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Discipleship as Boundary-Breaking Ministry

One of my favorite sections in Matthew’s Gospel is the collection of miracle stories that Matthew arranges together in 8:1–9:35. This segment of the Gospel involves three sets of miracles (8:1-17; 8:23-9:8; 9:18-35) with two sections of teaching (8:18-22 and 9:9-17) on discipleship in the middle. Matthew 8:1-9:35 follows the first major section of Jesus’ teachings in Matthew’s Gospel, the Sermon on the Mount (chapters 5-7). In Matthew 8:1-9:35, Matthew portrays the healing ministry of Jesus, and at the same time, Matthew offers additional insight into the meaning of discipleship. One major aspect of discipleship is disciple as boundary breaker. This is a dimension that desperately needs to be recaptured in our present context as we seek to recover the missional focus of discipleship. Boundary breaking involves at least two aspects: radical outreach and empowerment of the new disciples.

Boundary Breaking as Radical Outreach
In the first of the three sections of miracles (8:1-17), Jesus in rapid succession heals a leper, the servant of a Roman centurion, and Peter’s mother-in-law. It is easy for us to miss the significance of Jesus’ action because these categories of persons are unlikely to stand out in the mind of the modern reader. Yet each of these persons, a unclean leper, a representative of a hated oppressive regime, and a woman were the types of individuals that were marginalized and shunned by institutional religion in the Judaisms of the 1st century. It is impressive that the bulk of those whom Jesus encounters positively in the Gospels tend to be marginalized persons, and it is ironic that Jesus receives the most conflict from the religious leaders of his day precisely for his outreach to the lost and hurting of the world. Yet, Jesus reaches out and forms a community of the desperate – Jesus heals and delivers those who come simply with a faith that Jesus can help them in their time of need. These are persons desperate for the sorts of things that God alone can provide.

How would our ideas about discipleship be different if we reached out to the marginalized of our communities today? What if instead of treating outsiders as threats we practiced radical outreach in love?

Boundary Breaking and Empowerment
The practice of radical outreach is only a beginning. The true challenge comes at the point of entry and inclusion in the community of faith. The story of Jesus’ calling of Matthew, the tax collector, is illustrative and profound. In the call of Matthew in 9:9-13, Jesus makes a bold and daring addition to his band of disciples. He calls a hated tax collector, i.e., a collaborator with the Roman occupational government. Matthew, as a tax collector, represented the agent of the transfer of Jewish wealth and capital from Israel to Rome and also became wealth at the expense of the tax payers.

It is one thing for communities of faith to enter into patron – client relationships with marginalized persons and groups. We take “mission” trips into blighted neighborhoods or perhaps find a “sister” church with a different demographic than our own. But we can keep such encounters at arm’s length and our own communities are not disrupted by those whom we “help.” This is what makes the calling of Mathew so bold. Jesus does not merely heal or help a person and then go on his way. He invites an outsider into his closest circle of followers. He elevates Matthew the tax collector from hated outsider to a member of the twelve. Look at the list of disciples in Matthew 10:2-4. There smack dab in the middle is the name Matthew with the descriptive title “tax collector.” This is boundary breaking in a way that truly empowers an outsider to the position of colleague rather than client. If we want to lead our communities of faith into radical outreach that will lead to growth of our communities, then we need to be willing to empower the newcomers by giving them authority in our communities to act and engage in ministry as partners. Jesus’ willingness to associate with persons such as Matthew brought the abuse and criticism of the Pharisees. Jesus’ response is classic and worthy of deep reflection. Jesus calls upon the words of the ancient prophet Hosea in replying, “Go and learn what this means ‘I desire mercy not sacrifice’ for I have not come to call the righteous but sinners.” In the chapter ten, Jesus will send out his disciples to do similar sorts of ministry with the injunction, “go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (10:6).

If we desire to be faithful disciples of Jesus, we need to lead our communities of faith into radical outreach. There are multitudes of persons hungry, even desperate, for what God alone can provide. Who among us will go to them? Who among us will empower them to be full members of our own communities?

Reflection:
1) Who in your present context would represent a shunned or marginalized person or group?
2) What would it take to reach out to such persons in the name of Jesus Christ/
3) How good am I at “power-sharing”? What would have to change in my life if I began to include fully newcomers into my community of faith?

© 2011 Brian D. Russell

Here is a draft of a reflection on Matt 21:33-43. This is the parable of the Wicked Tenants.

Is it better to be an insider or an outsider to a movement of God? Or perhaps a better question is this: How does one tell and insider from an outsider? Is it the words that one uses? Is it the clothing that one sports? Is it the friends with whom one hangs? Is it the title that one carries?

The power of the good news that Jesus came to announce lies in part in the Gospel’s ability to break down boundaries in surprising ways. God often reverse human expectations and puts our wisdom to shame. In the Kingdom of Heaven, the first becomes last; the last becomes first. In the Kingdom of Heaven, the head becomes the tail and the tail becomes of the head. In the Kingdom of Heaven, the strong becomes weak and weak becomes strong. In the Kingdom of Heaven, the wise becomes foolish, and the foolish becomes wise. This is not a divine conspiracy to confound humanity. Instead, it is an affirmation of every person’s utter need for God. The truly lost person is one who depends on his or her own gift, talents, and strengths apart from recognizing our lostness apart from God’s kindness and mercy toward us.

In Matthew 21, the Gospel writer highlights the high point of Jesus’ reception on earth as well and points ahead to his ultimate rejection. Matthew 21 opens with Jesus’ triumphant arrival on the back of a donkey into Jerusalem. A throng of people greet him and recognize him as the long awaited king who would restore Israel’s fortune. He cleanses the temple and heals the blind and lame. These are tangible signs that the long awaited era of God’s salvation has come. But there is a dark cloud in the midst of this good news. However the chief priests and the elders do not welcome him. They are presented as Jesus’ opponents. The persons who represented the insiders did not accept his authority and take offense at his actions. They challenge his authority.

In response to their challenge, Jesus tells two parables. First, he presents the story of two sons (21:28-32) whose father sends out to the vineyard to work it. He approaches them one at a time with the command. The first son blatantly refuses to go but later on regreted this decision and went to the vineyard to work it. The second son accepts verbally his father’s order but does not act go and work. Jesus ends the first parable by asking his opponents “Which of the two did the will of the father?”. They answered correctly by responding, “The first.” Jesus then warns ominously, “the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you.” This reversal of expectation sets the scene for our Scripture lesson that constitutes the second parable that Jesus speaks in response to the challenge to his authority posed by the chief priests and scribes.

God’s People as a Vineyard
Jesus’ story opens with a description of the setting. A landowner has planted a vineyard that is fully equipped for wine production. He leases it to a group of tenants and departs for another country. The imagery in this parable immediately evokes the theme of God’s people as the stewards of a garden. The book of Genesis opens with God putting humanity in a garden to “till it and keep it.” God had originally intended for women and men to serve as his stewards over all creation. Later on in the Old Testament, God describes his people Israel as an unfruitful vineyard. In other words, Jesus’ hearers would have recognized that Jesus’ parable in Matthew 21 was not some hypothetical story but directed at them. God desired for his people to bear fruit worthy of God’s mission to bring salvation to the ends of the earth. Instead, Jesus encounters opposition from the very insiders who should have welcomed him enthusiastically.

A Shocking Reception
The landowner’s vineyard became a place for a showdown between himself and his tenants over possession of the wealth generated during the growing season. Despite the landowner’s generous provision of a rich and fertile vineyard for his tenants, they refuse to hand over the landowner’s share of the harvest. Instead they actively thwart his attempts to collect his produce by twice abusing and even killing some of the slaves sent by the landowner as his representatives.

Jesus presents an allegory in this parable. He clearly has the Old Testament prophets in view as persons whom God sent to warn his people to realign their priorities with God. But sadly God’s people refused to listen to the prophets. John the Baptist represented the last in the series of prophets whom God deployed to Israel.

The landowner makes a final attempt to collect. His last move is bold and audacious. Some might call it risky or even foolish. The tenants have already rejected his earlier overtures through his servants. But now he sends his son. This shows the extent to which the landowner was committed to the relationship with the tenants. Yet the tenants callously murder his son and plot to steal his inheritance.

God continuously reaches out to humanity. He had sent prophets to his people. Now in the person of Jesus, he had sent his son. God is radically for his people even when such a stance is costly to him. This is good news for insiders.

A Surprising Warning
Jesus asks his opponents what they think the landowner will do to the tenants. They answer “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.”

Jesus builds on their answer by issuing them a stern warning. He quotes from Ps 118:22-23, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes.” This psalm tells the story of a stunning, unexpected, and miraculous deliverance by God. It celebrates the reversal from an impossible situation to a glorious triumph by God. Jesus saw this as a prefiguring of his own life, death, and resurrection.

Jesus was the stone that the insiders to God’s kingdom would reject. But God would be able to redeem this rejection by opening the gates wide so that former outsiders might become insiders. God would use the death of his son to extend grace and mercy to the nations. Does this mean that the former insiders were rejected permanently? Of course not. Instead, Jesus tells this story to issue an opportunity for insiders to realign with God’s values while at the same time envisioning the time for the fulfillment of God’s plan to bring salvation to the ends of the earth. This is good news for outsiders and insiders alike.

Conclusion
The takeaways from Jesus’ words are straightforward. First, marvel at the expansive grace of God that desires to touch all men and women. Second, thank God for his patience in dealing with our stubbornness and wrong-headedness. Third, reflect soberly on the possibility that my actions may be acting against God’s mission regardless of my own opinion of my standing with God. Do not arrogantly assume that I am on God’s side. Last, recognize that God is radically for both insiders and outsiders and desires all who follow him to produce fruit for God’s kingdom.

Is it better to be an insider or an outsider? This is the wrong question, isn’t it? God welcomes both with open arms. God’s people exist to serve God’s mission faithfully and enthusiastically. Ideally, God calls us to extend his blessing and salvation to the nations. Insiders are the means by which outsiders become insiders. In the Kingdom, outsiders become insiders by turning to God. Likewise, insiders remain insiders not because of some entitlement or because of titles or a past history or a particular family tree, but through ongoing faithfulness.

If you feel close to God and consider yourself an insider and follower of Christ today, rejoice. But look into your heart and take a humility check. Am I still open to the new movements of God, or am I more like the chief priests and elders than I might care to admit? Am I producing fruit for God’s kingdom?

If on the other hand you are unsure of your relationship with God and feel more like at outsider and a seeker, you likewise should be of good cheer today. Jesus came to open the doors wide to bring in all who will respond to his grace and mercy. His vineyard bids you to enter!

Here is a draft of a book review that I did for the Review of Biblical Literature:

Methods for Exodus (Methods in Biblical Interpretation) (Cambridge University Press, 2010)
. Pp. xiv + 254. Paperback. 978-0-521-71001-5. $24.99.

Methods for Exodus, edited by Thomas B. Dozeman, is the fourth volume in the series Methods in Biblical Interpretation. Earlier volumes include Methods for Luke (Methods in Biblical Interpretation)
; Methods for Matthew (Methods in Biblical Interpretation)
, and Methods for the Psalms, edited by Esther Marie Menn. The Methods in Biblical Interpretation series from Cambridge University Press seeks to introduce students and general readers of the Bible to six distinct hermeneutical approaches to the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament. Methods included ranged from traditional historical-critical “world behind the text” approaches to new “world in front of the text” methodologies influenced by the globalization and democratization of Biblical Studies. Each volume includes an introductory essay followed by six essays penned by a leading practitioner of a discrete interpretive method. Each essay introduces the student to a specific hermeneutical method by reviewing its history of development. The scholars then discuss each discrete method’s applicability to the given biblical book. Finally, the writers apply the methods to the same set of texts. By assigning each writer the same texts, Methods in Biblical Interpretation allows the reader to see the similarities and differences between the various approaches to the text. Moreover, the authors themselves attempt to point out connections between their approach and the exegetical lenses of others.

Dozeman’s Methods for Exodus offers a strong addition to the series. Dozeman is a leading scholar on the book of Exodus and has gathered an impressive band of exegetes to contribute to the volume. Dennis T. Olson writes the chapter on “Literary and Rhetorical Criticism.” Kenton L. Sparks covers “Genre Criticism.” Suzanne Boorer discusses “Source and Redaction Criticism.” Jorge Pixley describes “Liberation Criticism.” Naomi Steinberg illustrates “Feminist Criticim.” Gale A. Yee proffers an introduction to “Postcolonial Biblicial Criticism.”

Dozeman’s introductory essay (pp. 1-12) sketches out the aims of the book. First, Methods for Exodus seeks to introduce the above six methodologies that help readers to understand the book of Exodus. Second, Methods for Exodus hopes to show the ways that these discrete approaches relate to one another in terms of similarities and differences. Toward this second end, Dozeman notes that the divide between the approaches turns on how one understands the authority of the book of Exodus. Traditional historical critical approaches locate authority in the “world behind the text” of its authors and reconstructed social setting. More recent ideological methodologies locate authority in the “world in front of the text” rooted in the social location of its modern readers. Dozeman argues that these approaches find common ground in that both “behind the text” and “in front of the text” methods reflect critically on the historical setting of the literature. Moreover certain flavors of historical critical methods such as Genre criticism recognize the role of the modern reader in creating meaning. Dozeman then moves to describe the content of the book of Exodus in broad-brush strokes. He divides the book of Exodus into two sections: 1:1–15:21 and 15:22–40:38. The first division narrates the conflict between God and Pharaoh over the service of Israel. The second division describes the means and manner in which God will be present with God’s people as they move toward the promised land of Canaan. Next, Dozeman introduces the two texts that will serve as the common text to explore the various methodologies used to study Exodus: Exod 1–2 and 19–20. Dozeman concludes his introduction by providing a synopsis of the remaining chapters.

Dennis Olson’s chapter “Literary and Rhetorical Criticism” (pp. 13–54) offers a brief history of the rise of “text-centered” and “reader-centered” approaches as they emerged against the more traditional “author-centered” focus of historical criticism. Olson concentrates principally on “text-centered” reading methods over against “reader-centered” methodologies that deploy literary/rhetorical techniques such as feminist. Olson as will be true of all of the authors in this volume offers a strong survey of the literature as represented by its best practitioners. Olson offers the clearest example of how to practice literary/rhetorical criticism by adopting the Phyllis Trible’s step-by-step outline from her seminal work Rhetorical Criticism: Context, Method, and the Book of Jonah (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1994). By describing and adopting a clear-cut methodology, Olson’s chapter may be the most helpful for students because it can easily be appropriated into their own exegetical work.

Kenton Sparks’ essay on “Genre Criticism” (pp. 55–94) describes the emergence of the discipline as a corrective out of Form Criticism. The goal of Genre Criticism is to achieve reader competence in terms of understanding the verbal discourse of a given piece of literature. Reader competence implies that a reader recognizes how a given type of literature works and as well as the ability to understand it. The advance that genre criticism makes over traditional form criticism is the recognition that ideal types of literature do not exist. Rather readers group types of literature together in terms of common traits rather than in relationship to an ideal type or form. Sparks demonstrates the necessity of a close reading of the text in ways similar to the other methods in the book as well as the importance of extra-biblical comparative literature in attaining reader competency. Part of this competency as it relates to the book of Exodus is recognizing the diversity of interests and concerns embedded in the final form of the text.

Suzanne Boorer writes on “Source and Redaction Criticism” (pp. 95–130). This is the most traditional approach in this collection of essays. Boorer rehearses the history of source/redaction criticism including its interplay with form and traditio-historical methods. There is not much new ground broken in this essay but her review of the literature is probably the broadest and most helpful in the collection. The complexity and subjectivity of identifying discrete sources as well as the vastly different conclusions reached by competent scholars applying the method will remind the reader of the reason for the rise of the newer text and reader-centered hermeneutical approaches.

Jorge Pixley’s chapter on “Liberation Criticism” (pp. 131–162) is a lively and compelling read. Pixley is a leading and well-respected liberationist whose commentary on Exodus broke new ground in the field (On Exodus: A Liberationist Perspective. New York: Orbis Books, 1987). Pixley emphasizes the importance of the social location of the reader. He notes the irony and artificial nature of introducing a “method” to Western academics when it originally developed among poor and marginalized persons of faith living in the remote villages or in the urban slums of Latin America. Liberation theology reminds the reader that the reader’s context matters profoundly in interpretation. Pixley demonstrates that the book of Exodus is foundational for developing a theology of liberation. He argues that the prophets drew their liberationist and justice centered themes from the book of Exodus rather than creating these themes that are so central to the Torah.

Naomi Steinberg covers “Feminist Criticism” (pp. 163-192) well. Her introduction to the discipline is brief. She traces the rise of feminism among North American Anglo women and its spread to more marginalized groups in North America and around the world. She focuses the bulk of her chapter on illustrating a feminist reading of Exod 1–2 and 19–20. Her engagement with these common texts is the most thorough in the book and helps the reader to experience the range of interpretive options and the diversity within feminist criticism in terms of class, gender, and ethnicity. Steinberg also complies the most extensive bibliography in this volume.

In the final chapter, Gale Yee introduces “Postcolonial Biblical Criticism.” Her chapter spends a significant amount of space on introducing the philosophical roots of postcolonial theory. Postcolonial method is jargon heavy and readers encountering it for the first time may find themselves lost in the array of new vocabulary. Yee however is an able guide and demonstrates the powerful lens that postcolonial theory provides for illuminating new dimensions in the text of Exodus. She notes that Exodus may be read in support of both liberation and oppression. This leads her to remind her readers to ask two questions of their own interpretations: Whom does my interpretation help? Whom does it harm? Good questions indeed.

Each chapter concludes with a bibliography of key secondary resources for further study. Methods for Exodus also includes a Glossary, Name Index, and Scripture Index. The Glossary is particularly helpful. The various hermeneutical approaches introduce a plethora of specialized jargon into the English language. These can be bewildering to the beginning student. The Glossary gathers the most common terms together and offers a brief definition.

Methods for Exodus is an excellent resource for advanced exegetical courses in colleges and seminaries. Its stated target audience is students, scholars, and interested clergy. I think that this may be overly optimistic. This is a book best suited for advanced students and scholars. It is well written, but assumes a solid grounding in the current climate of biblical hermeneutics. Methods for Exodus does achieve its goal of illustrating how six different methodologies read the book of Exodus.

Brian D. Russell
Professor of Biblical Studies
Asbury Theological Seminary
Orlando, FL

Israel continues to exist as God’s people only as a result of God’s gracious saving actions in the deliverance from Egypt. The story of God’s people is rooted in grace. Israel’s life before God is one of response to grace. This is the heart of covenant. God reaches out and offers Israel a special relationship. The Creator God who delivered Israel from Egypt now invites God’s people to discover the purpose of their deliverance. Israel’s response to God’s grace may be summarized by the phrase faithful obedience. Through faithful obedience, God’s people begin to embody an ethos that reflects God’s character before the watching world. The call of God on his redeemed people is a call to holiness, but it is a holiness in the service of mission. The Sinai Covenant serves as a testament to God’s people of the centrality of mission, holiness, and community. The Sinai Covenant instructs and shapes God’s people into a missional community that reflects God’s character to/for/in the world.

The Sinai is the third explicit covenant in the Pentateuch. Several scholars, Frank Moore Cross and his student S. Dean McBride, Jr., have observed that five explicit covenants (Noah, Abraham, Sinai, Phinehus, and Moab) are embedded within the Pentateuch, which give these books an even greater interconnectedness. These five covenants form a chiastic structure with the Sinai covenant at the center:

A Noahic Covenant (Gen 9:9-17)

B Covenant Grant to Abraham (Gen 17:1-14, cf. Gen 15:1-21)

C Sinai Covenant (Exod 19:1-Num 10:10, esp. Exod 19:1-34:28)

B’ Covenant Grant to Phinehas (Num 25:11-13) – Ps 106:30-31

A’ Covenant in Moab (Deuteronomy, esp. 29:1-32:47)

The outer bracket (A and A’) focuses on the issue of stability. The Noahic covenant is with all living things and guarantees the stability of the heavens and earth. The covenant in Moab is made between God and Israel and serves to sustain Israel’s life in the land without Moses through the presence of God in the Torah. The inner bracket (B and B’) focuses on issues of land and priesthood. God’s land grant to Abraham guarantees Israel land whereas God’s grant to Phinehas (the savior of Israel at Baal-Peor) provides for a perpetual priesthood for Israel’s life in the land. The Pentateuch then centers on the Sinai pericope which focuses on Covenant and the institution of the proper worship of God.

Covenant is the rubric used by God to communicate his vision for God’s people’s life and work in the world. The idea of covenant is not unique to Israel. It is drawn from the wider Near Eastern culture of the day. The use of covenant is another example of the way that God incarnates himself into the culture as a means of communicating to humanity and redeeming discrete human cultures. God borrows an element common to a culture and uses it as a platform for communicating the divine will for humanity. Covenant teaches God’s people the true nature of reality—in particular the transcendence of God and the high value and worth of all human beings including women and other persons whom cultures tend to marginalize. At the center of the covenant’s portrait of God stands God’s holiness. The covenants also reveal God’s desire for men and women to live in an exclusive relationship with God rooted in trust and faithful obedience. God is holy and desires his people to likewise reflect his character in their corporate life together and in their engagement with the nations.

In particular the Sinai covenant and its recapitulation on the Plains of Moab in Deuteronomy offer God’s people a polity for shaping life according to God’s will. In Genesis 12:3, God called Abram to lead a family that existed as agents of blessing for the nations. The Torah as a whole details what this looks life. It is crucial to read the various laws, lore, and instructions for worship within the missiological framework provided in Genesis. The goal of the Sinai Covenant is not obedience, but the creation of a missional community that would reflect God’s character in the world, to the world, and for the world.

© 2011 Brian D. Russell

God acts unilaterally. God actions in the Exodus do not depend on human power or prerogatives in any way. God does for God’s people what they are powerless to do for themselves. Salvation is dependent on the grace and actions of God. There are no competing gods and goddesses from whom God must seek permission. Humans play only minor roles in the drama of the Exodus. Moses and Aaron serve chiefly as God’s visible representatives and speak for God, but they like all other human characters are merely spectators to the power of the LORD. Likewise God’s people, the objects of God’s liberating work, play no direct role in their own liberation. Salvation belongs wholly to the Lord.

The God of Israel is beyond compare. Although our world is full of idols and competing claims to deity, Exodus demonstrates decisively that there is only one being worthy of the title of God – the LORD. Exodus 15:11 points to the LORD’s incomparability: “Who is like you, among the gods, O LORD? Who is like you, mighty among the holy ones? Awe-inspiring in praises, doing wonders.” The deliverance from Egypt is the Old Testament’s preeminent display and pronouncement of God’s saving power and character. No other deity in the ancient World or modern world alike can make the claims that the
God of the Exodus can.

God can even use human intransigence and rebellion to reveal his character and power. The core struggle in Exodus is the showdown between Pharaoh king of Egypt and the LORD, god of Israel. Pharaoh asserts his authority and steadfastly refuses to recognize the LORD’s. But God reduces the most powerful “king” in the world to the status of a puppet as a means of declaring God’s name in all of the earth (Exod 9:16). This is an important word because it reminds the people of God that God can achieve his purposes even in the darkest moments when God’s people are facing the most stalwart of opponents.

God’s deliverance is inclusive of outsiders. God acts for God’s people against Egypt, but this must not be interpreted as God against the world. Egypt and the Egyptian people experience divine wrath because they attempted to thwart God’s mission in the world by oppressing God’s people and acting murderously toward them. This does not mean that God is against Egypt simply because they are not Israelites. When Israel leaves Egypt, a mixture of people follows them out (Exod 12:38). The message is subtle but important. Membership in God’s people is rooted in grace and not in race. The text does not tell us anything more about the identity of these people, but the implication is clear: outsiders are welcome to become insiders. The inclusion of outsiders reminds God’s people of the mission given to Abram (Gen 12:3). God’s people exist to serve as blessings for all peoples.

The liberation of Israel is for the world. God’s actions in the Exodus have creation wide implications. God frees God’s people from bondage and oppression so that God’s mission in and for the world can advance. The emphasis in Exodus is not merely Israel’s liberation from Egypt but on Israel’s liberation for God’s purposes of blessing and redeeming the nations.

What do you think?

Copyright 2011 Brian D. Russell

Over the last decade or so, Christian leaders in Western world have become acutely aware of the decline of the Christian faith in its former centers of power and influence. The numbers show a loss of roughly 5000 Christians every single day. Alex McManus has summed up the irony of this retreat aptly: “The Western world has lost its faith in the shadows of church steeples.” In response to this reality scholars, writers, and activists such as Lesslie Newbigin, Alan and Debra Hirsch, Michael Frost, Neil Cole, Donald Guder, and Reggie McNeil have helped to inspire and describe a paradigm shift in ecclesiology.

Missional church refers to a broad and loosely unified movement committed to recapturing the apostolic ethos of the New Testament era Church. The essence of missional is the recognition of the need of the Christ following movement to reengage the world with the Gospel by embodying a “go” and “sent” mentality. Missional churches come in all shapes and expressions: liturgical, organic, house church, multi-site, traditional, etc. But they share a commitment to incarnate the Gospel among those currently outside of the Christ following movement instead of waiting for such persons to be attracted to existing communities. The launching of new faith communities is at the forefront of the missional movement.

Here are five emphases common to those self-identified with missional:

Church as the Sent People of God
Missional churches seek to cultivate an apostolic DNA of “go” rather than “come.” The focus of discipleship is the mission of God. Christ followers see themselves as ambassadors or equippers of those engaged in mission. Discipleship is not separated from mission. In fact, evangelism and mission are construed as the shared values rather than the spiritual gifts of a select few.

The World as the Locus of Ministry
Missional churches consciously embody an “outside of the four walls of the church” posture. Ministry is practiced in the neighborhood rather than on the campus. Missional churches adopt local schools, feed the hungry, hold bible studies in public places, and other practices that present a visible witness to a watching world.

Churches as Mission Outposts
Missional churches see themselves as outposts on the frontier between heaven and hell rather than as safe refuges from the world. Communities of faith exist as training and equipping bodies that gather for worship in preparation for doing God’s work in the world. Missional churches avoid a siege or bunker mentality. Communities of faith exist in and for the sake of the world.

Pastor as Resident Missiologist
In missional churches, pastors see themselves primarily as the resident missiologists. They eschew old understandings of the pastor as chaplain, resident theologian, or ceo. Such identities represent artifacts from the past. Instead, missional pastors focus on equipping all Christ followers to engage fully in God’s mission in the world. They empower the people of God for service in the world.

New Measures for Evaluating Success
In the past, communities of faith judged vibrancy and health by means of maintaining membership rolls, tracking average attendance in worship services and Sunday school, and counting baptisms and confessions of faith. In the emerging missional context, what counts is the impact that a community has on the world around it—e.g., how well have we eradicated hunger among children in the local elementary school, how much of our budget is spend on the community, how many members do we lose to new church plants and other missional projects?

To what extent has your community of faith been impacted by the missional movement?