The most important issues for the missional church should be to establish the relation between mission and the church. The methodology used is to listen to voices concerning relevant issues in the missional church. Many important aspects of the missional church are discussed to give an overview of contemporary challenges. Metaphors for the church, such as people of God, body of Christ, temple of God, bride of Christ and witness of God give many essential guidelines for how the church should engage the world. By evaluating these metaphors, new suggestions can be made. It is concluded that the church should always be the church of the living Christ, living new lives in this world with the eye on the world to come.
The relation of the Church and mission is of great importance. In the discipline of Missiology current ideas about the missional church call for new interpretations. Only by thoroughly interacting with the metaphors of the church can the missional church be understood in a new way.
It is crucial to discuss the relation between mission and church. The church is God’s church, and mission should always be in relation to the living Triune God. God calls upon the church to follow him in proclaiming and living the gospel.
Nikolajsen (
Thus, Lesslie Newbigin and the GOCN passed on the church-centred interpretation of
It is important to explain the concepts of
The concepts of the missional church were developed from these ideas. The missional church is the church that lives in this world according to the gospel to present Christ to all. Guder’s (
Hughson (
Whether or not and how worship, prayer, contemplation, self-offering, and ministry of Word and Sacrament have, can have, or should have an impact in a pluralist public square remains open for discussion. (p. 194)
One should, however, understand that the missional church must be regarded as a totally comprehensive church, influencing all aspects of society.
Many of the exponents of the missional church explained that the church is God’s missionary people who have to bring about change in the community by allegiance to Jesus Christ, the glorious Christ. But he is also the Jesus of relations. Jesus and his Father and the Holy Spirit live in relation to one another and this relation must also be present in the relations of the church in the world.
Maclvaine III (
Van Gelder (
In the biblical framework outlined here, the missional church is identified as living between the times. It lives between the now and the not yet. The redemptive reign of God in Christ is already present, meaning that the power of God is fully manifest in the world through the Gospel under the leading of the Spirit. (p. 445)
The uniqueness of the missional church is clear. Van Rheenen (
Many aspects of these relations must thus be emphasised. Firstly, the relation to the Triune God, from which religion is understood as a new way of living. This means that one experiences the gospel in new relations. Glorious is then the relation with the living God and true religion should also be understood in this regard. Jesus as Person in the Trinity helps one to understand the different relations in which one finds oneself. The
Secondly, the church should be the radical church for change in the community. The church should bring about change in many instances. Prebble (
The church brings about a new understanding of the believers and their neighbours. The change that the church brings about in the community should be radical in the sense that people are now viewing the world in a new way. The church should be a community that is present and living in this world. The fact that the church should relate to people in this world is radically important. Congregations should emphasise not only going to heaven and avoiding hell but also new relations.
Baron and Maponya (
Van Gelder (
The kingdom of God, the redemptive reign of God in Christ, gives birth to the missional church through the work of the Spirit. Its nature, ministry, and organization are formed by the reality, power, and intent of the kingdom of God. Understanding the redemptive purposes of God that are embedded within the kingdom of God provides an understanding of the church being missionary by nature. The church participates in God’s mission in the world because it can do no other. It was created for this purpose. (p. 445)
Thirdly, the emphasis should be on helping people in need. Poverty-stricken people should be helped to understand how they can relate to the different aspects of their lives. The church should, therefore, not only be a church of the soul but also a church of the body. The relations of people towards one another in poverty should be regarded as very important. The
Fourthly, the church should seek justice. Baron (
Is it therefore not important that the church not only perceives its role in terms of opposing corruption, but also acknowledges and confesses its own contribution in the evolvement of corruption in society? It should be, alongside the media, vocal of the universal and radical nature of sin in the world – which all boils down to
In order to emphasise the glory of God, justice is sought for the community and for all people. The church should, therefore, be the church of justice, seeking justice; glorifying God by doing justice. The question remains: What is justice? Because this is such a difficult concept in the world, it is important to see different aspects of this in relation to one another. All these different aspects have implications for how we understand the church. Peterson (
Niemandt (
There is a rediscovery of missional ethics, especially as a matter of counter cultural witness. The understanding of mission is certainly no longer limited to evangelism, or social action, but is understood as an outflow of these theological convictions of a living God who has acted in redeeming the whole creation to him. ‘Missional ethics’ speaks of the missionary dimensions of the life of the people of God and the ethical features of mission. This connection between mission and ethics is fundamental for how life in the Spirit is perceived. (s.p.)
Niemandt (
The trends in missional ecclesiology were tracked by focusing on an incarnational approach to the church; relationality in the community of believers; the role of the kingdom of God; discernment as the first act in mission; imago Dei and creativity; the ecclesia and local community and finally mission and ethics. (s.p.)
Niemandt (
What is important regarding the missional church? The church is God’s missionary people (van Engen
The church should renew all aspects of culture, society and environment. The church should, however, still be extremely important in leading people from darkness into the wonderful light in Jesus Christ. Whenever exponents of the missional church downplay this aspect, it must be rejected. This is clearly not the only aspect of the church’s existence in the world but it must still be considered. All the people of God must proclaim and present the entire Gospel to the whole world. The missional church is vibrant and growing. The missional church and mission should also be regarded in light of the metaphors for the church.
From these perspectives, one must now study the metaphors for the church, namely the church as people of God, body of Christ, bride of Christ, temple of God and witness of God. Migliore (
As the people of God, the church is the missional community that proclaims and emphasises that we have to belong to God. Bosch (
In this regard, the
15 Blow the trumpet in Zion, declare a holy fast, call a sacred assembly.
16 Gather the people, consecrate the assembly; bring together the elders, gather the children, those nursing at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room and the bride her chamber.
Joel 1:14:
Declare a holy fast; call a sacred assembly. Summon the elders and all who live in the land to the house of the LORD your God and cry out to the LORD.
Nehemiah 8:18:
Day after day, from the first day to the last, Ezra read from the Book of the Law of God. They celebrated the festival for seven days, and on the eighth day, in accordance with the regulation, there was an assembly.
The people of God, the assembly of God, is the people of God who are called out, so that many people see in them the deliverance of God. It is very important to understand the Church in relation with Israel: the elect people of God in the Old Testament. Covenant and election are therefore extremely important aspects of the church as people of God (Migliore
Carpenter (
Even so, according to Amos 9:7, YHWH has set not only Israel but also other nations on a historical journey under divine guidance. Election faith and thought tend toward a certain universalism. (p. 285)
Preuss (
Incorporated into the cultic community of the amphictyony the Israelite experiences in the cultic action the real self-communication of his God through the priestly proclamation of his holy ordinances, and rejoices in the covenant favour and the covenant promises. (pp. 239–240)
This is extremely important in the New Testament. The people of God are called out by God; they are called to be the One, Holy Church of Christ. They live in this sense a new life, proclaiming the Word of God. In the world they also have the opportunity to relate to all people as created by God. Being people of God means that the church is also people of a different world; they are people of heaven. They are looking up to heaven (Col 3:1‒5). This does not mean that they reject what they have to do on earth, and that there is not a good relation towards other people and doing what can be done on earth to emphasise the Kingdom of God. They also want to renew this world. Reference to the good creation of God is therefore also essential (Wright
In the New Testament, some texts explain the special meaning of church.
Acts 20:28:
Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, [a] which he bought with his own blood.
Ephesians 1:22-23:
And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
Acts 12:1:
It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them.
In this regard, Pryfogle (
Revelations 21:3 clearly explains the way in which God dwells in the church as his people:
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God’.
1 Peter explains the implications of the church as the people of God very clearly.
Flemming (
As we noted earlier, Peter’s first concern in this passage is with what God’s people are. But their identity as God’s chosen, holy people also gives them a purpose in the world. This community of priests exists in order that (όπως) it might proclaim the liberating and loving acts of God. Some interpreters argue that the term ‘proclaim’ in this verse is not missionary language. Rather, it is only about the kind of declaring that happens when God’s people praise him in their public worship. Others, in contrast, think this verb specifically has to do with witnessing to unbelievers. In other words, Peter wants his readers ‘to proclaim the gospel to their neighbors and family. (p. 62)
The church as
The church is called to be the body of Christ, as exemplified below:
Romans 12:5: ‘so in Christ we, although many, form one body and each member belongs to all the others’.
1 Corinthians 12:12: ‘Just as a body, although one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ’.
The church of Christ is a complete whole as the organs in the body are part of the one body. As body of Christ, the church is the community that lives in unity with one another and Christ (Conzelmann
Mare (
Ephesians 3:6:
This mystery is that, through the gospel, the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.
Colossians 1:18:
And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.
Moses (
What does this mean for mission? Mission means that the body of Christ must always glorify Christ, and the body of Christ must always proclaim the Living Christ. It must be the proclamation of the glory of the Living Christ in the world. Groppe (
The place where the wounds of the Body of Christ are most starkly visible, and the place where our restored communion will be most fully celebrated, is the eucharistic liturgy. (p. 25)
The church as the
The church should live as God’s temple. This is clear in 1 Corinthians 3:16: ‘Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?’
2 Corinthians 6:16 also emphasises this:
What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: ‘I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people’.
Martin (
The tie with the world had to be broken so that the temple of God would be pure. An important result of this failure to cleanse themselves was that the true ambassador for God was likewise shut out of the Corinthians’ lives, and they had ranged themselves on the side of the unbelieving world which needs to be ‘reconciled’ – as they did insofar that they were opposing Paul’s Gospel. (s.p.)
This means that the church as temple of God should be a community of holiness. The church’s thinking should be different from the world and should be on Christ and his revelation (DeSilva
Page (
Believers are said to be the Temple of God (1 Corinthians 3:6‒17), so much of what was said of the Temple is likely now to be able to be said of believers. (p. 9)
The church as the
Ademiluka (
But the concept is fully developed in Ephesians 5:25‒27 where he describes the husband’s duty towards his wife: Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish (RSV). (p. 5)
Other texts in Revelation also emphasise this:
Revelation 21:9:
One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, ‘Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb’.
Revelation 19:7:
‘Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready’.
Aune (
The image is in relation to biblical marriage customs with the marriage feast following the betrothal. The church awaits the wedding feast of the
Those who are invited to God’s feasts are the bride and they are opposed to those who reject Him. They are worshipping God and not the idols and they fear only God (DeSilva
Revelation 22:17:
The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let the one who hears say, ‘Come!’ Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes, take the free gift of the water of life.
DeSilva (
Shealy (
Church does not progress from bride to mother as one would expect given the pattern for women of marriage then motherhood; rather, she advances from earthly mother to heavenly bride Eph. 5:26. (p. 4)
The church is really called to be witnesses in the world. Therefore, a church is also the
Guder (
When one examines the imperatives in the New Testament epistles, it becomes very clear that the ‘work’ of early Christians was their ‘witness’. Every dimension and aspect of their life before a watching world, to borrow John Howard Yoder’s oft cited phrase, was crucial to their witness. Witness was, as we said above, not one of several activities, but the description of who they were and what they were for. (p. 430)
Niemandt (
The significance of ‘mission with creation at its heart’ is that mission in God’s way extends to God’s creation, and that participating in life-giving mission is a crucial part of the church’s mission. This entails, at the very least, missiological reflection on appropriate lifestyles and practices as part of Christian mission, and means that eco-justice becomes fundamental to mission. The economic solution has moved to the centre of the stage. One of the significant effects is that poverty and affluence have diametrically grown beyond all expectations. The problem is a destructive consumerism, driving people apart. This calls for a serious reflection from the ecumenical community and creative ideas on appropriate lifestyles and practice. (p. 95)
Acts 5:32 refer to the aspect of proclamation: ‘We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him’.
Acts 1:8:
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
Robinson (
Garstecki (
The authors of the guidelines do not speak in their text of ‘Christians’ service for peace’, but deliberately argue from the standpoint of the church’s witness to and service for peace. (p. 376)
The church as the
Manyaka-Boshielo (
As witness, the church has to proclaim that conversion is necessary. This means, like the prophets of old, calling the world to repentance. The church also has to call the world to repentance to a change in view, to radical coming back to God and explaining that it has to be servants to God, who has to be proclaimed. In this sense, the church sometimes finds itself as a church that is being rejected. The church often suffers persecution. The glory of God and all the wonders of God must be proclaimed, even under persecution. The church of persecution is also the church of God, and when it is persecuted, the church must also remain true to its calling, namely to proclaim that Jesus is Lord even under persecution. The church must do this under all circumstances, even when it is very difficult to do that, because the church is called to proclaim the Word of God. The church can only be the prophet in the name of Jesus Christ, who calls the world to repentance, back to Jesus Christ, so that the wonders of Christ can be understood and the glory of Christ can be proclaimed throughout the world by remaining true to Christ. Armstrong (
One must, however, see this aspect, namely that the church is a witness always in relation to the calling of the church to be rather than to speak. In this regard, the missional church as witness has to live a new life in the society and in the community. One should not separate the new life in Christ as witness from being a witness in the life of the church. As important as the proclamation of Jesus as Lord, is the Spirit-filled life with Him. In this regard Guder (
We could examine the community’s acts of prophetic challenge in interaction with the world into which it is sent, its conscious alternativeness in its larger context, as worthy parables of Christ’s kingdom breaking in. (p. 143)
The church in prophetic witness points to a new world in Christ. It has implications not only for the present but also for the future.
Jørgensen (
There is no room for the triumphalism and ecclesial joy of power of the past. Instead, there is a need for a servant church inspired by the new churches – also because the greatest integrity and vitality today are found among the churches that have experienced martyrdom. (p. 560)
One of the most important issues is how one should view the relation between the church and the community. The missional church emphasises the fact that the church is God’s new community living in the secular world. The missional church regards the task to get involved from the perspective of the
The relation of the living church is the relation with the living Christ. Some important guidelines should be maintained:
As people of God, the church is the new Israel, acknowledging the glory of the Saviour Christ and living holy lives among the people. The church is the true assembly of love.
As body of Christ, the church belongs to Christ. A radical Christological approach is always necessary. In Christ the church is the new community of God.
As temple of God, the church is holy and should live accordingly in the world. The church is not rejecting the world but is in the world to bring about change in Christ’s name.
As bride of Christ, the church is the special community belonging to Christ and receives her glory from God.
As witness, the church proclaims the wonders of the living God prophetically. This is not only proclamation in word but also in deed.
Looking to the future, the church is a group of pilgrims on their way to glory, but already glorifying God here and now.
It is necessary to acknowledge that the church is Christ’s. In the challenging world there is a community belonging to God serving Him and the world by confessing Christ. Therein lies the hope of the world.
The author declares that he has no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced him in writing this article.
P.V. is the sole author of this article.
This article followed all ethical standards for research without direct contact with human or animal subjects.
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author.