Reawakening a Potent Missional Ethos in the Twenty-First Century Church

Abstract

In the West, the Christian church has recently witnessed a marked and rapid decline of its membership and vitality. To reengage with the Spirit's transforming power, Western Christians will need to make some fundamental changes in their Christology, ecclesiology, and ecclesial practices. These changes, however, do not involve the implementation of new, cutting-edge techniques or structures; rather, they require us to return to the forgotten ways of our deepest apostolic legacy. Recovering Jesus as our center is foremost in this realignment. But realignment also includes the recovery of discipleship as our core task, the development of an apostolic movement ethos and structure, and the re-embracing of an incarnational mission impulse. These four phenomena inherent in a more movemental ethos lie at the heart of all exponentially growing movements, such as occurred in the Early Church and, in our day, in China, India, and Cuba, as well as in Western church planting movements. Recovering and reactivating these movemental phenomena will allow the Western church to thrive once more.