Mission Shaped Church Mission Shaped Church

Some of the working group

Theology for a …

And for all Fresh Expressions of

Church 2008

Ch 5 : Key theological ideas - Ch 5 : Key theological ideas - menumenu

Church is shaped by who God is [community in mission]

– Church is the fruit and sign of God’s mission. – Its DNA is “missionary community”. p 84-86

Christ and culture : – His Birth, Cross and Resurrection underpin both creation of

Fresh Expressions of Church and being counter-cultural p 86-90

Inculturation is serious engagement – between the seeds of both the gospel and the church, with

the soil of a culture. p 90-91.

Church has definitive marks– It is also designed to reproduce p 93 – 96 – One Holy Catholic and Apostolic pp 96-99

NB These ideas outcrop throughout MSC in practical stories, methodology and analogy

Theological principle ONETheological principle ONE

Church must be rooted in who God is– The Trinity are community-in-mission – East Communio thinking meets West

missio Dei – The Trinity exhibit the priority of being – So …– which comes first, mission or community?– community > public worship

MSC pp 84-86

Mission comes from the Father, through the Son in the power of the Spirit MSC p85

Theological principle ONE cont…Theological principle ONE cont…

Church: the fruit of God’s mission; only ½ true – It’s also the bearer of the Gospel: Sower and fruit

Church is not agent – that is the Holy Spirit but it is a sign of God’s mission And a foretaste of the Kingdom by the Spirit

MSC pp 84-86

Church shaped by Trinity as community-in-missionRelations between Church and Mission.

It is not the Church of God that has a Mission in world, but that the God of Mission that has a Church in the worldMSC p85

A hint from historyA hint from history

From church as centre, to SON’s mission as centre

A revolution about the centre

Let Copernicus talk to the Let Copernicus talk to the church ..church ..

Is it just accident that the church now finds itself at the margins ?

God is the centre and mission from church is more spelt “Go” than “come”

Theological principle TWOTheological principle TWO

Christ’s patterns: Birth, Cross and Resurrection underpin our understanding of the Church

Why? Its his church It is his body Christ is being formed in us

– Branches to Stem and Disciples to Teacher

Can Church be freshly Can Church be freshly expressed?expressed?

Note the changes celebrated in Philippians 2 The incarnation was a fresh expression of God the

Son It was change – it had not been seen before

Jesus exhibited both call and experienced changes– In ministry – In suffering– In death

Incarnation is a story of continuity And of change – held together So church holds onto its foundational ID but…

Copying Church won’t doCopying Church won’t do

Reasons against:• God the Son takes on flesh, born of Mary as Jesus• Jesus as a missionary – enters a specific culture• Copying ignores context and so invites irrelevance

Incarnation OR Counter-Cultural ?Incarnation OR Counter-Cultural ?

Lordship underpins conflicting engagement

Resurrectionand Ascension

Caesar

KingdomSigns

Incarnation underpins loving engagement

From Father

Death

Culture

Jesus-shaped ChurchJesus-shaped Church

Not just a catchy talk title

John 20.21 hands the pattern on “As the Father sent me, so I send

you” His patterns are to be reproduced

in us

cf MSC p88

Theological principle THREETheological principle THREE

Inculturation is engagement with context

– It comes from “below” and becoming an insider

– It is not imposed from above or outside – Inculturation and Contextualisation should

be treated as friends

MSC pp 90-91.

Both gospel and church, must be sown– entering the soil of a culture.

Christology is the foundation for Inculturation

CP: Definition, process & resultCP: Definition, process & result

Church planting is the process by which a seed of the life and message of Jesus, embodied by a community of Christians, is immersed for mission reasons, in a particular cultural or geographic context.

The intended consequence is that it roots there, coming to life as a new indigenous body of Christian disciples well suited to continue in mission…

Mission-shaped Church p 32-33

Theological principle FOURTheological principle FOUR

Church has definitive marks

– It is designed to reproduce p 93 – 96

– One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic pp 96-99

Holy

“UP”

Apostolic“OUT”Catholic “OF”

“IN”

One

Enduring Marks

Four linkedJourneys

Jesus focusJesus followers

Church is any expression of the

life of Jesus in communal form

OHCAOHCA

The forgotten dimension ?The forgotten dimension ?

Thanks for – Communion – UP– Community - IN– Commission – OUT

Catholic “OF”

May I add–“Communicate”, “Continuity” or “Connectedness” – OF

Mission-shaped Church DNA will ..Mission-shaped Church DNA will ..

1. Be Trinitarian – Understanding Church primarily as community-in-

mission

2. Be relational – Rather than see Church as structure, history or

external practices

3. Be Incarnational - like Jesus – Laying aside our status and preferences [Phil 2]

4. Be disciplers, like Jesus– Growing communities of those who follow him and

draw others to him, becoming like him

5. Be Transformational, like the work of the Trinity– Looking beyond themselves to a kingdom centred,

counter-cultural affect upon society

MSC pp81-82: This an adapted order: 1 5 2 4 3 to put ontology before function

Trust the DNA ….Trust the DNA ….

You can’t know the results first !