The Nature, Purpose, & Practice Of Theological Education Within ...

The Nature, Purpose, & Practice Of Theological Education Within The Missio Dei (Reframing the Church)

July 11, 2012

This is the 6th in a series of posts taken from a paper I offered at this year?s American Society of Missiology gathering. It was offered as part of the ongoing project, ?The Future of the Discipline of Missiology,? led by Dr. Craig Van Gelder.

Toward A Mission-Shaped Vision Of Theological Formation: Implications Of The?Missio Dei?For Theological Education

Previous posts in this series:

1)?Introduction

2)?Abstract

3)?Thesis

4)?Origins & Variations of the Missio Dei

5) Reframing Theology

No concept is more central to the missional church conversation than that of missio Dei. According to missiologist, Wilbert Shenk, ??Missional,? describes the church defined by its relationship to the missio Dei.? Two definitive texts which gave popular rise to the missional church are David Bosch?s, Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts on Theology of Mission, and Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America, edited by Darrell Guder. However, behind both of these, and through them the vast majority of the rest of the literature offered in this area since their publication (in 1991 and 1998 respectively) lies the seminal perspective and work of both Karl Barth and Lesslie Newbigin.

Anabaptist Perspectives in Missional Ecclesiology

Having noted the primacy of these figures for the shaping of missional ecclesiology, each of whom stand in some derivation of the Reformed tradition, it may be more than a little surprising that in proceeding to reflect on how the doctrine of the missio Dei helps to reframe our understanding of the nature, purpose, and practice of the church, I will seek to draw specifically on Anabaptist perspectives. I do so for two reasons. First, because this is an inescapable component of my own narrative and perspective. I was not reared in a historic Anabaptist church context (Mennonite, Brethren, or Amish for example), but nevertheless have become indebted to my encounter with the theological tradition of Anabaptism. I encountered the missional church conversation and Anabaptist theology separately, but simultaneously as a graduate student at Fuller Theological Seminary.

This leads to my second reason for rooting my reflections in this tradition; namely, because in encountering and comparing these streams of thought, I found the Anabaptist tradition to be implicitly missional and therefore incredibly helpful in framing and deepening the missional church conversation from historical and theological perspectives. In other words, for those interested in furthering work in the areas of missional theology and ecclesiology, and moreover, as I mean to shortly, in framing a mission-shaped vision of theological formation, there is ample reason to look to the Anabaptist tradition for resources and guidance. Rather than argue for this perspective directly, my purpose here is to explore how a few of the core convictions of Anabaptists can help reframe our understanding of the nature, purpose, and practice of church in accord with the doctrine of the missio Dei. Specifically, I will survey the Anabaptist, ecclesiological orientation toward the reign of God as the aim of the missio Dei, the gospel as invitation into the missio Dei, and discipleship as participation in the missio?Dei.

The Missionary Nature of the Church: Reign of God as Aim of the Missio Dei

As an ecclesial movement, Anabaptism emerged in the sixteenth Century in the wake of the Protestant Reformation, but went further than these reformers in the rejection of a relationship between Church and state that they found to be out of step with the character and mission of Jesus. Wilbert Shenk notes,

?Historical Christendom emphasized the institutional and pastoral character of the church? Theology was preoccupied with the intellectual and pastoral concerns of the church, not its missionary engagement with the world. Mission as intentional witness to the world with a view to winning the allegiance of men and women to the kingdom of God played no direct role in the life of the church of Christendom.?

Thus, in rejecting the hegemonic disposition of the Christendom Church, Anabaptists were able to reclaim its missionary nature, seeing it as called by ?Jesus Christ to continue his work of witnessing to the reign of God in the world.? For Anabaptists, the shape of God?s mission of extending his reign in the world had to be in keeping with the character of Jesus. It could not be imposed, but rather had to be carried forward in and through the Church as a body of people who embodied and witnessed to it peaceably. It is along these lines that the Anabaptist understanding of the nature of the church coheres with the doctrine of the missio Dei and can therefore be of great service to those wrestling with?what it means to be the church.

The Missionary Purpose of the Church: Gospel as Invitation into the Missio Dei

A rejection of Christendom is but a beginning point of Anabaptist distinctiveness. For as it was argued above, when the priority of a missionary encounter between Church and world is maintained, theology likewise takes on a missionary character. The missiological perspective of Anabaptists on any number of biblical/theological topics could be explored here, but the one most vitally relevant to an understanding of the missionary purpose of the church is that of the gospel.

A now somewhat famous quote by John Howard Yoder communicates the Anabaptist perspective of the gospel. He writes,

The political novelty that God brings into the world is a community of those who serve instead of ruling, who suffer instead of inflicting suffering, whose fellowship crosses social lines instead of reinforcing them. This new Christian community in which the walls are broken down not by human idealism or democratic legalism but by the work of Christ is not only a vehicle for the gospel or only a fruit of the gospel; it is the good news. It is not merely the agent of mission or the constituency of a mission agency. This is the mission.

I believe that it would be fair to summarize Yoder?s remarks here by suggesting that for Anabaptists, the gospel is no set of abstract propositions to which we give assent, but God?s relational invitation into the missio Dei, expressed in the life of concrete communities on mission together, and this through Christ and in the power of the Spirit. From an Anabaptist perspective then, the missionary purpose of the church is to embody the good news of God?s coming kingdom in Christ, inviting others to receive the same gift that enlivens its own witness. Or to use Newbigin?s language, to exist as a ?sign, instrument, and foretaste of God?s redeeming grace for the whole life of society.? This rendering of the gospel leads to a final core conviction of Anabaptism as it concerns the missionary practice of the church, discipleship.

The Missionary Practice of the Church: Discipleship as Participation in the Missio Dei

Flowing directly from an appreciation for the gospel as God?s invitation to join him, through Christ, in his universal mission of reconciliation, discipleship becomes central to the Anabaptist vision. In other words, a missionary understanding of the nature and purpose of the Church requires a missionary life, missionary practices. It requires discipleship ? ?the shaping of desires, vision, and character into Christ, his Kingdom, and his mission for the world. So central is this to the Anabaptist vision, that ?no other Christian movement between the apostolic era and the modern mission period has articulated and demonstrated more clearly the meaning of discipling than have the Anabaptists.? Discipleship, for Anabaptists, is ?a concept which [means] the transformation of the entire way of life of individual believers and of society so that it should be fashioned after the teachings and example of Christ.? ? The idea that discipleship is a type of works righteousness is anathema to a faithful understanding of the Anabaptist vision. Discipleship, in Anabaptist perspective, is not a method of earning ones salvation, but the pattern of life one adopts in submission to the Holy Spirit whereby we receive and participate in God?s mission of salvation, the missio?Dei.
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Related Posts

1. The Nature, Purpose, & Practice Of Theological Education Within The Missio Dei (Reframing Theology)
2. The Nature, Purpose, & Practice of Theological Education Within the Missio Dei (introduction)
3. The Nature, Purpose, & Practice of Theological Education Within the Missio Dei (Abstract)

Posted in: anabaptist, christendom, church, culture, discipleship, Fuller Seminary, God, gospel, Jesus, kingdom, missio dei, missiology, missional, missional theology, politics, post-christendom, salvation, spiritual formation, theological education, theology, western culture

Source: http://lifeasmission.com/blog/2012/07/the-nature-purpose-practice-of-theological-education-within-the-missio-dei-reframing-the-church/

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