Sermon Tone Analysis

A STUDY ON THE CONCEPT OF A MISSIONAL CHURCH

© Rosemary Bardsley 2009

A brief and largely dot-point analysis of the biblical data and teaching on the church.

Introduction: Definition and questions

The reference to ‘church’:

In this paper the word ‘church’ is used to refer to people who have responded to the command of Christ to repent and believe in him, with real biblical faith which includes real biblical repentance: that is, it is used to refer to genuine believers, irrespective of denominational tag.

It does not refer to any specific assembly of people designated a ‘church’ which may at any given point of time include genuine believers, superficial believers, disguised non-believers and, more rarely, blatant non-believers.

Etymology:

The word ‘ekklesia’ [church] means ‘called out’ ek – out, kaleo – I call.

It is commonly used to refer to people assembled or gathered together, but in the New Testament predominantly refers to a group or groups of believers.

The term ‘missional’:

• Missional = mission + al

• mission derives from the Latin root mittere, missum to send

• al is a suffix that means ‘of’ or ‘pertaining to’

The simple meaning of missional in reference to the church is that the church is sent.

To be ‘missional’ is to be sent; to engage in missional activities is to be engaged in activities that relate to the fact that the church is sent.

This raises a few questions:

• Does the Bible teach that the church is sent?

• If it does, then who sent the church?

• And, to whom is the church sent?

• And, for what purpose is the church sent?

In looking at these questions we confront two important issues:

• Does the church exist apart from its missional function?

• Is the missional function of the church the evangelization and conversion of the world, or is the missional function of the church to glorify God in the world?

A. Does the New Testament confirm that the church has a missional responsibility?

There is ample New Testament evidence to support the concept of the church as ‘missional’.

A.1 The concept of a missional church is anticipated in the disciples of Jesus Christ

• When Jesus called his disciples to follow him it was with the understanding that he would make them ‘fishers of men’ []

• When Jesus appointed the twelve he designated them ‘apostles’ – [from the Greek apostello - I send] []

• Jesus sent his disciples [the twelve, and also the seventy] out on mission.

This mission involved both the spiritual [preaching] and the practical [healing the sick etc, although the New Testament teaches that the miracles actually had a spiritual purpose and significance] [; ; ; ]

• Jesus sent his disciples out into the world just as the Father sent him into the world [; ; see also ]

A.2 The concept of a missional church in the teaching of Jesus Christ

• Jesus taught that we are to ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into the harvest [; ]

• Jesus taught that his gospel would be preached in the whole world before the end came []

• A number of the parables either indicate or assume the missional activity of the church [for example: the sower, the weeds, the mustard seed, the yeast – ; the wedding banquet – ; ].

• Jesus taught that those who believe in him are, and are to be, salt and light in the world with the purpose that God will be glorified [; ]

• Jesus taught an all embracing love that would identify believers as children of their Father in heaven [; ]

A.3 The concept of the missional church in the Acts of the Apostles

• Throughout Acts we find the apostles and their associates engaged in ‘mission’, very predominantly in preaching the Gospel and only very minimally in caring for the physical needs of unbelievers; any healings that occurred appear to be incidental and spontaneous, arising from the existing circumstances rather than being planned or programmed.

• Saul was commissioned to be an apostle [one who is sent] to the Gentiles [; ; ]

• The purpose of this commission was to open their eyes, turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they would receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by Christ []

• The church in Antioch was instructed by the Holy Spirit to set aside Paul and Barnabas and send them out on mission []

• Paul’s final statement included reference to God’s salvation being sent to the Gentiles [].

A.4 The concept of the missional church in Paul’s letters

• contains strong missional teaching, indicating the critical and essential role of preaching God’s truth, and of people being sent to preach God’s truth, if people are to be saved.

• Paul refers to his commissioning [= being sent] by Christ as an apostle to preach the Gospel [; ; ; ; ; ], and committed himself fervently to this []; but we cannot from this automatically deduce that the entire church has an apostolic role, given the clear scriptural evidence that the role of the original eleven plus Matthias plus Paul was foundational and therefore unique.

• Paul understands and assumes that the church will communicate the word of God to unbelievers [; ; ; ]

• Paul understands that God’s intention is that through the church his manifold wisdom will be made known to ‘rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, giving the church a ‘missional’ dimension beyond the realms of this earth [,], and indicating that being ‘missional’ includes not just the activity of the church, but its very existence as the church.

In fact the praise of God’s glory and grace is the purpose for which the church exists [,,].

• The lifestyle of believers is to glorify God [] and to generate the respect of outsiders [].

A.5 The concept of the missional church in the rest of the New Testament

• The church’s role is ‘to declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light’ []

• The church is commanded to ‘Live such good lives among the pagans that … they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us’ []

• The church is commanded to ‘always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give a reason for the hope that your have’ [], with the proviso that this also involves living irreproachable lives [v16].

• The proclamation of the word of God and the lifestyle of the people of God are instrumental in bringing people to salvation [; ,; ]

From the above summary analysis it is clear that the church can biblically be termed ‘missional’.

The church obviously has a mission – a purpose for which it exists in the world.

We must ask: ‘What comprises this mission of the church?’

The answer is really very simple: to glorify God.

This involves making known the truth about God in two ways: [1] by what the church does – how it lives as the people of God in the world, and [2] by what the church says – what it verbally communicates of God’s revealed truth to the world.

It is when the church engages in this double-barrelled mission of glorifying God by its life and by its proclamation that God, not the church, brings people to salvation.

As we study the scripture, we find that underneath and over-arching this simple mission of the church to glorify God by its life and by its message, is the deep meaning of our original creation in the image of God, which will not be addressed in this brief study, and the deep meaning of the incarnation of Jesus Christ, the image of God, which will be addressed only briefly.

B. Does being missional have an ‘incarnational’ aspect?

Some Christians speak of the missional church as ‘incarnational’.

We must be careful here that we do not fall into heresy.

The bottom line is that there is only one person who is an incarnation of God: Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

He who is the eternal God, at a specific place and point in human time, took on human flesh.

He who is God became also man [; ; 1Timothy 16].

The church is not and never can be an incarnation of God in the same way that Christ is the incarnation of God simply because the church never was, is not now, and never will be God.

To remain biblical in our perceptions we must therefore discipline ourselves when we speak of the church as ‘incarnational’, and acknowledge that even where it is permitted for us to thus speak of the church, it can only be in a relative and minimal way.

We must at the same time remember that the church is not God; at most what can be said of the church is that the Spirit of God, and therefore God, indwells the church.

Indwelling however is a far different reality from incarnation.

To what extent may we refer to the church as incarnational?

B.1 The church is incarnational in that, like Christ, it is distinct from the world, but identifies with the world.

In his deity Christ is distinct from the world, but, at the same time, in his humanity he was in all points as we are, apart from sin [ and 2].

Similarly, the church is distinct from the world, as we will see in sections C and D below, but at the same time identified with the world – we are sinful human beings, sharing in the life and the suffering common to all humans.

We are, like Christ, in the world, but, since he called us out from the world and made us his own, we are not of the world [; ].

B.2 The church is incarnational in that, like Christ, it is revelational.

Jesus Christ came and did the works of God and spoke the words of God, revealing the nature of God the Father.

He came into the world as Light coming into the darkness [; ].

Similarly, but as the ambassadors of God, not as the Son of God, the church’s responsibility is to do the works of God and speak the words of God, making known the nature and glory of God the Father.

We, like Christ, are to shine the truth of God in and into the darkness of our world [; ,; ].

Jesus Christ summed up his earthly life with the words ‘I have brought you glory on earth’ [].

In so far as the church glorifies God on earth by its life and its testimony it fulfils its mission; indeed when it glorifies God it fulfils its purpose, its mission, irrespective of whether any ‘souls’ are ‘saved’.

B.3 The church is incarnational in that, like Christ, it is sent into the world.

Jesus Christ was sent into the world by the Father.

This is mentioned a small number of times in the synoptic Gospels [; ; ,; ; ] and numerous times in John’s Gospel where the incarnation is a major theme [3:17,34; 4:34; 5:23,24,30,36,37,38; 6:29,38,39,44,57; 7:16,18,28,29,33; 8:16,18,26,29,42; 9:4; 10:36; 11:42;12:44,45,49; 13:20; 14:24; 15:21; 16:5; 17:3,8,18,21,23,25].

Similarly Jesus sends the church into the world with a mandate to communicate his truth in word and deed [; ].

B.4 The church is incarnational in that, like Christ, it suffers because of its distinct identity and mission in a world that is hostile to God.

From a human perspective Jesus Christ suffered as a direct result of this revelational aspect of his incarnation.

It was his knowledge of his divine identity and his claim to such an equality with God that to see him was to see God, and to know him was to know God, that provoked the Jews to secure his death [; ,; ].

From God’s perspective Jesus Christ was sent into the world to suffer and to die, as a real human being, for the sins of the world, to obtain eternal redemption for those who believe in him [; ; ; ].

Because we to a degree identify with Christ in the revelational aspects of his incarnation in his distinction from the world, and with the exclusive and offensive claims he made, we also will share to a degree with his suffering.

We, like him, if we are truly missional, if we truly demonstrate and embody God’s truth in our real flesh and blood lives, attract the hatred of the world.

This confrontational and divisive aspect of being ‘incarnational’ will be addressed in a later section D below.

C. The church is more than its mission

It is very important to understand that the church is more than its mission.

Just as Christ existed eternally as the Son of God before ever he was sent into the world, so the church exists as the people of God before it is ever sent into the world on the mission of God.

Indeed the church cannot be missional in a biblical sense unless it is in fact first the church.