"Either we are defined by mission, or we reduce the scope of the gospel and the mandate of the church. Thus our challenge today is to move from church with mission to missional church." The move from church with mission to missional church has significant implications for the practice of theology.”[1]
Darrel Guder
“Unless the church participates in God’s mission to reconnect and reconcile with his wayward offspring, the greatest need of humanity has been deprived.”[2]
Bob Whitesel
Right now, we're seeing a surge in people leaving Christianity in record numbers, but the trend is even more pronounced among those who are leaving the church altogether. According to some studies, around 3,500 people were abandoning Christianity daily during the pandemic. In recent years, we've noticed a significant uptick in the number of people who no longer identify as Christian or attend church. This trend may be even more severe than initially thought.
In the book The Great Dechurching, authors Jim David and Michael Graham report:
"More people have left the church in the last twenty-five years than all the new people who became Christians from the First Great Awakening, Second Great Awakening, and the Billy Graham crusades combined. Adding to this alarm is the fact that this phenomenon has rapidly increased since the mid-1990’s."[3]
This trend is causing concern for many church leaders who worry about the impact it may have on the future of their congregations and the role of religion in society. It is essential to acknowledge and address this trend in order to understand the underlying reasons and find effective ways to address the concerns of those who have become disenchanted with the church.
In my case, growing up in a mostly non-religious home, I kind of accidentally became a Christian.
During my college years, I underwent a spiritual transformation and decided to embrace Christianity. However, at that time, I lacked a comprehensive understanding of the role of a church in my faith journey. I did not realize that participating in a church community could provide me with guidance, support, and opportunities for personal and spiritual growth. I had no idea how any of it worked. It was simply foreign to me. I believe truly unchurched people all experience this displacement and confusion, not knowing the rules or parlance of a worshipping community.
Just after I became a Jesus follower, one of the first people I met was a young woman who would eventually become my wife. She had been a Christian from a very young age, and she had her religious chops, so I quickly realized the many things I did not know. Early on, she asked me if I had a "testimony?" WHAT? What the heck is a testimony, I thought. Honestly, I felt she was speaking to me in a different language. I still am baffled by much of the insider language that I needed to acquire. I needed a Duolingo app.
In a way, God sought me out, even though I did have a God consciousness or longing that I somehow innately had. I had an unexplainable hunger for God. When I first read the astounding quote by Augustine, it felt so much like my story. The great Christian leader and philosopher stated, "You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in You."[4] There was a progression to my faith journey, though. I converted to Christianity first, and then subsequently found myself converting to the church.
And I even accidentally became a pastor. Yes, I said accidentally. After graduating from college, the only ministry jobs I would be considered for were those of a Youth pastor. That wasn't something I was too keen on, particularly since I didn't like teenagers. For some reason, parents kinda wanted the person who was gonna give their kids spiritual direction to actually like them. Go figure. Heck, I didn't even like myself when I was a teenager. The only job that made sense for me was to fall back on my lifelong passion for basketball, so I went to work at a basketball camp. While there, I was asked to preach at a colleague's family's church, and I just said yes. The weird thing about it was that they kept asking me back to give talks about the Bible. I eventually, out of default, became a pastor...gleefully avoiding the scary and irritating teenagers. It is a little strange to admit, but only as I began pastoring did I begin to discover the wonder of the church, its potential, and its place in God's plan. I'm serious; I was mesmerized by what it was and what it could be. After 41 years, believe it or not, I still am.
At that point, I went on a journey to figure it out. I read everything I could find on the church. I was so enchanted by learning about this subject that I earned an advanced degree in "churchy" studies. If you fast-forward, for more than a decade, I've been teaching a class about the church at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
You can go ahead and think it...It is an odd thing to focus on, particularly since I had no history to help create the impetus.
I started this chapter by reflecting on my experience with books about the church. Here is just a cross-section of some of those titles that I have on my bookshelf..
The Missionary Nature of the Church
Church, Unique
Natural church (there should be one entitled the Unnatural Church)
The Church without Walls
Decoding the Church and also, because decoding didn't work well enough, there had to be this next one...
Cracking the Code of the Church
The Disciple-making Church
The Church on the Other-side
The Contemplative Church
The Organic Church
Church Next (followed by the book The Church, after the Next - JK)
A New Kind of Church
Church in a Postmodern Age.
The Liquid Church
The Organic Church
The High Impact Church
The Missional Church
Simple Church
Sticky Church
Center Church
Not My Church
The User-Friendly Church
Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving and Finding the Church
The Church as Movement
The Reformation Church
The Ancient/Future Church
The Liturgical Church.
I need to write one entitled 'The Church that Keeps Shooting Itself in the Foot.'
I have a book that is simply called “The Church” (I suppose because all the other titles were taken)
If these books don't take the story far enough, I am writing a book now that has a working title (that this section is part of): "A Church for the World." Don't you dare judge me. And those are just a few with the word church in the title. I have hundreds of articles about the church, but they don't have the word' church' in their title. All of them are trying to figure out how to make the church better and how to make the world like it more...or at least not disdain it.
You might ask, do I love the church? That is a complicated question. I love the community of faith I help lead called Immanuel...most of the time.
As stated, we need to reimagine the church with a different focus. We need to imagine it more outward-looking, considering how it can emulate the mission of John the Baptist, attempting to make straight the way of the Lord (John 1:23). We must attempt to clear the clutter from the cultural Christian landscape, which was more often than not created by earnest old white guys. We need to as honestly as possible excavate and remove the ecclesial nonsense that repels people from God rather than toward him. Part of that quest is in the reimagining process of locating the church out in culture rather than living protected lives of isolation from the world Jesus is in love with. One of the most illustrative and helpful passages in reimagining what a church for the world might look like is found just after Jesus is resurrected and appears to His disciples. It is a small section from John 20. At this time, Jesus had just been killed, and the text begins by revealing to us that the disciples were huddled together, fearing what would happen next. Let me give you four snapshots of what I'll call the Post Resurrection church...that I think can help us reimagine the church.
THE FIRST THING TO OBSERVE IS THAT IT IS BELOVED
"On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. Again, Jesus said, "Peace be with you!" John 20:19-21a
Jesus said, "Peace be with you!"
First, they were afraid. I don't know how else to describe what is going on here. It says that they were terrified and were hiding out, and Jesus appeared in their midst. I have often thought about whether I would be afraid in this context. The answer! Absolutely! They had just witnessed their leader being hanged alive on a criminal's cross and eventually watched him die a ghastly and painful death. They must have been freaking out. The amazing thing about this story is found in how Jesus drew near to them. Please notice:
He doesn't chide them for not recognizing him.
He doesn't rebuke Peter for his denial.
He doesn't reprimand them for leaving him at his darkest moment.
He doesn't berate them for their huddled fear.
Here's what he says, "Peace." In the language of the New Testament, it is the Greek word "Eirene." Make no mistake here, though, being Jewish people, they could quickly translate this into their heart language, which was the word "Shalom." It is such a crucial declaration by Jesus.
Tim Keller brilliantly describes this idea of shalom as,
"God created all things to be in a beautiful, harmonious, interdependent, knitted, webbed relationship to one another. Just as rightly related physical elements form a cosmos or a tapestry, so rightly related human beings form a community. This interwovenness is what the Bible calls shalom, or harmonious peace.... [Shalom] means complete reconciliation, a state of the fullest flourishing in every dimension -- physical, emotional, social, and spiritual -- because all relationships are right, perfect, and filled with joy."[5]
The Kingdom had been displayed. The new creation had begun at Jesus' resurrection. Shalom was the only word that made sense and the word they needed to hear. So much so that he says it twice: “…peace be with you.”
He was communicating his affection to them. For me, it demonstrates the pathos of the relationship Jesus has with his disciples and with the church.
If we were looking for a metaphor that corresponds to this element, we could find it in Ephesians 5, where Jesus discusses husbands and wives, using language that makes most 21st-century people a bit uncomfortable (that is what the word 'submission' does these days). Still, at the end of the passage, he says that he is really talking about His love for the church and likens the church to a bride.
I have had the honor of officiating over a hundred weddings, and as I stand there with the Groom as he watches his love come down the aisle...It is a sacred moment.
Jesus loves the church like a Groom loves the Bride.
At its core -- our faith is relational. We are the beloved. (Say that out loud!)
Although there are real benefits to following Jesus, it is not a transactional relationship. It's not; when we become "good Christians," Jesus will love us. When it becomes transactional, it loses its soul and will die. It is relational at its core.
In their fear and disorientation, Jesus affirms...first before saying anything about what they could do.
In every relationship, this type of love needs to be repeatedly affirmed.
As I write this, my wife, Robi, and I have just celebrated our 41st anniversary. When we got married, we made vows to each other. Vows that we'd stay with each other in sickness and health, whether rich or poor, that we'd love each other until death do us part. It was a powerful gesture and memorial, but what would our relationship be like if that was the last time I said "I love you" to her.
It doesn't work to say, "It was good then and still stands until it's revoked."
It can probably be assumed, but this need for affirmation is genuine in every relationship. Your kids need this for healthy attachment. As parents, though we want to be careful not to expect anything, we need affection from our kids.
The reason I share this is one of the reasons we gather. We gather to sing our praises to God. To sense the warmth of being together ... we gather to hear the Gospel declared. We need to hear that we are loved! If not, we lose the very center of what it means to be the people of God. We are the beloved. For us to do anything truly beautiful or meaningful for God, we must stay true to our identity as those loved by Jesus.
Love always comes before action. Experiencing embrace and having a sense of belonging always set the stage for change or achievement. When these elements are out of order, it can lead to feeling hopeless, like experiencing “faithful exhaustion,” and giving up on mission.
THE SECOND ELEMENT OF A CHURCH FOR THE WORLD IS ITS MISSIONARY IMPULSE - IT IS SENT CHURCH - V. 21B
"As the Father has sent me, I am sending you."
This identifies the motivation and impulse of the church. A church is a community that is 'sent.' The Latin term missio Dei, means 'mission of God,' reflecting this sending nature. From the Latin root missio (meaning 'to send'), we get our English word 'mission.'
We often make the mistake of thinking that the church is the center of God's missionary venture, and we send people (like a recent church planter our church commissioned, named Phil). However, the reality is that the church is sent; it is a missionary community. It is our identity. I think this idea resided near the center of the church in the West’s problem. Many churches have lost this impulse and construe their community as one whose only purpose is to simply take care of its members.
The missiologist, David Bosch, wrote:
"...it cannot be denied that the missio Dei notion has helped to articulate the conviction that neither the church nor any human agent can ever be considered the author or bearer of mission. Mission is, primarily and ultimately, the work of the Triune God, Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, for the sake of the world, a ministry in which the church is privileged to participate."[6]
All that we say and do must be interpreted through this hermeneutical grid.
We are the Sent! A people on mission follow a missionary and redemptive God into the world. The church needs to live out its existence proximate to people who need love, forgiveness, embrace, and direction.
Jesus prays to his Father in John 17:18, "As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world."
Catch this - Jesus is drawing a correlation.
It first says that he was sent by the Father (BTW, throughout the Gospel of John, Jesus repeatedly speaks of his "sentness," and that he can only do what he receives from the Father.)
Then, Jesus connects our mission to his. As the Father sent me, so I am sending you. "Just as..." Or, in the same way.
Alan Hirsch and Michael Frost wrote,
"God is a missionary -- he sent his Son into the world, into our lives, into human history. Incarnation, therefore, implies some form of sending to be able to incarnate into the various contexts in which disciples live radically. And while not all of us are called to cross-cultural forms of mission, we believe all are called to some form of incarnational expression of faith." Frost/Hirsch
So, how was Jesus sent? It is captured in the concept of the incarnation. Please understand that the incarnation is subversive.
How? What does it mean to be subversive? It's a systematic dethronement of one system or power by those working from within. It is done by entering into the system. John 1
Donald Macleod's in his book The Person of Christ writes:
"[Jesus] did not, as incarnate, live a life of detachment. He lived a life of involvement...He lived where he could see human sin, hear human swearing and blasphemy, see human diseases and observe human mortality, poverty, and squalor...His mission was fully incarnational because he taught men by coming alongside them, becoming one of them, and sharing their environment and problems.[7]
I have to be honest; each morning, when I read the news, I grieve, even cringe.
For example, with each mass shooting, like the one that happened at the Christian school in Nashville a few years ago, I find myself thinking it is just too much.
Headline: "Nashville school shooter fired 152 rounds during the attack, which was planned 'over a period of months.'"[8]
For many, we are tempted to turn away, if only to survive.
Jesus never turned away...he never moved away from the pain and suffering, our pain and suffering.
We cannot talk about love; we must live love.
We cannot talk about mercy; we must live mercifully.
We cannot talk about peace; we must be peace to others.
Christ went beyond the words to the reality or demonstration.
The venerable John Stott captured this idea, saying,
"The crucial form in which the Great Commission has been handed down to us...is the Johannine (version from John's Gospel). Jesus had anticipated it in his prayer in the upper room, which he said to the Father: "As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world" (John 17:18). Now, probably in the same upper room but after his death and resurrection, he turned his prayer-statement into a commission and said: "As the Father has sent me, even so I send you" (John 20:21). In both of these sentences Jesus did more than draw a vague parallel between his mission and ours. Deliberately and precisely, he made his mission the model of ours, saying, "As the Father sent me, so I send you." Therefore, our understanding of the church's mission must be deduced from our understanding of the Son's."[9]
This cannot happen at long range. Mission must be touchable.
This is the problem with do-gooding church shock troops dropping into an at-risk neighborhood to fix all their problems and get Medevacked out to retreat back to a safe suburb.
This is the problem of trying to solve issues by arguing on social media.
This is the problem of trying to reconcile fractured relationships at a distance.
This is the problem of seeing our church involvement only from 9-10:30 on a Sunday morning.
Missions Cautionary Tale
One thing that has to be inserted into this conversation is found in the effort to define mission.
Historically, it's been believed that raising a bunch of funds, gathering up all your earthly possessions, and relocating to a far-off place to reach the nations is the highest and most necessary decision for living out a life of mission.
This has to be held very carefully, because mission may include that action, at least in a sense, but I believe that mission has less to do with location and more to do with joining God in what is up to in the world. That might include preaching or declaring the Gospel story in some way, but it is just as likely that it is played out by creating wells for drinking water in areas where people are dying due to a lack of access to clean water. It may involve respectfully and patiently sitting with people in the most dire moments of their lives. It might be joining a public protest supporting a marginalized group of people, allying with them as they seek the shalom of God. It could be starting or teaching in charter school or running for office in an attempt to impact systemically unjust practices where you live, or serving in a shelter for houseless men or women or joining a group of people who are dreaming of starting a new worshipping community with the hope of communally demonstrating that the church can be found in humility of life and in the resisting of injustice. And, yes, you might even go to a far-away land to declare the wonders of a God who loved so much that He gave His only begotten Son (John 3:16).
I recently heard a person say that we should only work at what is trying to happen. I like that. I would rephrase it as we should seek to discern what God is doing and join him in it. The goal for every follower of Jesus is to commit to a cooperative venture, joining God in his redemptive action in the world. This is where the true impetus for life change occurs and can potentially serve as a deterrent to creating something from base human impulses and distorted motivations. I had to include the last line because many, for various reasons, have engaged in “mission” and it ultimately became a form of control or injurious to others. It has even been used, after insane theological contortion, as the tool for colonization, the oppression of whole people groups, and the enslavement of other human beings.
One final point: Without the first element we covered in this section — being loved by God as a starting point in the progression — the second one can become empty and mere activism.
Understanding our identity as beloved and our calling as sent provides the foundation for everything that follows. But Jesus didn't leave his disciples with only love and mission—he equipped them with power and purpose for the work ahead.
[1] Darrel Guder - From the Missional Church, p.6
[2] Bob Whitesel, The Healthy Church: Practical Ways to Strengthen A Church’s Heart (Indianapolis Wesleyan Publishing House, 2013), p. 44.
[3] The Great Dechurching' p.5
[4] https://www.beafriar.org/post/august-for-the-augustinians-st-monica
[5] Generous Justice, 173-174
[6] David Bosch, Transforming Mission
[7] Donald Macleod's book The Person of Christ (InterVarsity, 1998
[8] https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/03/us/covenant-school-shooting-nashville-tennessee-monday/index.html#:~:text=The%2028%2Dyear%2Dold%20who,and%20studied%20other%20mass%20murderers
[9] Stott - Christian Mission in the Modern World