‘The task is to engage culture without compromising the Gospel’

We recognise now that we are in a post-modern and post-Christendom culture here in the West, and that there must be change- but how and what is to be changed? Do we retreat, close some church buildings, leave one clergy person in charge of half-a dozen parishes, or struggle along with an aging congregation, or initiate some changes, cells, mid-week services special events for children, get into interactive media; or do we rethink church and start anew?

Frost and Hirsch start by saying that we must get over Christendom, in which Christianity moved from being a dynamic, revolutionary, social and spiritual movement, to being a religious institution with its attendant structures, priesthood, and sacraments. The meta-narrative has changed. And yet Constantine is still the emperor of our imaginations.

The Gospel and our Culture Network (GOCN) identifies 12 marks of a missional church:

1  Proclaims the gospel

2  is a community when all members are involved in learning to become disciples of Jesus

3  The Bible is normative

4  The Church understands itself as different from the world because of its participation in the life, death and resurrection

5  It seeks to discern God’s specific missional vocation for the entire community and  its members.

6 Its indicated by how Christians behave to one another

7  Its a community that practises reconciliation

8  its members hold themselves accountable to one another in love

9  It practises hospitality

10  Worship is the central act by which it celebrate with joy God’s presence and promised future

11  It has a vital public witness

12  It recognises itself to be an incomplete expression of the reign of God

The Authors propose 3 overarching principles that give energy and direction to the above marks: 

*The missional church is incarnational (not attractional) in its ecclesiology – it goes out, rather than invites in

 *The missional church is messianic (not dualistic) in its spirituality – it sees the world and God’s place in it as holistic, not divided into sacred and secular

*The missional church adopts an apostolic (not hierarchical) mode of leadership – following the 5fold model in Ephesians 4. 

(Frost M & Hirsch A The Shaping of Things to Come- innovation and mission for the 21st-century church).

 I’m still reading this important book- much indebted to Alison Morgan’s detailed synopsis. It is challenging and I’ll try to continue these notes

What do you think?