On the right hand of this blog page I have a quote by David Bosch which states “It has become impossible to talk about the church without at the same time talking about mission. One can no longer talk about church and mission, only about the mission of the church…A church without mission or a mission without church are both contradictions.”
This quote is at the heart of the missional church conversation. This is a radical statement that goes far beyond churches that say “we are mission minded” or churches that talk about an active involvement in the program(s) of missions. Being missional goes far beyond doing compassionate ministries projects. If mission were a program of the church, it would be easy to decide to cut mission giving or mission type activity when finances are stretched. If, however, mission is the very nature of God or to put it another way, in the DNA of God, that is passed to His church, then it is impossible to separate mission and church. The church doesn’t just DO mission, the church IS mission. It’s in our DNA.
One implication of this is that any church in any place of the globe is intended to not only receive the Gospel, but also to take the Gospel. “Everything needed to develop mission sending capacity is already written into the DNA of any people group around the world. Likewise, there is no people group anywhere in the world that does not have the capacity to become a missionary sending force.”[i]
This is huge! This means that mission does not depend on the financial stability of a country; neither does it depend on the official sanction of the denomination. To be the Church is to be a church in mission, otherwise it is, at best, severely handicapped. Collectively, we become the people of God who participate in His mission to all people. When a church in Bolivia, Nigeria, Mongolia or any other part of the globe participates in mission, they are participating in their true nature.
This is at the heart of any real movement of God. A movement of God does not happen because of right strategy or sufficient funding. A movement of God happens when “ we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another…” It is when we reflect the nature of God and become mission in our very nature.
