RSM 210/211/212
This summary is based on certain sections of the work of
Bosch (2016) Chapter 12
Graham Smith
, MISSION AS A CHURCH WITH OTHERS (PG 377–398)
Church and Mission
Avery Dulles’ 5 major ecclesial types:
Institution
Mystical body of Christ
Sacrament
Herald
Servant
(Each of these implies a different interpretation of the relationship between church and mission;
compare Catholic high view of church and the Protestant low-view of church). Little church as the ture
bearer of mission, later the whole church became missionary by nature (theological concept of the
church comes from the theology of mission)
Shifts in missionary thinking
Shift from a church centered-mission, to a mission-centered church.
First semester test Question 1. Describe the (new) view of how the church is to be understood. (10)
- The church could be neither the starting point nor the goal of mission.
- God's salvific work precedes both church and mission.
- We should not subordinate mission to the church nor the church to mission; both should, rather, be taken up
into the missio Dei, which now became the overarching concept.
- The missio Dei institutes the missiones ecclesiae.
- The church changes from being the sender to being the one sent
The Christian world mission is Christ's, not ours. (1) "the church is the mission," which means that it is illegitimate
to talk about the one without at the same time talking about the other; (2) "the home base is everywhere," which
means that every Christian community is in a missionary situation; and (3) "mission in partnership," which means
the end of every form of guardianship of one church over another.
Lumen Gentium (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church) ecclesiology:
The church is no longer described as a societal entity on a par with other societal structures like the state, but as
the mystery of God's presence in the world, "in the nature of" a sacrament, sign, and instrument of community with
God and unity among people. The whole tenor of the argument is new. The church is not presenting itself
imperiously and proudly but humbly; it does not define itself in legal categories or as an elite of exalted souls, but
as a servant community.
Modern ecclesiologies (Catholic and Protestant) employ seven main metaphorical expressions for the
church, each of them implying a peculiar perspective on the understanding of mission. These include
church as:
o sacrament of salvation
o assembly of God
o people of God
o kingdom of God
o Body of Christ
o temple of the Holy Spirit
o community of the faithful
1 © Copyright reserved/Kopiereg voorbehou Graham Smith©
© Copyright reserved/Kopiereg voorbehou Graham Smith©
, Missionary by its very nature
The church is seen as essentially missionary. the church is not the sender but the one sent. Its mission (its
"being sent") is not secondary to its being; the church exists in being sent and in building up itself for the sake
of its mission (as per 1 Peter 2:9)
Mission is not "a fringe activity of a strongly established Church, a pious cause that [may] be attended to when
the home fires [are] first brightly burning ... Missionary activity is not so much the work of the church as simply
the Church at work". It is a duty "which pertains to the whole Church". Since God is a missionary God, God's
people are a missionary people. One can no longer talk about church and mission, only about the mission of
the church. One could even say, with Schumacher, "The inverse of the thesis 'the church is essentially
missionary' is 'Mission is essentially ecclesial"
There is a distinction between the church's missionary dimension and its missionary intention: the church is
both "missionary" and "missionizing".
The missionary dimension of a local church's life manifests itself, among other ways, when it is truly a
worshipping community; it is able to welcome outsiders and make them feel at home; it is a church in which
the pastor does not have the monopoly and the members are not merely objects of pastoral care; its members
are equipped for their calling in society; it is structurally pliable and innovative; and it does not defend the
privileges of a select group. However, he church's missionary dimension evokes intentional, that is direct
involvement in society; it actually moves beyond the walls of the church and engages in missionary "points of
concentration" (Newbigin) such as evangelism and work for justice and peace (thus it is a missionizing entity).
Karl Barth’s three phases of developing ecclesiology under soteriology:
1. His reflections on soteriology as justification are followed by a section on "The Holy Spirit and the
Gathering of the Christian Community"
2. His exposition on soteriology as sanctification leads to a discourse on 'The Holy Spirit and the
Upbuilding of the Christian Community"
3. And his discussion of soteriology as vocation is followed by a treatise on "The Holy Spirit and the
Sending of the Christian Community"
God’s Pilgrim People
The church is viewed as the people of God and, by implication then, as a pilgrim church. The biblical
archetype here is that of the wandering people of God, which is so prominent in the letter to the Hebrews. The
church is a pilgrim not simply for the practical reason that in the modern age it no longer calls the tune and is
everywhere finding itself in a diaspora situation; rather, to be a pilgrim in the world belongs intrinsically to the
church's ex-centric position. It is ek-klesia, "called out" of the world, and sent back into the world. Foreignness
is an element of its constitution. God's pilgrim people need only two things: support for the road, and a
destination at the end of it. It has no fixed abode here; it is a paroikia, a temporary residence. It is permanently
underway, toward the ends of the world and the end of time. Even ifthere is an un- bridgeable difference
between the church and its destination - the reign of God - it is called to flesh out, already in the here and now,
something of the conditions which are to prevail in God's reign. Proclaiming its own transience the church
pilgrimages toward God's future
Sacrament, Sign, and Instrument
In contemporary ecclesiology the church is increasingly perceived as sacrament, sign, and instrument. The
gift of priesthood is given to the church community as a whole. This understanding and terminology is more
prevalent in Catholicism than in Protestantism. While the church is proclaiming the kingdom of God and
building it up, it is establishing itself in the midst of the world as the sign and instrument of this kingdom. This
2 © Copyright reserved/Kopiereg voorbehou Graham Smith©
© Copyright reserved/Kopiereg voorbehou Graham Smith©
This summary is based on certain sections of the work of
Bosch (2016) Chapter 12
Graham Smith
, MISSION AS A CHURCH WITH OTHERS (PG 377–398)
Church and Mission
Avery Dulles’ 5 major ecclesial types:
Institution
Mystical body of Christ
Sacrament
Herald
Servant
(Each of these implies a different interpretation of the relationship between church and mission;
compare Catholic high view of church and the Protestant low-view of church). Little church as the ture
bearer of mission, later the whole church became missionary by nature (theological concept of the
church comes from the theology of mission)
Shifts in missionary thinking
Shift from a church centered-mission, to a mission-centered church.
First semester test Question 1. Describe the (new) view of how the church is to be understood. (10)
- The church could be neither the starting point nor the goal of mission.
- God's salvific work precedes both church and mission.
- We should not subordinate mission to the church nor the church to mission; both should, rather, be taken up
into the missio Dei, which now became the overarching concept.
- The missio Dei institutes the missiones ecclesiae.
- The church changes from being the sender to being the one sent
The Christian world mission is Christ's, not ours. (1) "the church is the mission," which means that it is illegitimate
to talk about the one without at the same time talking about the other; (2) "the home base is everywhere," which
means that every Christian community is in a missionary situation; and (3) "mission in partnership," which means
the end of every form of guardianship of one church over another.
Lumen Gentium (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church) ecclesiology:
The church is no longer described as a societal entity on a par with other societal structures like the state, but as
the mystery of God's presence in the world, "in the nature of" a sacrament, sign, and instrument of community with
God and unity among people. The whole tenor of the argument is new. The church is not presenting itself
imperiously and proudly but humbly; it does not define itself in legal categories or as an elite of exalted souls, but
as a servant community.
Modern ecclesiologies (Catholic and Protestant) employ seven main metaphorical expressions for the
church, each of them implying a peculiar perspective on the understanding of mission. These include
church as:
o sacrament of salvation
o assembly of God
o people of God
o kingdom of God
o Body of Christ
o temple of the Holy Spirit
o community of the faithful
1 © Copyright reserved/Kopiereg voorbehou Graham Smith©
© Copyright reserved/Kopiereg voorbehou Graham Smith©
, Missionary by its very nature
The church is seen as essentially missionary. the church is not the sender but the one sent. Its mission (its
"being sent") is not secondary to its being; the church exists in being sent and in building up itself for the sake
of its mission (as per 1 Peter 2:9)
Mission is not "a fringe activity of a strongly established Church, a pious cause that [may] be attended to when
the home fires [are] first brightly burning ... Missionary activity is not so much the work of the church as simply
the Church at work". It is a duty "which pertains to the whole Church". Since God is a missionary God, God's
people are a missionary people. One can no longer talk about church and mission, only about the mission of
the church. One could even say, with Schumacher, "The inverse of the thesis 'the church is essentially
missionary' is 'Mission is essentially ecclesial"
There is a distinction between the church's missionary dimension and its missionary intention: the church is
both "missionary" and "missionizing".
The missionary dimension of a local church's life manifests itself, among other ways, when it is truly a
worshipping community; it is able to welcome outsiders and make them feel at home; it is a church in which
the pastor does not have the monopoly and the members are not merely objects of pastoral care; its members
are equipped for their calling in society; it is structurally pliable and innovative; and it does not defend the
privileges of a select group. However, he church's missionary dimension evokes intentional, that is direct
involvement in society; it actually moves beyond the walls of the church and engages in missionary "points of
concentration" (Newbigin) such as evangelism and work for justice and peace (thus it is a missionizing entity).
Karl Barth’s three phases of developing ecclesiology under soteriology:
1. His reflections on soteriology as justification are followed by a section on "The Holy Spirit and the
Gathering of the Christian Community"
2. His exposition on soteriology as sanctification leads to a discourse on 'The Holy Spirit and the
Upbuilding of the Christian Community"
3. And his discussion of soteriology as vocation is followed by a treatise on "The Holy Spirit and the
Sending of the Christian Community"
God’s Pilgrim People
The church is viewed as the people of God and, by implication then, as a pilgrim church. The biblical
archetype here is that of the wandering people of God, which is so prominent in the letter to the Hebrews. The
church is a pilgrim not simply for the practical reason that in the modern age it no longer calls the tune and is
everywhere finding itself in a diaspora situation; rather, to be a pilgrim in the world belongs intrinsically to the
church's ex-centric position. It is ek-klesia, "called out" of the world, and sent back into the world. Foreignness
is an element of its constitution. God's pilgrim people need only two things: support for the road, and a
destination at the end of it. It has no fixed abode here; it is a paroikia, a temporary residence. It is permanently
underway, toward the ends of the world and the end of time. Even ifthere is an un- bridgeable difference
between the church and its destination - the reign of God - it is called to flesh out, already in the here and now,
something of the conditions which are to prevail in God's reign. Proclaiming its own transience the church
pilgrimages toward God's future
Sacrament, Sign, and Instrument
In contemporary ecclesiology the church is increasingly perceived as sacrament, sign, and instrument. The
gift of priesthood is given to the church community as a whole. This understanding and terminology is more
prevalent in Catholicism than in Protestantism. While the church is proclaiming the kingdom of God and
building it up, it is establishing itself in the midst of the world as the sign and instrument of this kingdom. This
2 © Copyright reserved/Kopiereg voorbehou Graham Smith©
© Copyright reserved/Kopiereg voorbehou Graham Smith©
