Here are more thoughts from Darrell Guder from our recent conversation. In this case, it deals with the missional vocation of the church:
In terms of missional ecclesiology, I continue to find it very important to stress that the gathering of the church is not the ultimate purpose of mission, but rather it is the primary means by which God is carrying out his healing mission in the world. The gathered life of the Christian community is, then, not an end in itself but the way in which God’s people are equipped for their vocation as witnesses in the world. I would insist that we consider every action and activity of the gathered church in terms of its missional vocation: how does what we are doing together “equip the saints for the work of ministry, the building up of the body of Christ,” which happens as the church is scattered in the world like salt, leaven, and light? I am especially concerned that the gathered, public, worship of the community be both practiced and experienced as missional formation for apostolic living in the world. I think that our classic emphasis upon “Word and sacrament” must be re-thought in terms of missional formation.
Closely linked to that would be the concern for the interpretation of Scripture as missional formation. It is not enough to define Scripture as the norm which guides our understanding and practice of our Christian vocation. We need to understand that it is the particular work of God’s Spirit to use the Biblical witness as the primary agent for the ongoing missional formation of the gathered church. This necessitates reading, studying, and interpreting Scripture on the basis of that missional center. That in turn means that we must develop a missional hermeneutic that will equip us to be confronted by Scripture as God’s missional formation for our witness. This seems to me to be a much higher view of the authority of Scripture: It is the Spirit-given authority to form us for missional living. Scripture’s authority is not an abstract proposition but the actual power God’s Spirit gives this Word to effect our missional obedience.
What do you think?
BTW, I planned to link to Guder’s Wikipedia page but he does not have one– seems like one of you Wiki angels could help him out.
