The Encyclopedia of Protestantism: Volume 2 D–K
Ecclesiology and Missiology
The relationship between ecclesiology and MISSIOLOGY is particularly interesting. There is a sense in which missiology is a subdivision of ecclesiology, for it is the church that is mandated to mission and it is the lay and ordained members of the church who engage in it. Mission is not the act of freelance individuals who bear no relation to the church, but is an activity of the church. Mission is, therefore, an ecclesial matter. On the other hand, mission is greater than the church, taking its rise in the missio dei that springs from God’s eternal being and purpose. The church plays its Godgiven part as an instrument of a purpose that transcends it.
Missiology, the study of the principles and practice of Christian mission (including EVANGELISM/evangeli-zation) is therefore a major theological discipline in its own right.
However, ecclesiology and missiology should always go hand in hand. A study of the church that is not orientated to mission will tend to be inwardlooking and uncritical. Reflection on mission that is not geared to the WORSHIP, ministry, and oversight of the church is likely to be rather freewheeling, individualistic, and unaccountable. An ecclesiology for our time, an age of pluralism of faiths and consumerist materialism—as well as of spiritual searching and New Age syncretism—will be infused with mission concerns and insights. Now that the momentum of Barthianism, Vatican II, and ECUMENISM has slackened, it seems likely that ecclesiology will take its direction from missiology in the immediate future and so find fresh energy.
The fact that ecclesiology today is conducted in the context of a pluralism of world religions and secular worldviews lends it an “apologetic” dimension; it will always have one eye on the claims of alternative positions. It will need to show why the Christian vision of divine community is valid and can be justified in the face of criticism and indifference. Ecclesiology needs to be persuasive, to engage in advocacy, and to set out its credentials. It will strive to bring to light the Christian understanding of the church as the body of Christ, to lead the enquirer beyond the institutional face of the church (and of the churches), and to reveal its mystical nature.
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