Missional Church & Disciple Making

One of these days, I’m going to actually finish this book that I’ve been trying to get through since September (The Continuing Conversion of the Church). It’s done so much to assist me in re-thinking my theology of church. Now that I’m at the end of the book, Guder has gotten real practical in discussing some implications of missional church. This quote in particular seemed to really tie some things together well:

“If a mission community saw itself primarily as the Spirit’s steward of the calling and gifts of its members, its internal activities would, in one sense, diminish. It would spend much less time on providing activities that take its members out of the world. It would devote more of its times of gathering for the equipping, support, and accountability of its member-missionaries. The ancient sense of the conclusion of public worship as the sending out of God’s people (ita, missa est = go, you are sent) would be translated into the concrete forms of congregational life.” (p. 179)

In one sense, what Guder says here is right in line with the disciple-making focus of the Sonlife ministry training, which essentially reflects the missional priorities of Christ’s ministry. However, it seems to take things to an even deeper level. Often it has felt like this disciple-making philosophy of ministry can merely be a “plug-in” to the modern day church structures, but true missional church philosophy challenges even the most basic structures of the church that don’t actually serve the world.

In the Sonlife disciple-making philosophy, you have “building believers, equipping them for ministry, and winning unbelievers.” Presented this way, it can come across as three disjointed purposes of the church or three disconnected components of the disciple-making process. What’s missing is the thread of purpose that brings them all together, namely, God’s mission in the world of establishing His Kingdom on the earth. Whereas the making of disciples is a key part of the purpose of the church, I’m beginning to think that it is not actually the sum total of the church’s purpose. Rather, it could be said that it is one non-negotiable priority in the mission, which is to announce and demonstrate the Kingdom of God – precisely what Jesus did when he was on the earth. The making of disciples was a key component of Jesus’ ministry (and an indispensable one at that), but there were other things that Jesus did that didn’t necessarily directly contribute to his disciple-making.

For example, Jesus was very active in serving and healing the poor and sick. It can be said that Jesus brought in a disciple-making component in teaching his disciple to care for the marginalized members of society, but I have a hard time seeing that as a primarily disciple-making activity. Here, there are huge implications for the church. Caring for the sick and the poor and the marginalized is not merely an optional activity for the church if there’s room in the calendar and the budget! (Nor can it be asserted that social justice is the gospel itself.) It’s part of the very fabric of the church’s mission in demonstrating and announcing the Kingdom of God on the earth.

Furthermore, Guder’s quote above suggests that even the most basic spiritual growth level (or "building") activity of the church should serve the missional purpose of the church in preparing God’s people to be a healing agent in the world. In other words, my spiritual growth is not just for my own sake. My own spiritual growth is meant to be of practical use in my witness to a lost world.

Plenty more thoughts on this, but I think I’ll stop for now.