Wilbert Shenk asserts …
Without mission the church dies. Although what we ordinarily call the church may continue to exist as a religious group, a missionless church is no long an authentic church. The proof of its missionary character will be demonstrated by its response to the world. (“New Wineskins for New Wine: Toward a Post-Christendom Ecclesiology,” International Bulletin of Missionary Research, April 2005, 75)
Shenk’s point is that church renewal and outreach must accompany each other. Both dimensions must be addressed, if the church is to do more than just exist as organization, as religious entity. The church exists to give witness to the glory and purposes of God … without this mission it betrays its charter and constitution.
The irony is that as the contemporary church feverishly seeks to renew itself via a focus on its growth, health, services to members, branding, worship styles, etc., it is in fact doing the opposite-destroying itself. Jesus said, “unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds” (Jn 12:24). Unless the church gives itself away in witness to, care of, and justice for the neighbor nearby and those at the ends of the earth, it will die. Mission rhetoric and seasonal participation in mission emphases are not substitutes for giving ourselves away. Mission means we give ourselves to the world, go ourselves to the world, and love the world more than ourselves. This is the mission of and hope for the church.
I have read and enjoyed Shenk’s article and very much appreciate your emphasis on the church giving herself away to seek the purposes of God. But I do wonder about the need to form intentional and intense community. It seems to be what the earliest glimpses of the church exemplified and endorsed. But it could be seen to be a distraction from the sacrificial pursuit of God’s mission. Some might say that the liminal experience of the dying-to-self type of of mission can create a special community (communitas), but it doesn’t seem sustainable. So I guess my question is this: how does a church radically give herself away for the pursuit of God’s purposes in a sustainable, reproducible manner?