Mission-Shaped Church: A Theological Response
The report on Mission-Shaped Church is being used all over England in the training of people for public ministry and yet so far there have been no formal critical responses to the report. Here for the first time then is a considered theological response to the key issues.
Whilst the author shares the hopes for a renewal of the church he raises here critical questions about the attitudes we hold onto whilst we go about creating cell churches, cafe churches, theatre, pub and school churches. Is the Church acquiescing to consumerism, accepting we are a nation defined by "we are what we buy" by offering ‘Church choice’ rather than offering an alternative to global capitalism? The inherent territorialism of the church is examined. If we are to fill the earth with a Christian mission, where does that leave other religions? Is church planting ‘filling geographical and cultural gaps’ or is it resuming territorial privilege? Is diversity really dealt with in an depth by the Report? Are poor people to be redeemed from poverty, or merely to have their own poor churches? Why did the church decide to examine social change from a mainly church-going perspective? Whilst the original Report may suggest mission-shaped church, what it actually seems to support is church-shaped mission.
Written with the intention of supporting the fresh expression of churches, Mission –shaped church: A Theological Response aims to provide the movement with a more contemporary and more prophetic theology.
John M. Hull is Honorary professor of Practical Theology at the Queen’s Foundation for Ecumenical Theological Education and Emeritus Professor of Religious Education at the University of Birmingham.
