Church in Mission and Evangelism (Rough Draft)

There is a growing need for a development of a theology of the church in mission and evangelism. This is very important in a time when church leaders are desperately trying to find institutional expressions of Christianity which achieve better results. This can only be done by developing a theological perspective on missions and evangelism followed by its practical implications.

In order for the Church to become effective in mission and evangelism, its theology must understand its connection with the kingdom .(pg 13) . The church is not the kingdom but is called to be the kingdom community. It faithfully maintains the polarity between church and kingdom by living out the reality of God’s reign now, in it’s weaknesses and imperfections but in certain hope of ultimate triumph. In doing so it avoids the twin dangers of triumphalism, acting like the kingdom had already come in fullness, and ghettoism, turning inward and acting as if the kingdom were totally irrelevant for the present world.

The mission of the church, then, is to “raise signs of the kingdom”; to be a sort of demonstration project of what the kingdom will look like when it is fully manifest. This is a difficult calling, for it means being in but not of the world. It means being salt and light in ways that its unique flavor and glow come from Jesus Christ and yet really do penetrate society. (pg 150)

It is essential that churches form strong missional leadership who practically guide the community of God’s pilgrim people as the sign and witness of what happened to the world in and through the incarnation of Jesus Christ . Like Jesus, this leadership requires spirituality that is in close relationship with reliance and directions of the Father through the Spirit which require regular spiritual disciplines and ecclesial practices. This means imitating Jesus model by demonstrating the nature of his reign and teaching about its meaning. This was done by the apostles at Pentecost when the Spirit inspired the new community of God’s reign and sent the community of the resurrected Christ into the world.


The key function of the church as the body of Jesus Christ calls for his disciples to continue the works he began. Yet, if the works are truly done in Christ, they are not the disciples’ works but God and disciples are, “… created in Christ to do good works, which God prepared in advance… to do.” (Eph 2:10). Christians must be clear that they do not bring or build the kingdom, but neither are they to wait passively for its full realization. Christians are kingdom workers not kingdom builders. They live and serve in the confidence that “it is God who works in (them) to will and to act according to his good purpose” (Phil 2:13). (153)

Kingdom Conscious Christians are the community gathered around Jesus in faith, love and service to him and to all people . This happens when Christians experience the first fruits of the kingdom through the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is given as a deposit guaranteeing what is to come – namely the kingdom and its fullness which includes eternal life. Through Jesus, Christians already experience “the powers of the coming age” (Heb 6:5) Christians are to live in the power of the Spirit in service to the One who came to serve others and bring justice on the earth (Isa. 42.4) thus fulfilling the church’s mission. God equips the community with gifts of the Spirit that it may carry out its ministry of worship and witness with supernatural results. Kingdom communities, therefore, not only affirm the ministry of all believers, but they also share in a life through which gifts are encouraged, called forth, and put to good use. (155)

The biblical picture is not the church instead of the kingdom, but rather the church as witness to the demonstration of the kingdom as the just reign of God over all things. A clear understanding of God’s kingdom is essential to a proper conception of the mission of God’s people, the church. The church needs a biblical kingdom consciousness. Sensitivity to the priority of the kingdom will mean at least four things for the church’s role in missions and evangelism.

First, kingdom consciousness means living and working in the certain hope of the final triumph of God’s reign. Christians are those who in the face of all contrary evidence affirm that God is in control and that the victory send in his birth, life and death, resurrection, and reign of Jesus Christ is so powerful that it will eventually swallow up all evil, hate, and injustice. This gives Christians and unworldly audacious confidence that enables them to go right on doing what others say is impossible or futile in missions and evangelism.

Second, understanding God’s kingdom will expand the scope of what Christians view as the mission field in many different levels. It mean that the line between “sacred” and “secular” is erased. Rather than secularization of society or the sacralization of religious concerns, God’s kingdom means that all things are within the sphere of God’s sovereignty and, therefore, of God’s concern. No room for compartmentalized thinking here. Economics, ecology, politics, the arts, social and family life – all these are kingdom topics. So kingdom Christians bring a Jesus perspective to every area of life broadening its scope is missions.

Thirdly, this understanding will also expand the mission field to encompass all activities. It will require the church to have kingdom awareness. Kingdom awareness means that the ministry is much broader than church work. Christians who understand the meaning of God’s reign know they are in the kingdom business, and not the solely church business. They see all activity as having kingdom significance, so they strive together to bring all things under the Lordship of Christ. They know a secular job may be kingdom ministry if it contributes toward kingdom realities, but are ready to shift job, career, or venue if kingdom priorities so dictate (154).

Fourthly, the kingdom perspective will expand to unite concerns for justice with evangelistic witness. An awareness of God’s kingdom, biblically understood, resolves the tension between these two vital concerns. Kingdom Christians want to win people to personal faith in Jesus Christ, for the line of kingdom allegiance runs straight through every human heart. They are also committed to peace, justice, and righteousness at every level of society because of the circumference of the kingdom includes “all things in heaven and earth.” (Eph 1:10) and the welfare of every person and everything God has made. For the kingdom is, above all, a kingdom of love. Christians concerned with justice want to see as many people as possible come to faith in Jesus Christ and fidelity to his kingdom, while Christians concerned with evangelism want to see justice realized in all areas of society so the gospel will be made visibly credible. A kingdom perspective puts no split here.

Not also, should the church understand its connection with the kingdom but it must always make Jesus a constant reference point and be defined by him. It is Jesus who determines the church’s mission and methodology in the world, and therefore the church’s sense of purpose and mission comes from being sent by him into the world. (142-143).

This involves adopting incarnational mission in which the church takes the shape of the cultural group it is trying to reach. Mission in the incarnational mode is highly sensitive to the cultural forms and rhythms of a people group, because these are the means of meaningful relationship and influence. Incarnational mission thus engages within its cultural expression. Once this essential missional listening, observation, connecting, and networking has been done, then the forming of Jesus communities can take place. This is the only way to ensure that the Christian community truly incarnates itself and is fully contextualized.

Only in this way can the church actually become part of the cultural fabric and social rhythms of the host community. Once it has achieved this, it can therefore influence it from within. And it doesn’t matter what group that might be. In our neighborhoods there are literally hundreds of different “tribes” that can be meaningfully reached by such means. Through missional-incarnational approach, Jesus is introduced into the imaginations and conversations in a really evocative way (143-144).

Discipleship needs to be at the core of a church’s theology of mission and evangelism. C.S Lewis rightly understood the purpose of the Church was to draw people to Christ and to make them like Christ. Jesus initiated this by the simple acts of investing his life and embedding his teachings in his followers and developing them into authentic disciples. A commitment to resolute discipleship was the key for the remarkable growth to five hundred churches in a few short years by Neil Cole of Church Multiplication Associates (CMA). This started when the Associates wanted to lower the bar of how church is done and raise the bar of what it means to be a disciple. (102 – 105) with this in mind they developed the concept of Life Transformation Groups (LTGs), a very simple duplicable disciple making system that was eventually used worldwide because if its simplicity and reproducibility. It involves a staple of bible reading, story telling, personal accountability, and prayer. It is an ongoing commitment for everyone involved at CMA including leadership at every level.

What made discipleship so successful for the CMA was that they squared best with the five phases in the transmission of ideas through missionary movement. Steve Addison, a researcher of the nature of movements, discerns five phases in the transmission of ideas through missionary movements, discerns five phases in the transmission of ideas through successful missionary movements. They consisted of having white hot faith, commitment to a cause, contagious relationships, rapid mobilization and dynamic methods. White hot faith means having a direct and personal encounter with the living God, followed by social renewal. This is found in Paul, Wesley, Luther, Mother Teresa and other great Christian leaders who founded a movement or transformative movements which started with a direct and transforming encounter with God. This is followed by a commitment to a cause in which people are touched in such a way by God to give their lives to the cause as articulated by the movement. Commitment levels tend to be significantly high and catalyze a certain kind of synergy that comes through mutual cooperation and commitment. Contagious relationships refers to the network of relationships that become ‘contagious’ allowing powerful ideas like the Gospel to pass from one person to another and extend themselves beyond a narrow network of people and a single generation. Rapid mobilization refers to an apostolic type of leadership and organization that develops to be able to coordinate and maximize the efforts of the adherents of the movement. Dynamic methods involve the use of new and innovative methods and techniques to communicate their message. (104 -106).

The Church truly becomes missional when hunger comes with our familiarity with Jesus . This will help counter the current trend of Churches to artificially develop an ecclesiology, determining first where to meet, what songs to sing, what to preach, have to have small groups and leadership structures. Instead, becoming familiar with Jesus will inevitably birth a heartbeat of mission and force a rising for appropriate structures for worship, communal life, and leadership.

This kind of church will have four core components needed to establish appropriate structures. It will be Trinitarian in theology, Covenantal in expression, Catholic in orientation, missional in intent. It will be Trinitarian in looking at the interpersonal fellowship and interaction of the three persons of the Trinity and learning and participating in the community the Trinity model.
It will be covenantal in expression in committing to celebrate Christ’s presence, to share life with each other, and to embrace the mission together. This is more than a promise or pledge but a marriage and union centered on shared values and commitments.
Not only will it be covenantal but it will also be catholic in orientation. It involves gracious recognition of the small part a local community plays in the millennia – long project of a Christian mission. There is an eye to the connectivity with other brothers and sisters.
It is missional by first having proper understanding of Christ himself, leading to an appropriate commitment to mission which forces a development of the means of common life together.



These theologies on missions and evangelism have many practical implications. The missional-incarnational approach was adopted by a mission agency called the Third Place Communities (TPC). During the time spent away from home, work or school, people of TPC would gather with non Christians at social places such as pubs, cafés, hobby clubs, sports centers etc. for missional engagement. It would require following Jesus in engaging meaningfully with the lives of others . This means pursuing the poor, confused, struggling and the lost. It requires a high spirituality of engagement as marked by Jesus in going through all towns and villages and preaching in synagogues and healing every sicknesses and diseases (Matt 9:35). It also means looking for where God is already working and it may be in some unlikely places. We see Jesus eating with tax collectors and playing with children. This may lead Christians to find God working in the bar or biker gang, or strip club or casino. In over three years, they have seen some come to active faith in Jesus and many others close to it. Many of these relationships have become deep and intimate as they experience life together through the celebration engagements, weddings, birthdays, births and life in general. Bridges are built through weekly hospitality around tables, serving community together, raising money for those in need, sharing ideas about life, praying together, and exploring the stories about Jesus in the context of life. For all these people, whether they realize it or not, Jesus now inhabits their worlds in ways that are meaningful and tangible. (145).

Christians must understand and practice evangelism as proposing rather than imposing Christ . It must not be coercive or manipulative or forced on non Christians. Christians are truer to the faith when, like the suffering servant Jesus Christ, would propose rather than impose faith on others. The God of Israel and Jesus Christ makes himself known by entering into vulnerable relationship with his creatures. This does not force people to faith but attempts to persuade them to faith.

Genuine proposing means that evangelism is honest persuasion, a matter of fully informing others and allowing them to choose as they will. It means the church must renounce any attempt to make or manipulate others into wearing Christian shoes, accepting the Christian way of life. Christians instead are willing to affirm our willingness to suffer the consequences of opposition to Christian culture. This approach alone both certifies the seriousness of our convictions and proves our willingness to let others have their say. And so it opens the door to relationship and dialogue at the very moment it faithfully presses forward the aims of evangelism.

Here we make no mistake about the matter: genuinely proposing the faith usually entails an ongoing relationship, continuing conversation, with those now outside the faith. It definitely entails dialogue rather than monologue, that the Christian evangelist not only speak but also listen to learn how words and actions are being interpreted. And it entails, yet again, that the evangelist be apart of and be able to point to a community worthy of attention and respect, a way of life that prompts curiosity, questioning and a new searching. (170-171)