While it’s very easy to deconstruct church paradigms, it takes heavy reliance on the Spirit through prayer and Scriptural study to “reconstruct” what the church should be. Many are asking good questions, but not digging into the Bible and thus are coming up with creative and new ways of being disobedient to God and the Gospel. The dream at Missio Dei was that we would not come up with new ways of doing church. Our intention has been to always “contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3), so that things such as virgin birth of Messiah, inspiration, infallibility, inerrancy, authority of Scripture, necessity of faith in Christ alone, etc. were not up for debate. Missio Dei, to be a faithful, Christ honoring church would have to remain committed to an unchanging Gospel, contextualized to a changing culture. The Gospel would be the foundation of our community.
The Gospel, as presented in Scripture is not simply a way into the Kingdom. It is the way of the Kingdom of God. The Gospel expressed in the Scriptures teaches us that human beings were created to be perfect reflections of God, husbands and wives, parents, developers of culture, etc. (Gen. 1:26-28). In essence, humans were to be a people who rule over creation by living according to God’s truth, in communion with God and one another. Adam, our first father, failed and since the fall of our father Adam, by nature and by choice, we are fallen in our capacities and abilities from being what we were created to be. And because of this, God Himself curses us (Gen. 3:17-19, Rom. 8:19-22). Albert Wolters describes it precisely saying, “Whether we look at societal structures such as the state or family, or cultural pursuits such as art or technology, or bodily functions such as sexuality or eating, or anything within the wide scope of creation, we discover that the good handiwork of God has been drawn into the sphere of human mutiny against God” (Creation Regained, p. 54).
The good news is that there is One who would perfectly rule over creation, live according to God’s truth and commune with God and man. Jesus was the perfect image of God and came to rescue (John 6:38-40). Jesus form of rescue was not simply an example of a better way to live (though it was that), but He was condemned in humanity’s place. Three days after his unjust murder on a Roman cross, He rose from the dead and ascended to the Father (Rom. 5:6-11). The aim of Jesus is to bring new life and vitality to the fallen, broken creation; to restore creation’s original purpose (Col. 1:15-20).
Jesus is working to restore creation through the church, whose call is to promote renewal in every area of creation (John 20:21, II Cor. 5:17-21). This authoritative sending activity of God is not simply propositional (Matt. 28:18-20). The goal of making disciples takes place in the context of relationships. This means that, in everything we do, we are to be engaged in building friendships and showing the beauty of the gospel (the hope of redemption) to the world around us. We attempt, though imperfectly, to spell out personal and corporate (group) beliefs and behavior patterns that show the larger society what the Kingdom of God is all about.
With this Gospel-centered vision for the church community, and a desire to organize in simple and honest ways, I began reflecting on how we would express the body of Christ (I Cor. 12:27)and mobilize the church to effectively go into the city with the Gospel. The convictions that formed our ministry design included the commitment to facilitate environments where the Gospel is preached for clarity, applied to life among fellows on the journey, and shared with our culture through service. These environments lined up neatly with the offices Christ came to fulfill and the areas in which he succeeded where Adam failed.
The offices are Prophet (declaring the truth of God), Priest (communion with God and people), and King (ruling over creation). They shape our environments of gathering for explanation/proclamation of the Gospel, community groups for exploration of the Gospel, and lifestyle service for expression of the Gospel.
In future articles, I’ll unpack how these environments are played out in the context of Asheville, a creative urban hub for the spiritually and morally disenfranchised of the Southeast.
