Missional Adaptability
The mission of God can be traced throughout the Biblical text. At the root of the missio dei is mystery.[1] There is mystery within this concept because the source of the mission is God and not the church. This was the radical break with the past. All missions were seen as an extension of the church, but the missio dei sees the mission as an extension of the nature of God. In the Old Testament, God called Abram to be a blessing to all the nations (Gen. 12:1-3), and he continued in the New Testament by using Cornelius to direct the missionary Peter to a greater understanding of the mission of God (Acts 10:3-4). The pinnacle event of missio dei was Jesus coming to earth (John 3:16). The church continues this mission into the remotest parts of the earth (Acts 1:8).
The church centers its outreach on the incarnational appearance of Christ. The concept comes from John 1:14, in which Jesus lived among man. Jesus entered into the world of man. The church follows this example by being incarnational in evangelism. Instead of waiting for the world to come to church, the church goes out into the world. The church must follow this mission. God is able to reach into the world because of His adaptability. As God is able to react and adapt to changing circumstances, the church must follow the same orientation by adapting to the changing environment. An example of the church’s adaptation is found in Acts 6. In this example, the church was struggling with feeding and providing services to the Greek widows on the same level as the Hebrew widows. This caused an ethical conflict in the congregation. The church was growing to a new level and the Apostles could no longer be responsible for preaching and benevolence. Instead of forcing the old structure on the congregation, the church adapted to the changing needs of the situation to select six men full of the Holy Spirit to insure the feeding of the widows in the congregation. Instead of the Apostles being responsible for every aspect of the local church, the structure of the congregation changed to meet the needs of the new community. Instead of following the same old pattern, the church adapted to be more effective in reaching out with the Gospel.[2]
[1] Paul H. DeNeui, “Christian ‘Communitas’ in the ‘Missio Dei:’ Living Faithfully in the Tension Between Cultural Osmosis and Alienation” Exaudity 23 (2007): 95.
[2] Acts 6 is not seen as an innovation in organizational structure. This is an example of using best practices to accomplish the mission of God. The practice goes back to Jewish roots of temple worship according to Mark Love, Douglas A. Foster, and Randall J. Harris, Seeking a Lasting City (Abilene: ACU Press, 2005): 87.
Related posts:
- THE DEFINITION OF MISSIONAL
- The Missional Story of Castle Rock
- Levels of Missional Understanding
- A Little Missional Review
- The Missional Reading
About The Author
This is a good post, I really enjoy reading stuff related to mission. I recently just finished reading Christopher J. H. Wright, “The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative” Downers Grove: Inter Varsity Press, 2006., which traces and develops a theology of God’s mission (and subsequently, the mission the church is called to practice) throughout the Bible. Because of the nature of the book, the author does not address specific issues as to how a “missional hermeneutic” applies. But it is a needed question…in a culture like ours which is different from the culture of the Bible, how do we address something like the issue of ministry leadership using a missional hermeneutic in a way that is faithful to God’s intent for the church and yet is relevant to the needs and circumstances we face?
Grace and peace,
Rex