emerging” and “emergent” being applied to various churches and movements. However, there is some confusion about these terms. Each movement has its supporters and opponents, but some people see them as all basically the same thing. Space does not allow for a careful analysis of the differences, so I would like to focus on the idea of “missional church.” The missional church movement emerged in the United

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Kingdom in the mid-1980s in response to the work of Lesslie Newbigin. Newbigin, on returning to the UK from a lifetime of missionary service in India, realized that many of the missiological practices he had been using in the cross-cultural setting were now needed in the secularized society he returned to. One of the leading writers about missional church in the

world is Australian Alan Hirsch. In 2006 he wrote The Forgotten Ways, which serves as a useful summary of the principles of the missional church movement. Hirsch examines the early church to find clues to explain its explosive growth. In AD 100 there were as few as 25,000 Christians, yet by AD 310 it is estimated that there were up to 20 million Christians. How did this happen? It was an illegal religion throughout this period; its followers didn’t have any church buildings and they didn’t even have the scriptures as we know them. Similar

conditions to those of the

early church emerged in the wake of the Communist Revolution in China in 1948. Yet, like the early church, the Chinese church grew explosively during this period. In seeking to explain how these persecuted churches grew so rapidly, Hirsch identified six features (he calls them the missional DNA) that characterize powerful church movements. The heart of it all is Jesus is Lord. One of the key passages in the Old Testament is the shema: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD (Yahweh) our God, the LORD (Yahweh) is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4). This was a declaration of ultimate mono- theism in a polytheistic world where numerous gods, demons, and angels that needed to be appeased were seen as ruling over different spheres of life. When Christians confess that “Jesus is Lord,” it is not just the simple confession that Jesus is our Master, it echoes “Yahweh is Lord.” “Jesus is Lord” declares there is no separation between sacred and secular. Jesus is the one Lord in every place, not just church. The church’s central commission is to “make disciples of

(2) consumerism: the major threat to the viability of our faith and discipleship is consumerism because it infects every one of us. The end-users of the church’s services (namely, us) can easily slip into the role of discerning, individualistic consumers, devouring the religious goods and services offered by the latest and best church vendor. The problem is that consumerism and discipleship are mutually exclusive. Jesus was incarnational, entering the world he was seeking to save. Incarnational ministry is often contrasted with attractional ministry. Some in the missional church movement caricature attractional ministry as churches simply running programs that they expect non-Christians will just come to. Hirsch argues that churches should be more incarnational and

. . . worship as lifestyle, and mission in the context of everyday life.

run fewer programs releasing Christians to minister in existing social networks. Although the reminder to be incarnational is helpful, the New Testament also talks about people being attracted towards the family of God manifested in the church. By “apostolic environment” Hirsch is talking about an environment where leaders are able to lead the church in its mission. Organic images of the church and the kingdom abound in the

scriptures, body,

Alan Hirsch’s 2006 book, The Forgotten Ways

field, yeast, seeds, trees, vines, etc. However, Western churches are often more like an institution. Hirsch reminds us that church isn’t primarily about buildings, worship services and size of congregations, but rather about gearing the whole community around natural discipling friendships, worship as lifestyle, and mission in the context of everyday life. Hirsch makes a distinction between community and communitas, which is basi- cally community on mission. One example of communitas would be a short-term mission trip. These experiences of communitas are sometimes the most vibrant periods of our Christian life. One of the problems that we have is that often our churches and small groups become all about us, rather than the mission of God. Community is crucial for Christian life, but it should be community for the purpose of mission, not as an end in itself. C. S. Lewis once said: “There exists in every church something that sooner or later works against the very purpose for which it came into existence. So we must strive very hard, by the grace of God, to keep the church focused on the mission that Christ originally

all nations” (Matthew 28:18-20) and the early church took this mission seriously. Hirsch says the Western church faces two issues: (1) poor discipleship: although we use the language of discipleship it often does not have the central place it once did, or should, have; and

gave to it.” (C. S. Lewis quoted in A. Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways). We may not agree with everything that the missional church movement advocates. However, it does serve as a useful reminder that mission should have a central place in church life. Ian Hussey is lecturer and director of Post Graduate Studies at Malyon College in Queensland, Australia. A fuller version of this article appeared in the December 2014 issue of The qb, a publication of Queensland Baptists.

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