Martin Reppenhagen, Auf dem Weg zu einer missionalen Kirche: Die Diskussion um eine “missional church” in den USA. BEG Beiträg e zu Evangelisation und Gemeinde-Entwicklung, Band 17. Neukirchen-Vluyn, Deutschland: Neukirchener Verlag, 2011, 412 pp.

Abstract

Martin Reppenhagen, Auf dem Weg zu einer missionalen Kirche: Die Diskussion um eine in den USA. BEG Beitrag e zu Evangelisation und Gemeinde-Entwicklung, Band 17. Neukirchen-Vluyn, Deutschland: Neukirchener Verlag, 2011, 412 pp. Martin Reppenhagen has been, since 2004, wissenschafdicher Mitarbeiter at the Institut zur Erforschung von Evangelisation und Gemeindeentwicklung at the Universitat Greifswald. This book is a shortened and revised version of his 2010 PhD dissertation from the Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-Universitat Greifswald under the supervision of Michael Herbst. This connection is important, for it situates well the content and intent of the work under consideration. The text itself has eight chapters, which might be loosely outlined as follows: the first four chapters (which constitute half the book) are scene-setting and rehearse the major diagnostic concerns underlying and the genealogies informing the contemporary missional church discussion. The major fifth chapter paints a picture of its central theological thrusts. Chapters 6 and 7 might be seen as concrete examples of how missional church theory is worked out. Chapter 8 draws implications for the German context. Reppenhagen introduces the work by noting the relatively recent interest within the Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland (EKD) in the missional church discussion. The work seeks, then, not to reinvent the wheel, but to introduce the insights from the established American discussion into the German context. In his second chapter, Reppenhagen begins by defining key concepts used in the discussion, including mainline, church, and Christendom, before turning, in the third chapter, to the historical context and development of American mainline Christianity. Starting with the foundation of America as a nation, and thus with separation of church and state, he examines the roots of American church structures within European forms of Christianity, continues through the growth of the churches after World War II, and concludes with their decline since the 1960s. Now in the present, Reppenhagen turns to the variety of sociological challenges confronting the American churches, such as denominationalism, privatisation and individualisation of faith, the secularisation thesis, the culture wars, the religious market thesis, and a pluralist society. Chapter 4 continues this historical work by outlining the development of the Gospel and Our Culture Network with special emphasis on Lesslie Newbigin's contribution. After a brief biographical sketch, Reppenhagen addresses key themes in Newbigin's work. The intent with this first half of the book, it seems, is to introduce the discussion to a German audience unfamiliar with the context and back story, setting the scene for the task of translating these developments into a German context. The material is more summary description than evaluation or construction. With his 130-page fifth chapter, titled Missional Church--A Paradigm Change, the tone shifts from historical development to the central theological moves made within the missional church discussion. As with the earlier material, the approach is one of identification and summary and Reppenhagen highlights such concepts as missio Dei, incarnational mission, the nature of the church as a witness to Christ and to the kingdom of God, and the church as a contrast society, along with questions of praxis and leadership. Though some of this material crosses over work done earlier, Reppenhagen displays a good acquaintance with the breadth of the discussion. Yet, insofar as this chapter accomplishes the burden of the theological work, sometimes the critical developments would benefit from further investigation and refinement. Two examples might suffice. Reppenhagen does include potential weaknesses in missional church theory and practice. His approach is balanced. The critical voices he employs, however, seem in the main to be those of missional church exponents defending themselves against such charges. …