Beyond Maintenance to Mission

A Theology Of The Congregation

Craig Nessan

• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9780800663261
• eBook ISBN: 9781451405392
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

Visionary yet practical, Nessan's influential book makes a persuasive case for the centrality of mission in the life of the church. Nessan's model of mission-driven leadership is strongly centered on the community of faith's worship and draws unique connections between the worship life of a congregation and every aspect of the church's ministry. Around the twin foci of congregational identity and mission, the chapters in this dynamic book provide solid theological and radical direction on the themes of worship, education, fellowship, stewardship, evangelism, global connections, and social ministry.

PART ONE: ORIENTATION

Chapter One

Basic Elements of a Theology of the Congregation

Everyone has one. Most often it remains invisible until an argument breaks out: “We can’t have communion every Sunday.” “What will the neighbors say if we start sheltering homeless people in the church basement?” “Let’s budget more this year for janitorial service and take the difference out of our benevolence giving.” One’s theology of the congregation shapes in a million ways how one sets priorities for the work of the church.

Put most basically, one’s theology of the congregation is evidenced by how one understands God to be alive, present, and working in everything a congregation chooses to do. What does God have to do with it? Most often one’s theology of the congregation remains implicit and therefore unexamined. That is the way we often look at many common institutions we think we already know (for example, marriage). Yet failure to reflect carefully upon the entire scope of ministry can leave a congregation ill equipped to engage in the mission God sets before it.

In this initial chapter we establish the frame of reference for a comprehensive and vital theology of the congregation. Understanding the theology of your congregation can assist you to give insightful leadership. The theological perspective developed in this book stands in continuity with the early church, exists in a dynamic interplay between the issues of identity and mission, and is grounded in the historic liturgy of Word and Sacrament.

Kerygma, Koinōnia, Diakonia

Three Greek words are frequently cited to characterize the identity of the earliest Christian church and its mission: kerygma, koinōnia, and diakonia. Often these words have been translated into English as proclamation, fellowship, and service, respectively. We will here preserve the Greek originals, with the intention of respecting the nuances of meaning lost in the translation.

The early church lived in acute tension with its surrounding cultures. When one examines accounts of the early Christian witnesses at the time the New Testament books conclude, in the early second century, for example, the letters of Ignatius or Polycarp, one is struck by the immediacy of persecution and martyrdom. Christians lived in an environment that was at best indifferent and that frequently organized acts of hostility against them. The main cause for the troubles faced by Christians was their peculiar confession of the lordship of one Jesus Christ, crucified by the Romans, but for them the source of their own and the world’s salvation.

This confession of faith in Jesus Christ might have been excusable were it not for their persistence in seeking to spread these beliefs to others. What is more, the lordship of Jesus over their lives made them suspect to both their Jewish neighbors and to the Roman authorities. A widening breach separated the early Christians from the Jewish communities that birthed them, as the confession of Jesus acted as a monumental stumbling block. This meant that the provisions for Jews under Roman law were insufficient to protect them. Furthermore, Christians who failed to do adequate obeisance to Caesar and demonstrate loyalty as Roman citizens became subject to persecution.

In this adverse climate, Christian believers organized life around three central concerns. The first of these, kerygma, refers not just to formal preaching but to proclamation of the Christian gospel in a variety of forms. By gospel these Christians meant the message of Jesus crucified and risen from the dead, by which salvation from sin, evil powers, and death had been won. Those who put faith in Jesus and transferred allegiance to him formed a countercultural community, providing mutual edification for each other and proclaiming the message so that others might join their ranks and be saved.

A central occasion for the kerygma was the assembly of believers for worship. Those appointed to preside over the Eucharist would also often serve as interpreters of the readings from Holy Scripture. Where there were readings from the Hebrew Bible, emphasis was placed on fulfillment in Christ. Readings from Paul, the Gospels, and other New Testament writings also invited interpretation and explanation. Much of this proclamation took shape as exhortation and advice for persevering faithfully in the face of misunderstanding and opposition. A holy life could serve as a powerful witness to the truth of the Christian kerygma.

The kerygma was also proclaimed by those doing the work of an evangelist. In addition to the testimony of the Christian faithful to family and neighbors, itinerant evangelists carried the gospel message far and wide. Paul provides a very early model of how the kerygma became known throughout and beyond the expanse of the Roman Empire. Entering a city or town, Paul went first to the local synagogue and entered into discussion and even debate about the meaning of the Jewish Bible in light of the coming of Jesus Christ. Where the Christian message was received, Paul established a congregation for the nurture and spreading of the gospel. Where met by opposition, Paul took the gospel to the Gentile population and sought to build a local congregation. In either case, Gentiles were welcomed into the Christian community on the basis of confession of faith in the kerygma and baptism in the name of Jesus Christ.

What is difficult for us to recapture is the dynamic power intrinsic to early Christian announcement of the kerygma. The living Christ, clothed in human testimony, encountered hearers to set them free from fear and empowered them for a Christlike lifestyle in community with other believers. The message was not abstract ideas about Jesus but rather a conviction and a declaration of his living presence among them. Whether in personal testimony or in the public forum, the kerygma embodied the Christ, made him come alive anew in a word event, and re-presented him as a living person with whom one was invited to contend. Forgiveness of sins, deliverance from evil, and eternal life were gifts offered by the living, resurrected Jesus Christ, too good to be true.

The second characteristic of the life of the early church is summarized by the term koinōnia. The origin of Christian koinōnia comes from the initiative of God in establishing communion with humankind by the power of the Spirit. The undeserved and gracious love of God (agapē) entered the world in the incarnation of Jesus Christ to create fellowship both with God and among humankind. Jesus gathered around himself a community of disciples, exemplified by the Twelve. Jesus was renowned and even notorious for the fellowship he initiated—with sinners, tax collectors, lepers, Gentiles, women, and children. Particularly scandalous was Jesus’ practice of open table fellowship. The kingdom of God meant for Jesus a community of egalitarian friendship under God’s grace.

After Jesus’ death and resurrection, koinōnia with Jesus continued in the ritual eating and drinking of bread and wine, known as the Eucharist. The Christian faithful continued to gather together, especially on the day of the resurrection (Sunday), to bless and break bread together in the name of Jesus. Through gathering together, hearing the Word, praying, and partaking in the sacraments, Jesus lived among them, bearing gifts of salvation. This koinōnia with God in Jesus Christ by the presence of the Spirit abides at the heart of all Christian fellowship.

Given the care of God in Christ for them, the early church lived also in mutual love and care for one another. The Acts of the Apostles reports that, “All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need” (Acts 2:44–45). Special concern was demonstrated for widows and orphans within the community. The church recognized the value of its community life as a form of witness in demonstrating how Christians love one another. This testimony was seriously challenged when the church was forced to consider the acceptance of Gentiles into its fellowship. Did Gentiles first have to accept elements of the Jewish law and lifestyle before being allowed into Christian fellowship? Not without controversy, this debate was eventually settled by requiring nothing other than confession of faith in Jesus Christ and baptism.

The essence of Christian koinōnia involves the quality of a community’s life together. Does a community reflect the spirit of mutual love and concern shown by Jesus to those who followed him? Are all made welcome in the name of Jesus? Is the ultimate source of power that of the crucified Christ, and is that power shared in common? Is special effort made to express concern for “the least” of the sisters and brothers? And, when there is failure to live up to the ideal, is there readiness to ask for and grant forgiveness for Christ’s sake? Each of these questions addresses aspects of Christian koinōnia and is vital for measuring the quality of church life today as in ages past.

The final characteristic of early Christian community is diakonia, service. From this root we derive the terms deacon and deaconess, which designate an office in the church committed to deeds of service to others. The model for all Christian service returns to the example of Jesus, who defined human greatness not with images of wealth or authority but through the image of the servant kneeling down to wash dirty feet. Jesus’ ultimate act of service entailed the sacrifice of his very own life on the cross as an expression of God’s love, forgiveness, and salvation.

The diakonia of the early church was most evident in activities of healing, reconciling, and feeding. The brokenness of human life is nowhere more apparent than where people are sick, estranged, or hungry. The church carried forward Jesus’ own ministry of healing by visiting the sick, anointing them with oil, and praying for them. The needs of the grieving, the widows, and the orphans were likewise essential to this healing work. The message of reconciliation was announced wherever conflict threatened to dismember the body of Christ. One thinks particularly of Paul’s efforts at reconciliation in his correspondence with the Corinthian congregation. As often as the gospel was preached, the appeal was not only for reconciliation with God but also with one another. Feeding the hungry and needy was practiced by early Christians through programs of collection and distribution. These efforts stood in continuity with Jesus’ own feeding miracles and the fourth petition of the Lord’s Prayer, in which Jesus taught his disciples, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Though early Christian communities were neither situated nor organized to enact structural change in society (especially given their convictions about the imminent Parousia) there was a consistent pattern of selfless service to others that marks Christian diakonia.

Taken together, these three characteristics, kerygma, koinōnia, and diakonia, typify Christian community from the very beginning. Each of these ancient ministries finds elaboration in the theology of the congregation here developed.

From Identity to Mission and Back Again

Between the early generations of the Christian church and the present, some changes have taken place. No longer do we readily recognize the meanings of the three Greek terms kerygma, koinōnia, and diakonia. Between our time and theirs looms the monumental shift in Christian consciousness marked by Christianity’s becoming the favored religion of the Roman Empire during the fourth century. As baptism became required as a matter of citizenship, the level of individual Christian commitment diminished. When everyone gets baptized, the meaning of baptism gets watered down. Today we employ different operating categories from those of the early church.

Nevertheless, Christ’s commission to the church, to make disciples of all nations, remains as valid today as ever before. In order to carry out this mandate, the church must forever attend to two fundamental tasks: formation of Christian identity and faithfulness to the mission of the gospel. “Identity” is a modern concept, strongly influenced by psychology. It refers to the foundational self-understanding of an individual. Applied to a group, identity is related to communal self-understanding. The Christian contention is that individual identity finds its genuine expression only through confession of faith in Jesus as Lord as sacramentally enacted in baptism. The group identity of the church is commensurate with this, a community rooted in the way of Jesus Christ.

“Mission,” the second task, refers to the purpose for which the church exists. Christian mission derives from the apostolic “sending out” of disciples by Jesus into the world to proclaim the gospel and extend the kingdom. Focus on identity without mission reduces the church to a social club whose only reason to exist is for the comfort and security of its membership. Focus on mission without the nurture of baptismal identity—both personally and communally—begins to disintegrate into hyperactivity without direction. Identity without mission leads to self-absorption. Mission without identity leads to amnesia and exhaustion. Bo...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• How to Use This Book
• Preface
• Part One: Orientation
• Part Two: Identity
• Part Three: Mission
• Conclusion: “One Long Epiclesis”
• Name Index
• Subject Index
• Scripture Index