There is a theological thought system among many of my Western friends that I find pretty strange—church and mission are, for them, two different things.
Of course, they can be brought together to produce what we call “missional church,” “missionary congregation,” or indeed, a “mission-shaped church.” However, for many of them, the church exists to provide religious services to those who belong to it (who, until a few decades ago, were mostly Westerners), and mission is something that some specially called and trained people do in other parts of the world (which, until a few decades ago, was in the non-Western world).
The church is for those who want to give and send. Mission is for those who want to go. In the end, the church is for ordinary Christians, and mission is for heroes (because there is a perception that it requires a great deal of courage and/or a touch of self-sacrifice).
Though separated, the church and mission have a cyclical and mutually beneficial relationship.
Though separated, the church and mission have a cyclical and mutually beneficial relationship—mission leads to the formation of a church, and the existence of a church leads to mission. Thus, the church needs mission just as much as mission needs the church.
So we teach/study ecclesiology (study of the ecclesia, the church) apart from missiology (study of God's missionary intentions and human missionary activities) even though those who have studied such things are happy to quote David Bosch’s famous statement, “the church is missionary by its very nature.”
Once in a while, they may even quote from the Roman Catholic Chruch's Ad Gentes: “The pilgrim Church is missionary by her very nature, since it is from the mission of the Son and the mission of the Holy Spirit that she draws her origin, in accordance with the decree of God the Father” (Ad Gentes, No. 2).
Bosch goes on to exhort us with the following statements:
- Ecclesiology therefore does not precede missiology
- Missionary activity is not so much the work of the church as simply the Church at work
- Since God is a missionary God, God's people are a missionary people
- It has become impossible to talk about the church without at the same time talking about mission. One can no longer talk about church and mission, only about the mission of the church
- A church without mission or a mission without the church are both contradictions. The church is both missionary and missionizing.
Yet, even for Bosch himself, there was a gap between mission and the church. It is in this context that I find the situation in the African church (especially in the 1980s, '90s and '00s) bearing a gift for my Western friends.
Evangelizing in African Christianity is the duty and responsibility of all believers.
To various extents, the work of evangelizing in African Christianity is the duty and responsibility of all believers. There is a thing I have come to call the "evangelisthood" of all believers that has often made it possible for entire congregations to commit to sharing the good news as part of their general day-to-day living.
Local members of congregations evangelized at every opportunity; in the bus or at the bus depot, in the hospital or at the funeral, or indeed at work or at school. There is something in African Christianity that allows congregations to be the witnessing communities God made them to be.
As a result, for many of us from Africa, there is no gap between the church and mission (or between ecclesiology and missiology). In Europe's post-Christian context, adding "missional" to "church" does not go far enough.
We need to find ways to work with God in equipping and releasing all believers to bear witness of the risen Christ among their own neighbors as well as on their journeys as they migrate up and down the world.
How is your church sharing the gospel with all the people in your community, as well as further afield? Consider how you might also develop the "evangelisthood" of all believers.
Originally published on Harvey Kwiyani's Substack, Global Witness Globally Reimagined. Republished with permission.
Dr Harvey Kwiyani is a Malawian missiologist and theologian who has lived, worked and studied in Europe and North America for the past 20 years. He has researched African Christianity and African theology for his PhD, and taught African theology at Liverpool Hope University. Harvey is also founder and executive director of Missio Africanus, a mission organization established in 2014 as a learning community focused on releasing the missional potential of African and other minority ethnic Christians living in the UK. More recently he became African Christianity Programme Lead for CMS (UK) Pioneer Mission Training.
