Analysis of The Church as Missional Community Article - Book Report/Review Example

 The Church as Missional Community Introduction According to Guder, the word missionary in the context of the church is relatively unknown despite the church being missional in nature. In this article, Guder tries to bring out the standard meaning of the word “missional” in order to avoid the varied definitions attached to it. In fact, Christianity which was lumped in the phrase “Christendom” undermined the whole process of evangelism and the growth of the church mission1. The term was only used to refer to the internal activities of the church. This does not make sense to Guder since he cannot see the essence of evangelism if everyone was assumed to be Christian by all means. Evangelism in the real sense encompasses all the outreach programs of the church that aim at spreading the gospel to non-believers. In this context, mission is said to be the act of transforming cultural Christians to active members of the church. The missionary movement has been criticized as a partner of colonialism since the missionaries forcefully imposed their faith on the outside world, presumptuous that it was what they needed. The decline of the authoritarian regime of Christianity over the centuries has been highly welcomed as something to enlighten societies. However, theologians argue that Christendom is not actually disappearing, but rather shifting as discussed by Jenkins P. in his study entitled The Next Christendom. On the other hand, Christianity can only be considered to be drawing away from the boundaries of Christendom, in that new ideologies are being developed within the church. For instance, previously “daughter churches” are currently “sister churches” and are now offering missionaries to the present post-Christian, when earlier, only the reverse happened. Actually, the word missional here, tries to move the focus of mission from merely being a single program of the church to the present practice and calling of the church. The missional description of the church has a wider implication on the highly ignored overall role of the church. Instead of looking at mission from one subjective angle, one should look at it from the holistic context of the purpose and deeds of the church2. The role bestowed upon the church by Christ himself when he ordered the apostles to go out and proclaim his word. The apostles hence were sent out to witness and share out what they had learnt with the rest of the people. Unfortunately, they encountered problems which widened the missional calling. Consequently, from such broad definition of missional, the meaning of evangelical can clearly be drawn. The Reductionism of Mission in Western Theologies Guder explains that the reduction of the missional role of the church emerged from the West, when Christianity gained recognition as the most powerful religion. With this accomplishment, the church had nothing more to do, thus it was termed as “Christianity with no mission” This reduction nature of the church mission in the West can be accounted for by the Western cultures Christianization3. Since almost all members were Christians, the church only concentrated on the salvation of its members. Moreover, the eschatological gospel nature described by Jesus in the New Testament lost meaning due to this reduction. Jesus empowered the people with the Holy Spirit to help them in the interpretation of the word. However, people experience challenges and testing but God promised to guard them through faith and the gospel’s power of healing. The ancient overall Christian witness is currently being reoriented to the emphasis of individualism due to Jesus’ second coming. The bible clearly says that the body shall resurrect, and then bear its own judgment which will determine the eternal resting place of the soul. As a result of this, salvation is now being focused on the fate of the individual souls, rather than on the biblical restoration of the souls. Generation after generation, this subjective nature of salvation has dominated the church. People are being concerned about themselves as churches are making partnerships with politicians, making the church to look like a marketplace4. We have made God to seem far away from us unlike the times of the Israelites when God directly spoke to his people. In spite of all those, Gods grace always reigns all around us through the missional work of the church. The Western Shift to Post-Christendom and the Emergence of the Theology of the Mission Dei To understand that we have lost a lot through this Christendom regime, we first must admit our mistakes just like the Israelites in exile. Mistakes made by parents, are now being embraced by their children through the growing secularism as well as numerous new religions. Cultural students must help the present generation realize the changes that happened to the work of the church. Only through this can we be able to identify what we are supposed to abandon in order to gain true salvation. Evangelism cannot take place with the assumption that people already know what Christianity entail. The fact is the felt wants of the people are shaped by society, thus they may continue reducing the gospel. This is likely to take us back to the Christendom times. One can only question why what was taught by Jesus on the “Sermon on the mountain” does not completely apply to us today. In many cases nowadays, evangelism is based upon what can be termed as “cheap grace” in which people seek recognition and power. The emergence of this tendency has been facilitated by two main factors: first, as new churches were being formed in the un-evangelized cultures, there were structures in place to guide the process. So as this churches came up, they followed the individualistic nature of the already established churches. Though these churches were not inducted into the missional nature of the church, they are forced into it due to their minority nature in the Christian world. Missional ecclesiology moreover has been facilitated by the West Christendom disintegration. The deficiencies brought about by the new occurrence of events, jeopardized the central role of the West Christian church5. Due to the unpreparedness of the church to face challenges of paganism and secularism, it finds itself in compromising situations a lot of times. The church by then it was being looked at in terms of advantages that it can offer its members. Fortunately, by 1930s a new role was bestowed upon the church, in which it is it was expected to act as a wide part of God’s mission. As defined by missio Dei the missional nature of the church has to be delivered in the manner intended by God. To be authentically “Evangelical” our Ecclesiology must necessarily be “Missional” As discussed above it can be concluded that for us to faithfully proclaim what God intended for us, we have to the true witnesses of the bible. The Gospel of the Lord has to be brought to the attention of everyone as a sign of healing and restoration of God’s lost generation. God calls upon people who are true and ready to do his work with transparency and vulnerability6. This should be done through gathered worship as well as proclamation in order to be a sign of public witness. The missional ecclesiology can effectively work theologically as a discipline that is integrative. It derives its ways of operation from God’s self-disclosure and mission. Finally, the mission of the church has been here has been defined to be “Jesus’ way Mission”. Theological ethics have to guide missionaries to guide people to live their lives in the way they were called. The fundamental principle of the formation of the church’s mission is to guide the community in the basis of transparency and honesty of togetherness. The continued church mission will restore obedience and wipe out impunity from our communities as it constantly reminds us on the penalties attached to disobedience. So it is upon us to put away Christendom from our society, and embrace true Christianity which will allow us to enjoy the benefits of salvation. Bibliography Guder, D. L. (2000). The Church as Missional Community. Fuller Theological Seminary. 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