A Church Against Missions

Consider this thought: “The church is anti-missional.”

Who would agree with this? Do not we, as Christians, profess mission to be not only the command of the church (indeed, of Christ!), but also the sustaining life-blood of the Christian life? What are we if we are not professing our faith? Certainly living a life of faith includes profession at its heart.

And yet, there is the reality that gets in the way of our perceived understanding of the nature of the church.

Consider the prison church, setup by a missionary at the gates of the penitentiary, so that those who are released from their confinement, seeing no where else to go, are embraced by the arms of this simple, loving structure.

But what happens? Submitting to the life of the Gospel, the ex-cons are reformed. They marry, form families, have children. But with children come responsibility—responsibility for their safety and care. For that is the duty of a loving father. And so, with shock, the reformed man now sees the danger to his family—the very source of his salvation is now a welcome mat to those very influences and dangers he wishes to protect his family from. How can he allow his children near the prison—a place filled with rapists, murderers, child molesters...

And so, the church is moved...into the suburbs.

The great victory and defeat of the Gospel in one life.

So is the church missional? It does not seem so. For, the (empirical) nature of church would seem to be one of defense, maintenance of the status quo, once it has become comfortable enough, that is.