From Corporate Church to Missional Church: The Challenge Facing Congregations Today

Abstract

An interesting discourse has emerged in the past few years that is bringing the discipline of missiology into conversation with the discipline of ecclesiology in relationship to understanding congregations. Growing out of this conversation is a conception of a missional church that stands in contrast to an understanding of a corporate church. This essay identifies the primary differences between these views and assesses their implications for congregational ministry. The position taken is that decades of trying to fix the denominational, organizational approach to church—a corporate understanding of church, through movements of renewal, growth, and effectiveness has been largely misdirected. Now, deeper and more basic issues are being addressed that relate the essential missionary nature of the church to a Trinitarian understanding of the mission of God in the world, one that is grounded in the Kingdom of God as announced by Jesus.