Howard Snyder on Missional Church

Howard Snyder in Decoding the Church writes of missional church in chapter 3. The missional church is genetically missional, an alternative community, a covenant community, and Trinitarian.

Genetically Missional

The church is genetically missional because it is the community of Jesus Christ, God’s great missionary. It is the body of Christ, the community called into existence by the mission of God. this is the starting point for all ecclesiology… Mission is the church’s DNA, even if mission often gets suppressed in practice.

An Alternative Community

A missional church is an alternative community called to build its own culture, economy, and lifestyle in the world and among all peoples. A faithful fchurch is a visible alternative to both neopagan society and to ecclesial models of Christendom that clash with the church’s basic DNA… The church is an alternative community when its mission is the kingdom of God. Its mission makes it countercultural. ANd it is an alternative reality when it exists as a covenant community.

A Covenant Community

A mssional church is covenantal. The church is the covenanted community of God’s reign. The covenant calls the church to ministry and mission, to “equip [God’s people] for the work of ministry (Eph 4:12) and to structure its life and mission accordingly.

A Trinitarian Community

A missional church is Trinitarian. The Trinity teaches us about ecclesiology and mission. Because the church is Trinitarian — based on what God the Father has done and will do through Christ by the power of the Spirit — the church is at the same time incarnational and eschatological.

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