March 25, 2010
David Bosch on The Church and the World
David Bosch outlines five important characteristics of the church’s relationship to the world in his landmark book “Transforming Mission.” This stuff is so fantastic (and I think important) that I am just going to copy what he wrote here. Also, if you haven’t read this book. Get it and spend the next three years slowing reading through it. It’s that good.
- The church cannot be viewed as the ground of mission, it cannot be considered the goal of mission either – certainly not the only goal. The church should continually be aware of its provisional character.
- The church is not the kingdom of God. The church is “on earth the seed and the beginning of that kingdom” and “the sign and instrument of the reign of God that is to come. The church can be a credible sacrament of salvation for the world only with it displays to humanity a glimmer of God’s imminent reign – a kingdom of reconciliation, peace and new life. In the here and now, that reign comes whensoever Christ overcomes the power of evil. This happens most visibly in the church but also happens in society, since Christ is Lord of the whole world as well.
- The church’s missionary involvement suggest more than calling individuals into the church as a waiting room for the hereafter…there is a convergence between liberating individuals and peoples in history and proclaiming the final coming of God’s reign. In this perspective, the church is the “people of God in world occurrence” (Barth) and the community for the world.
- The church is to be viewed as the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, as a movement of the Spirit towards the world en route to the future. When we view the church as a community of the Holy Spirit we identify it preeminently as missionary community, since the Spirit is the go-between God.
- If the church attempts to sever itself from involvement in the world and if its structures are such that they thwart any possibility of rendering a relevant service to the world, such structures have to be recognized as heretical. The church’s offices, orders, and institutions should be organized in such a manner that they serve society and do not separate the believer from the historical. Its life and work are intimately bound up with God’s cosmic-historical plan for the salvation of the world. We are called, therefore, to be “kingdom people” and not “church people.” Because of its integral relatedness to the world, the church may never function as a fearful border guard, but always as one who brings good tidings.
I think this stuff #5 on the church and its connection to history is extremely important. Karl Barth in volume 4.3.2 in his Church Dogmatics spends a lot of time talking about the “gospel in world occurrence” and its really, really good stuff. Heady, but good. I think we tend to separate world history from the church and that’s a grave mistake. We talk about salvation history, often in opposition to, world history. I believe the scriptures are talking about salvation history as world history. God is working in and through history to bring it to completion and it’s through Christ that God is accomplishing this. I think far too often we accidental forget that God is not working alongside or in opposition to history, but in history.
03.25.10
By: JR Rozko
I have to read through it in like 3 days as it’s 1 of 3 required texts that I need to write a 10 page paper on as part of an application process. Almost 1/2 way in and my pen is almost our of ink!
03.25.10
By: Todd
Three days?! Wow. I’ve been reading this book off and on for three years! Oh, you might want to get some more pens.
03.25.10
By: Brad Brisco
I had to start with Nussbaum’s “A Reader’s Guide to Transforming Mission.” It really did help set the stage a bit for reading the real thing.
03.26.10
By: Geoff Holsclaw
man, I need to find my copy and work through it. i’ve had it forever but haven’t had the chance to read it.
so I really like #1. we’ve recently changed our identity statement here at Life on the Vine to read “living in Christ, with one another, for God’s mission in the world” to emphasize this.
but #2 always makes me a little bit nervous. not how you are using it (or Bosch?), but often it is just an easy step along the way of totally dismissing the church altogether (which I know you aren’t doing). I would say something like, “While the church is not the Kingdom ontologically, the Kingdom can only be known through the church epistemologically, which ultimately means through Christ.”
03.26.10
By: Todd
Geoff, I hear you. as with any good thing, you can take it and screw it all up.
One of the things that has been a really healthy corrective for me has been to understand that my church is not the kingdom of God. this allows me to hold the people who enter into our community with open hands because my main goal is not necessarily to get them committed to our church but rather, i see my/our main goal as connecting them with their place in the kingdom of God. that might mean we need to send them to another congregation where they might fit better or live our their calling better and that might mean that they need to call our church home. i find that this isn’t only good practice biblically but it also really is a breath of fresh air for people who are looking for a community they can commit to. they no longer feel like butts in seats or checks in an offering plate. like i said, my belief in #2 is what makes this practice okay for me.
of course, there are many ways you can totally misunderstand this stuff too and the super low church people who think that Christianity is all about me my spirituality are missing the point.
03.26.10
By: David Fitch
Todd, from what parts of “Transforming” are you summarizing/quoting … I am on a mini vacation with my family and not supposed to be on the net … so I’m sneaking this in for later reference…
Also #1 … the church is not “the ground of mission”… well then, assuming we need a ground for mission, what is the ground for mission? The Bible? If you say Jesus (like Al Hirsch does) then is it our personal relationship with Jesus – not mediated – say mystical? I don’t know if I can read Bosch in this way? In all this, Gerhard Lohfink’s “Does God Need the Church?” is ringing in my ears.
Of course the second part of statement #1 – that the church is not the goal of mission – is good.
03.27.10
By: Todd
David, stop being a bad husband and father! get back to vacating!
re: #1 – i wonder if he is using the term “ground” differently that we are. not sure. but like you said, i too like his statement in this point that the church is provisional in nature and that its not the goal of mission. i think that’s the point he’s trying to get at there. maybe he’s saying that the church is not the base goal of mission. again, not totally sure.
this is from the last main section of the book. i can’t remember what it is because i don’t have the book with me :)
03.28.10
By: David Fitch
Ouch … mucho gratias for the reprimand and the info … (p.s. I’m back home from vacation now).
03.29.10
By: JR Rozko
The list above is from Ch. 12 “Elements of an Emerging Ecumenical Missionary Paradigm,” sub-section, “Church and World” pgs. 377-378 in the 2006 edition.