What is Christian Mission and how has it been expressed in the Life of the Church

Introduction

In this essay I hope to answer the question posed ‘What is Christian Mission and how has it been expressed in the Life of the Church’. I aim to show how scripture informs us of our understanding of the nature of God’s mission, the different ways in which mission relates to culture and the ways that the church carries out its mission.  I will briefly explain what mission is and the difference between God’s mission and the mission of the church. Within that there will be an explanation of the five marks of mission. I will also explore what Fresh Expressions of Church is and how that works in a mixed economy.

What is Mission

Mission has two threads: God’s Mission or Missio Dei and the Church’s Mission or Missio Ecclesiae.

Michael Moynagh states in his book Church for Every Context (Moynagh, 2012) (p105) that God is the father that sends the Son and the Spirit. The word “Mission” has its roots in the Greek word apostello, meaning to send (Fernando, n.d.). Missio Dei or God’s Mission is firstly and foremost an activity of God. (Moynagh, 2012) (p121)

The Church’s mission, as Moynagh argues, is to be drawn into the self-giving mission of God. However, David Bosch states in his book Transforming Mission (Bosch, 2005) (p519) that the Church does not simply undertake God’s mission but it is God’s Mission that establishes the Church.

The New Testament contains an important Missional statement. In Mathew 28:19 (NSRV, 1995) calls for us to go and make disciples of all the nations. And from the Old Testament Isaiah 6:8 where the Lord says “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” (NSRV, 1995)

In order to understand what mission is, five marks of mission were written by Anglican Consultative Council (Anglican Communion Council , 2019) in order to give some criteria to mission. These are detailed further by Wallis and Ross in their book Mission in the 21^st Century (Andrew Wallis and Cathy Ross, 2008) (pXIV) and are as follows:

1.    To proclaim the Good news of the Kingdom;

2.    To teach, baptise, and nurture new believers;

3.    To Respond to human need by loving service;

4.    To seek to transform unjust structures of society; and

5.    To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the of the earth.

Along with the five marks of mission The Church in Wales, being in communion with the Anglican Church, is tasked with upholding the threefold ministry of bishop, priest and deacon to ensure the historic four marks of the church are defined in practice. Those four marks are One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic (Moynagh, 2012) (p109). In her book Pioneer Ministry and Fresh Expressions of Church, Angela Sheir-Jones defines One, Holy, Apostolic and Catholic. She goes on to state that these definitions are methods of authentication and do not invalidate the creedal marks of the Church (Sheir-Jones, 2009) (p14).

We also learn three styles of Church (Moynagh, 2012) (Pxvii):

·       Attractional (Come see what we do);

·       Engaged (Go out into the community, then come to our church); and

·       Incarnational (Go out into the community, listen to them and stay there).

How has Mission been expressed in the life of the Church.

Within the Church in Wales the bench of Bishops commissioned a team of advisers to conduct a review of the church (Church in Wales, 2019) known as the Harries report.  The team were Lord Richard Harries, former Bishop of Oxford, Professor Charles Handy, former prof. of London School of Business and Professor Patricia Peattie, former chair of the Episcopal Church in Scotland. A report was submitted to the Governing Body in Sept 2012 and made 50 recommendations (Anon., 2012). Mission was first mentioned as recommendation 22. The 2012 report stated that there were a number of Bishops’ advisors responsible for different areas of the church’s work. It was a recommendation that a Director of Mission and Ministry, but this appears to have been largely ignored.

Mission Shaped Church.

There is a general decline in church numbers often called ecclesial turn (Moynagh, 2012) (p73), and secular sciences seem to be able to explain more and more about the world we live in. Richard Dawkins in his book “The God Delusion” discusses his thoughts on the ‘God of Gaps’ (Dawkins, 2006)(p125). He states that we today’s church is guilty of squeezing God in the gaps of science. Church leaders look for new and innovative ways to increase church attendance against a backdrop of the Sunday Eucharist becoming distant from the general population, such as the Fresh Expressions movement.

Mission Shaped Church was a report from a working party chaired by Rt Rev Graham Cary, Bishop of Maidstone in 2004. This report was widely circulated in the Anglican communion and formed the basis of Fresh Expressions (Church of England, 2004). The report pleaded for flexible approaches to new Christian communities (Moynagh, 2012)(p51).

Most fresh expressions come almost naturally from a church’s participation with Missio Dei (Sheir-Jones, 2009) (p8). Sheir-Jones goes on to explain that Fresh Expression are alternative, culturally sensitive, incarnational worship for the unchurched.

Fresh Expressions are new forms of church emerging from contemporary culture and aimed towards those who do not go to church (Fresh Expressions , 2017). Each Fresh Expression has its own identity such as a Café Church or Messy Church to name some of the more identifiable fresh expressions. A Welsh example of Fresh Expressions is “The Lab” in Newport. The Lab is an experimental church that meets on a Sunday for worship and revolves around sharing a meal, primarily for young adults. They live and work as youth workers in the community (Introduction to the Lab, 2011). Fresh Expressions are incarnational, which means that it takes its mark from the culture of the people it aims to reach. As discussed in the course workbook, Fresh Expressions of church are not used as a transition to regular church worship but are seen as their own churches (St. Padarn's Institute , 2017) and may even use existing church buildings. To add a theological dimension, in Acts 2:42-47 (NSRV, 1995) we find the early church meeting together around a meal.

Mixed Economy

Steven Croft states in his book Jesus’ People: What the Church Should Do Next, that for decades now the Church has been gradually rediscovering what it means to be shaped by God’s mission however, he boldly argues that a mission shaped church in not enough and that we need to go further (Croft, 2009) (p9). He also suggests that we need to grow traditional churches that welcome children but also to plant new fresh expressions of church in different locations and networks in order to reach out to hard to reach groups and those not usually reached by the church. In effect, developing a mixed economy of church.

Mixed Economy is a term used by many theological writers such as Sheir-Jones, Croft and Moynagh. Mixed economy means a number of different styles of worship. For example, in my own church we have a monthly spoken Eucharist, Monthly Healing service, Morning Prayer and Sunday Eucharist and a messy church style craft day during the holidays. We are exploring other forms of worship not linked to Sunday worship such as a monthly meditation and children’s vegetable garden.

In looking at how mission has been expressed in the life of the Church, Moynagh has an excellent chapter detailing this (Moynagh, 2012) (Chapter 2). In essence, he sets out the changing face of the church through the ages. He describes the church as deeply contextual and incarnational.

In the concordance section of the Life Study Bible (Life Application (NIV), 2011) mission is not specifically mentioned as a subject but spreading the Word of God is. And ultimately that is what mission is – bringing the gospels to those previously untouched by them.

Moynagh goes on to discuss the fact that Jerusalem as the seat of power and authority in the Judeo-Christian world was very different from the mostly gentile society in Christian Antioch. Together these important early Christian groupings formed what we would now term the first mixed economy.

In Antioch we find the Diache or teaching of the apostles which seems to be a first attempt at a sort of Catechism for the early church. We see in Acts 11:19-26 (NSRV, 1995) that St Paul and Barnabas started their missionary journeys from Antioch. It is clear from his writings that St. Paul did not stay a long time in his missional visits but just long enough to establish a church and leaders then move on. He was not keen to depend financially on the people he sought to reach and made a living by leatherworking or tent-making (Moynagh, 2012) (p13). Paul was tended to perform mission in teams. It is acknowledged that Paul was the first Christian Theologian because as the first missionary (Bosch, 2005)(p124)

Later in Britain there were church plantings by pioneers who established monasteries in places such as Iona and Lindisfarne. Celtic mission was deeply rooted in scripture, these highly mobile apostolic teams were able to move with the nomadic Celtic tribes. (Moynagh, 2012) (p32). And more locally in Wales we have St. David who travelled extensively spreading the Word (BBC, 2014).

Augustine came to the UK and lived among the lost bringing hope from the new outpost of Canterbury and near the seat of the Kentish King Ethelbert. Augustine had permission to adapt Latin tradition to the English people – meaning that Augustine’s mission had to learn the same lessons of the earlier Celts.

The Incarnational and centrifugal mission of Augustine was continued and adapted by the Benedictines which continued for the next one thousand years. Benedict understood that conversions required community based around sharing resources and food, which as we learned earlier from Croft is an important part of Fresh Expressions.  

Conclusion

We can see that mission has been essential to the Christian movement right from the very first days after the ascension to today’s fresh expressions.

In this essay I have attempted to explore the mission of the church through the ages clearly and to explore this in more detail would be a much larger piece of work. I have shown that the early church members were pioneers and had something new to offer. As time goes on that offer becomes less easy to communicate.

Christianity has become popular because of its ability to be deeply incarnational. In more recent times secularism and science has taken the place of Christianity, we see this in the writings of Richard Dawkins. Christianity has become mainstream with Church Buildings and a liturgy which is hard to follow for the contemporary unchurched. This may be part of the reason why Church numbers are falling as it has lost its incarnational focus and has become centripetal in its approach. Something new needs to happen and Fresh Expressions has the potential to take that place, being incarnational, listening and responding to the needs to the local society using the five marks of mission.

Bibliography

Andrew Wallis and Cathy Ross, 2008. Mission in the 21st Century. London: Orbis Book.

Anglican Communion Council , 2019. Marks of Mission. [Online]
Available at: https://www.anglicancommunion.org/mission/marks-of-mission.aspx
[Accessed 7th July 2019].

Anon., 2012. Church in Wales Review. [Online]
Available at: https://cinw.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Church-in-Wales-review-English.pdf
[Accessed 25 June 2019].

BBC, 2014. Historic Figures - St. David. [Online]
Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/david_st.shtml
[Accessed 28th June 2019].

Bosch, D. J., 2005. Transforming Mission. 21st ed. New York: Orbis Books.

Church in Wales, 2019. Background. [Online]
Available at: https://www.churchinwales.org.uk/review/background/
[Accessed 25 June 2019].

Church of England, 2004. Mission Shaped Church. [Online]
Available at: https://thewearypilgrim.typepad.com/files/mission_shaped_church-1.pdf
[Accessed 25 June 2019].

Croft, S., 2009. Jesud' People Whar the Church Should do next. London: Church House Publishing.

Dawkins, R., 2006. The God Delusion. London: Bantum Press.

Fernando, A., n.d. Mission and Evangelism. [Online]
Available at: https://www.esv.org/resources/esv-global-study-bible/mission-and-evangelism/
[Accessed 10th June 2019].

Fresh Expressions , 2017. What is a Fresh Expression. [Online]
Available at: http://freshexpressions.org.uk/about/what-is-a-fresh-expression/
[Accessed 28th June 2019].

Introduction to the Lab. 2011. [Film] UK: The Lab.

Life Application (NIV), 2011. Life Application Study Bible NIV. Great Britian: Hodder & Stoughton.

Moynagh, M., 2012. Church for Every Context. London: SCM Press.

NSRV, 1995. The Holy Bible. Oxford: Oxford Unversity Press.

Sheir-Jones, A., 2009. Pioneer Ministry and Fresh Expressions of Church. London: SPCK.

St. Padarn's Institute , 2017. Introduction to Christian Worship. s.l.:Church in Wales.