THE MISSIONAL CHURCH: A Vision of the Small Congregation

written by Barbara Miller

Missional Church is an emerging understanding of the role and place of the church in North American culture. It is rooted in the theological notion of missio Dei ("mission of God"). We, as Christian persons and faith communities, are engaged in God's mission for the world, not our own mission. We are a sent people, sent into the world to accomplish God's mission and to demonstrate to all what the Reign of God is in our present time and place. We find this image in John 20 as Jesus appears to His disciples after his resurrection.

Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." When He had said this, He breathes on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained (John 20-21-23, NRSV)."

What does this mean for the small membership congregation?

We find ourselves in the midst of a secularized and pluralistic culture which no longer gives allegiance to the church. Sundays have become just like any other day of the week for the culture at large. Sixteen hundred years of Christendom, the centuries when being a Christian was assumed, are over.

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Resources include:

Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America, Darrell Guder, Ed. Eerdmans, 1998. The Synod office has copies of this book for $20.00 and also has a Study Guide ($3.00) for groups.

People of the Truth: A Christian Challenge to Contemporary Culture, Robert E. Webber and Rodney Clapp, Morehouse, 1993

Jesus and Community, by Gerhard Lohfink, Fortress Press, 1984

The Gospel in a Pluralist Society by Lesslie Newbigin, Eerdmans, 1989

Confident Witness? Changing World: Rediscovering the Gospel in North America by Craig Van Gelder, ed., Eerdmans, 1999.

Recovering the Sacred Center: Church Renewal from the Inside Out by Howard E. Friend, Jr., Judson Press, 1998

The Continuing Conversion of the Church by Darrell L. Guder, Eerdmans, 2000.