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Who God Is-Who Church Is, By Michael Jenkins

1599 Words7 Pages

Who God is-Who Church is

The declaration that the mission is God's, is an assertion about the nature of God. Accordingly, God engages, and the story of God in the Bible is the narrative of a God with a purpose, endeavoring to heal and restore all creation back into relationship by establishing the kingdom of God. Not simply is it the story of a missionary God healing and renewing by inaugurating the kingdom of God, it is likewise the story of the founding of this kingdom through Christ. Hence, one must consider viewing God through the lens of Christ.

This purview places the life and death of Christ at the centre of our view of God. Through Christ, God is self-disclosing. Accordingly, Michael Jenkins writes, "God reveals who God is, Luther …show more content…

In the missional reading of the Bible, humanity is in a relationship and encounter with God because of God's activity. Thereupon, identity exists in relation with God, others and creation. Outside of such relationship, there is no individuality or identity for being human is reliant upon relationship. This discovery of God's identity as an active relation towards a purpose revealed in a missional reading of scripture grounds human identification in the same dynamic relationship towards a purpose. The church, composed of people, encounters its purpose and meaning in relationship with its community, for the benefit of the world. This missional theology compels the church to deconstruct the walls erected by language, rituals and fear and engage the community. Moreover, such action facilitates the church to recognize and become who it is. Such an authentic transformative relationship requires listening. The church must listen both to their neighbours and for God in the conversations. The church cannot become and be as intended, without such a listening …show more content…

However, a missional hermeneutic leads the church to attend to the ways in which it can witness that Christ is the Messiah, the incarnate God, crucified, raised from the dead and ascended to heaven. This witness invites others into participation in new life with Christ. Orthodoxy shifts in a missional hermeneutic from correct belief in God to "believing in the right way" which involves the way one participates in the work of God in the world through the Spirit of Christ. This is new life! An awakening to a life centered upon a relationship with God, others, and creation. The church learns how to lead this new life by studying the biblical narrative and reviewing how God in Christ lived in the community. Via such biblical study, the church is also learning how God in Christ will be eschatologically in the community, and, via a listening engagement with the churches' community, how God in Christ is now present in the community. As Bauckham points out, Christ shows us how God is in the world.

Therefore, this missional theology compels the church to live a new life by breaking down walls and listening to its neighbours as Christ listened to his neighbours. In doing so, the good news of the kingdom of God is relevant. As Jesus asked, "What do you want me to do for you?", the church also may discover that

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