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The latest issue of the World Council of Churches’ journal International Review of Mission deals with the relationship between church and mission by focusing on the missional movements that have emerged in many places during the past two decades, and that have been described by terms such as “fresh expressions of church,” “emerging churches,” or, in short, “Fresh X.”
There are a vast variety of different models and types, and this issue of International Review of Mission includes perspectives from more than ten different contexts.
While there is no single definition as contexts are so different from place to place, the various expressions can be summarised as a dialogical and relational ecclesiology that focuses on a theological centre, which sees God at work in the world. Such new forms of churches that emerge within contemporary cultures are primarily engaging with those who do not currently attend church. Such “Emerging Missional Movements” are on one hand new forms of being a church and on the other hand, are displaying mission’s dynamism and energy.
Mission and church are two sides of the coin. Neither makes sense without the other. As the missiologist David Bosch has noted, the church is missionary by its very nature and by its relationship with the world, which is always a missionary one. This does not mean that mission is primarily an activity of the church, it is rather an attribute of God.
This issue of International Review of Mission also deals with new ecclesiological foci in Faith and Order, with the methodology of Scriptural Reasoning in an Asian context, and the “Arusha Call” of the 2018 Conference on World Mission and Evangelism from a North American perspective.
International Review of Mission is published twice a year by Wiley on behalf of the World Council of Churches.
Open article from the latest issue:
“Fresh Expressions of Church and the Mixed Economy: Potential and Challenges for Church Development,” by Sabrina Müller
Contents of the latest issue (November 2019): "Emerging Missional Movements"
The International Review of Mission in the Wiley Online Library
