Neighbourhood Life (HL)

There is a discussion that has been taking place since the first part of the 21st century that has come to be known as the “missional church conversation". This conversation proposes a renewed theological vision of the church. The renewal centers on the theological tenet that the God of Abraham is a sending God and that we see this in the sending of his Son Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit and finally in the sending of his people into the world. The “missional conversation” for this reason can be understood to be a reexamination of the nature of the church. The dominant questions that have come to frame this conversation are;

What is the church?

What does the church do?

How ought the church organize what it does?

Much has been discussed and many books have been written concerning the first and second statements. Some of us have been actively involved in these conversations and have formed close associations with many of the prominent scholars and authors within the world of the “missional church”. We have had the benefit of their counsel, criticism and friendship. It is from this position that we as practitioners have been engaged in prayerful observation, reflection and practice in order that we would gain some clarity on how the church “ought to organize what it does” having embraced this renewed theological vision of the church.

It is been a joy to listen and seek to understand how what is being said in this important conversation might apply among the body of Christ today. The extension of this task has been to attempt to observe the church in its many contexts through the lens of the missional church conversation so that we might see within the church those practices which are in harmony with this conversation. It has been out of this rhythm of research, reflection and observation that we are able to assert three general activities in answer to the question,

“What does the church actually do?”

In this same process it is possible to commend an alternative structure were by these practices are can be “organized” in order for the church to grow in faithfulness as understood by the "missional church conversation".

Throughout the research of the literature and in our observations of living churches, there are three basic “doings”, or activities, that reoccur and these are always held in tension. These activities are given many names and are nuanced in many ways but are essentially the same throughout the "missional church" literature. Reference is made to them in the text book “missional church” on page 102 were it says: “the church is to represent God’s reign as its community, its servant and its messenger.”

Another way in which we have heard this triad articulated is; that the church is sent into mission as the Kerygma (word), the Diakonia (servant) and the Koinonia (community) of God. It is in the organizing of these three activities or “movements” into a way of being where each is held in tension and in proportion to the other that the structure of the church undergoes effective transformation.

One missional church commentator who calls these activities “commitments” and labels them as “Communion, Commission and Community”, saying that each of the three ought to form the sides of an equilateral triangle. Staying with this illustration he then says that, 'all three sides must hold together in relationship to the other and that none of the sides should lose proportion to the other.'

For many it is difficult to imagine a church which can organize these activities in proportion to one another. In many cases the magnitude of these commitments are out of balance with one another and rarely are they held in relationship with one another. Several questions arise out of the difficulty of holding these commitments and holding them in balance.

Questions such as -

What is the quality of our community life?

How can we as a community regularly and together serve the needs of our community?

By which neighbourhood or place are we seen as “a light on a hill”?

It is because of this challenging tension that the missional church conversation exhorts the church by saying that “Before the church is called to do or say anything it is called and sent to be the unique community of those who live under the reign or God.” (Page 103)

This is a call for a radical organizational response by the people of God, to first establish themselves as robust communities of faith (Koinonia) and then to proceed out together as communities into the world to demonstrate the kingdom of God through compassionate service (Diakonia) and then to make a verbal proclamation of the Good News (Kerygma), in order that the church might be faithful to its nature as a sent people..

It is out of these reflections on the fundamentals of the missional church conversation and its faithful application that comes a serious reevaluation,

Of the unity of Christians in neighbourhoods,

Of the role of proximity in forming community and,

The importance of appointing lay leaders or elders in neighbourhoods.

We are not advocating one model of the church but we are advocating for churches that will always be conscious of what they are, what they ought to do and how with this in mind will organize themselves.

It is our contention that the fundamental commitment of the follower of Christ is both to

Love God and to love our actual neighbour.

As a natural extension of this, the fundamental unit of the church is the community of those who love their neighbours and who thereby become a living example of the in breaking kingdom of God, a kingdom of which they are a demonstration and to which they proclaim.