MIN 567: MISSIONAL CHURCH

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MIN 567 MISSIONAL CHURCH

• Church and Culture
• Winter 2007 Grand Rapids Theological Seminary

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Course Description

• This course is designed to help students discern
  and develop an understanding of the missional
  church and praxis in the emerging cultural
  context. Students will explore the missional
  imperative rooted in the scriptures engage the
  missional framework as expressed in various texts
  and current theological dialogue develop a
  working definition of the missional church, and
  apply missional praxis in a particular ministry
  context.
• This course is designed to serve ministry leaders
  in developing a missional perspective and
  ministry appropriate for the 21 century world.

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Course Objectives

• Upon successful completion of this course
  students should be able to
• Identify a biblical hermeneutic for the
  missional church and articulate the biblical
  foundations of a missional imperative (missio
  dei).
• Engage in theological discourse on a missional
  framework (missio theologia) for ministry.
• Define the character of the missional church
  (missio ecclesia) in its diverse expressions
• Develop a specific ministry application of
  missional practice (missio praxis) in a church

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Course requirements

• Reading Students will complete the assigned
  readings according to the deadlines found in the
  assignment schedule at the end of the syllabus
  and reading logs that lists the name of the
  reading and the date when it was completed.
  (15)
• Classroom Engagement Students are also expected
  to actively participate in the cooperative
  learning community that includes both formal and
  informal interaction. This involves interaction
  between students as well as the interaction with
  the teacher and each individual student. If
  students are neither invisible nor domineering
  this class, we can construct a cooperative
  learning environment (15).

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Course requirements

• Mid term paper (30)Students will complete a 10
  page paper engaging an aspect of missional
  theology or one area of the theological dialogue
  on the missional church.
• Final Project (40)Students will complete
  project paper developing in detail how one area
  of the churchs ministry would be shaped when the
  missional imperative, theology, and ecclesia are
  applied.

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Required Texts

• Christopher J. H. Wright, The Mission of God
  Unlocking the Bible's Grand Narrative Hard
  cover 581 pages Publisher IVP Academic
  (November 30, 2006)
• Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch, The Shaping of
  Things to Come Innovation and Mission for the 21
  Century Church. Paperback 236 pages Publisher
  Hendrickson Publishers (November 2003)

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Required Texts

• Darrell Guder (Editor), Missional Church A
  Vision for the Sending of the Church in North
  America. Paperback 280 pages Publisher Wm. B.
  Eerdmans Publishing Company (February 1998)
• Milfred Minatrea, Shaped By God's Heart The
  Passion and Practices of Missional Churches.
  Hardcover 224 pages Publisher Jossey-Bass
  (August 2004)

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Overview Course structure

• Mission of God
• What is the missional imperative?
• Discovering a missional hermeneutic
• People of mission
• Missional covenant

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Overview Course structure

• Missional Theology
• Theological frameworkEvolution or revolution
• Theological approachIncarnational or
  Attractional
• Theological spiritualityPeople of mission

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Overview Course structure

• Missional Ecclesiology
• Missional Context
• Missional Culture
• Missional Challenge

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Overview Course structure

• Missional Practice
• Missional CommunityWorship and spiritual
  formation
• Missional LeadershipLeadership and structures
• Missional WitnessGrowth and service

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Overview What is missional
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What is a Missional Church?

• These slides are taken from
• Friendsofmissional.org. And Used by Permission.
• The purpose of this presentation is provoke
  meaningful conversations that help move the
  church to more Missional action.

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Defining Missional

• Living Missionally is being a person or church
  who reproduces disciples who are learning to see
  like and live like Christ and are sent into the
  world, as He was, to proclaim His Redemptive Love
  and live His Kingdom in the world.

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Description of a Missional Church
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Description of a Missional Church
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A missional church is one where people are
exploring and rediscovering what it means to be
Jesus' sent people as their identity and
vocation.
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A missional church will be made up of individuals
willing and ready to be Christ's people in their
own situation and place.
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A missional church knows that they must be a
cross-cultural missionary (contextual) people in
their own community.
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A missional church will be engaged with the
culture (in the world) without being absorbed by
the culture (not of the world). They will become
intentionally indigenous.
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A missional church understands that God is
already present in the culture where it finds
itself. Therefore, a missional church doesn't
view its purpose as bringing God into the culture
or taking individuals out of the culture to a
sacred space.
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A missional church will seek to plant all types
of missional communities to expand the Kingdom of
God.
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A missional church faithfully proclaims the
Gospel through word and deed how we embody the
gospel in our community and service is as
important as what we say.
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A missional church seeks to put the good of their
neighbor over their own.
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A missional church will give integrity, morality,
good character and conduct, compassion, love and
a resurrection life filled with hope preeminence
to give credence to their reasoned verbal
witness.
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A missional church practices hospitality by
welcoming the stranger into the midst of the
community.
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A missional church will see themselves as a
community or family on a mission together. There
are no "Lone Ranger" Christians in a missional
church.
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A missional church will see themselves as
representatives of Jesus and will do nothing to
dishonor his name.
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A missional church will be totally reliant on God
in all it does. It will move beyond superficial
faith to a life of supernatural living.
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A missional church will be desperately dependent
on prayer.
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A missional church gathered will be for the
purpose of worship, encouragement, supplemental
teaching, training, and to seek God's presence
and to be realigned with his God's missionary
purpose.
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A missional church is orthodox in its view of the
Gospel and Scripture, but culturally relevant in
its methods and practice so that it can engage
the world view of the hearers.
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A missional church will feed deeply on the
scriptures throughout the week so they are always
ready to speak up and tell anyone who asks why
they're living the way they are.
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A missional church will be a community where all
members are involved in learning to be disciples
of Jesus. Growth in discipleship is an
expectation.
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A missional church will help people discover and
develop their spiritual gifts and will rely on
gifted people for ministry instead of talented
people.
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A missional church is a healing community where
people carry each other's burdens and help
restore gently.
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Description of a Missional Church
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Defining the Missional Church
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Mission of God

• Missio dei
• Biblical hermeneutic
• And
• Missional imperative

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Missio Dei mission of God

• What is the missio dei?
• What is the missional imperative
• What is the relationship between the mission of
  God and the missional church?

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Missio Dei mission of God

• What is the missio dei?
• Is there a meta-narrative that expresses God
  overarching purpose in the world and in
  relationship to humanity?
• What if that purpose is mission
• God is on mission and we (as a missional church)
  are called to join God on that mission

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Missio Dei mission of God

• What is the missio dei?
• Then the Bible is not just a source for a
  rationale for mission it is about mission.
• It is the story of Gods mission with humanity.

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What is the missional imperative?

• Why do we do mission?
• Some say we have a missional imperative that
  comes from scripture. ex The great commission.
• Is mission what we do or what God does.
• The missional imperative is not new it is
  embedded in the Gods story.

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What is the missional imperative?

• How are we to understand the mission of God as
  expressed in the grand story of Gods
  relationship with humanity?
• Can we interpret a missional imperative from the
  meta-narrative or are there only particular
  stories?

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What is the missional imperative?

• Hermeneutics may be described as the development
  and study of theories of the interpretation and
  understanding of texts. In contemporary usage,
  hermeneutics often refers to study of the
  interpretation of Biblical texts.
• Wikipedia.com

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What is the missional imperative?

• Hermeneutics may be described as the development
  and study of theories of the interpretation and
  understanding of texts. In contemporary usage,
  hermeneutics often refers to study of the
  interpretation of Biblical texts.
• Wikipedia.com

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What is the missional imperative?

• If the missional church is to be something other
  than another trendy methodology then we need a
  missional imperative driven by Gods purposes not
  human

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missional church the missio dei

• If the missional church is to be something other
  than another trendy methodology then we need a
  missional hermeneutic (imperative) driven by
  Gods purposes not human

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missional church the missio dei

• A missional hermeneutic brings pluriformity to
  the missional church
• This pluriformity brings a coherence of mission
  and purpose while leaving room for a plurality of
  expression