Reimagining Church: Language, Dialogue, and Transformation

2. ‘How can we seek to re-imagine what it means to be the Church and create new communities if we lack the language and ability to talk and reflect about what it means to be the Church in dialogue with Scripture and our tradition.’ Steven Croft, Mapping Ecclesiology for a mixed economy in Mission Shaped Questions.

3. Basic questions of church • Who? • What? • Why? Maybe we should ask Where from? Where to ?

4. Where from ? • The Body of Christ • Pentecost • The Trinity

5. Where to ? Following Jesus - disciple Pilgrims- alien Eschaton- mystery of the future

6. A retrospective ecclesiology • A reconciling community • Foretaste of the Kingdom • A reconciling unity • “The very essence of church life is that she is pressing • forward to the fulfilment of God’s purpose…… • pressing forward to the ends of the earth and the end • of the world.”

7. Unity in freedom • Catholic in partianship • Holiness in poverty • Apostolic in suffering

8. Three dimensions Open before God before humankind before the future

9. “ The missionary church will not aim to spread its own form. It is not a subsidiary of the old one. It is a ‘new church’ of the same apostolate. It preserves its unity when it fulfils Christ’s apostolic mission to its own historical situation.”

10. Organised Organic One Diverse Holy Charismatic Catholic Local Apostolic Prophetic Howard Synder , Decoding the Church. Baker Books

11. “And so from the start , where Jesus is, there is the church, the church is the assembly of those who are finding their relationships, their lives transformed by the presence of Jesus.”

12. What happens when the news and presence of Jesus, raised from the dead, impacts upon the human scene, drawing people together in a relationship that changes everyone involved, a relationship which means that each person involved with Jesus is now involved with all others who have answered his invitation, in ways that are painful and demanding but also life giving & transforming beyond imagination.

13. Each Christian generation makes itself responsible, as did Jesus’ first friends, for bringing people into relations with him and so with each other. When that happens, the Church happens.

14. Relationship of gospel, church, mission and kingdom

15. Church as a place where certain things take place • to • a body of people sent on a mission • Community gathered by a common calling & vocation • to be a sent people • God centred mission rather than church centred • church as missional with calling and sending action of • God forming its identity

16. What explains the church, what makes it the church, is that its life is birthed by the Holy Spirit as the Spirit gives hearing & response to the gospel. • Origins in the gospel • Being originated by the Holy Spirit • Oriented by the present reign of Christ • in which the coming completed reign • of God……is revealed and becomes • effective in the present. Hans Kung, The Church, 1967

17. Look up and discuss Mark 1 v14-15 Matthew 16 v18-19 Matthew 10 v7 Matthew 24 v14 Luke 18 v17, v24-5, 29-30 Matthew 7 v21-23 Luke 13 v18- 21 Luke 17 v20-1 Acts 8 v12, 19 v8 1 Corinthians 15 v23-4 Galatians 5 v18-21

18. Church shaped kingdom(church and kingdom the same) World shaped kingdom(church and kingdom separate) Kingdom shaped church (interrelated but not identical) Mike Moynagh, Church for every context. p99-104.

19. A gift we receive • A realm we enter • ‘reign of God is an inhabiting for which we are destined.’

20. The church is spawned by the reign of God & directed to it The divine reign expresses itself in a unique ,though not exhaustive or exclusive fashion in the church. • The church represents the reign of God as • sign and foretaste • agent and instrument • Jesus represented God’s reign as • community • servant • messenger

21. ‘ the danger to be avoided is the separation of the Kingdom from the church. It is clear that they cannot and must not be confused, certainly not identified. But they must not also be separated. From the beginning the announcement of the Kingdom led to a summons to follow and so to the formation of a community. It is the community which has begun to taste the reality of the Kingdom which alone can provide the hermeneutic of the message.’ Lesslie Newbigin, Signs of the Kingdom.

22. Homogeneous Unit Principle Donald McGavran 1897-1990 The Bridges of God.1954 Understanding Church Growth, Eerdmanns.1970

23. The key question is How do peoples become Christians? “ Peoples become Christians when a Christward movement occurs within that society…….. A reorientation of the life of the social organism around Jesus. The Bridges of God, 1954

24. “people become Christians fastest when least change of race or clan is involved.” • Two models of mission • Mission station model-gathered and static • People movement- organic, indigenous & • spontaneous “But the truth not often seen or stressed is that Christianity, like electricity flows best where there is good contact. The power of God acts best within a people.”

25. Homogeneous Unit Principle “HU is simply a section of society in which all the members have some characteristic in common.’ “When the church plants congregations in the many cultures of America or any other nation, it multiplies credible witnesses who can readily be understood by the people of these cultures. While it will be done differently depending on time and place, it must be done.” Understanding Church Growth, 1980

26. Homogeneous Unit Principle • Key factors • Church focused not just salvation • Danger of search mentality. • sow and leave it to God

27. Homogeneous Unit Principle • A missional goal • A missional first step • A missional no-go • A focused and connected church Mike Moynagh, Church for every context, p168-170

28. Unity ‘ Diversity is part of God’s gracious purpose but separation and mutual recognition is not.’ ‘ There must be new ‘forms’ of church, outside the walls of the existing church and distinct from the community from which it came. Separation there must be- for the sake of mission but equally separation cannot be the last word for the gospel is about Gods purpose to unite all things in Christ.’ Ecumenical Review 29

29. Focussed and connected • It echoes NT practice • It flows with social reality • It corresponds to God’s intention for humanity • It echoes the pattern of election • It anticipates the new creation Mike Moynagh, Church for every context, p168-170

30. Two principles • riches of cultural diversity • each church should be rooted in the soil of its local culture • unity of the church • how express the unity of the body. Single new humanity Pasadena Consultation. Lausanne Theology and Education Group 1977.

31. a HU cannot be complete in itself • balance need to evangelise and live • in love and justice • relation to local culture-idolatrous /self centred • what binds might be evil • cheap grace or ask too much • church as sign of eschatological hope

32. “The Christian in whose heart Christ dwells inclines toward sister &brotherhood as waters runs down a valley... If Christ in the heart did not impel toward this, no amount of social action would help the situation. Jews and Gentiles--or other classes and races who scorn and hate one another--must be discipled before they can be made really one.” Donald McGavran

33. Anglican ecclesiology • It did not start in 16th Century • There is no definitive Anglicanism • It is global

34. “ The Church of England is part of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church worshipping the one true God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It professes the faith uniquely revealed in the Holy Scriptures and set forth in the catholic creeds, which faith the Church is called to proclaim afresh in every generation, lead by the Holy Spirit, it has borne witness to the Christian truth in its historic formularies, the 39 Articles, the BCP and the Ordinals of Bishops, Priests and Deacons. Preface to the Declaration of Assent . Canon C15

35. “This seems to be a mandate for some reinterpretation, re-expression and making the faith relevant, provided that this exercise, imperative as it is, remains faithful to the Scriptures and the creeds.” “ one that is full of vitality and manoeuvrability and which has the flexibility to make contact with the contexts of our pluralistic world. Paul Avis, The Identity of Anglicanism, T&T Clark,2007

36. 3 key marks • catholic and reformed • Episcopal oversight • baptism and eucharist