Missional Identity Research Articles

Battling with the baton: (Dis)connecting today and tomorrow’s leaders in African Pentecostalism

Leadership praxis, development and succession can become a bloody battlefield in Africa, mainly because of economic, cultural, theological and political factors. Just like some secular leaders who fail to serve their mandate paradoxically fight for further conquest and retention of power at all costs, certain spiritual leaders miscarry Christian leadership, struggle to deliver their missionary service and tragically battle to stay in power, instead of passing the baton. Church leadership ought to be successional, transformational and intergenerational enough to disciple and develop leaders to sustain and promote other-centred missio Dei and missio Ecclesiae. Yet, the majority of Pentecostal church founders and leaders are neo-patrimonial, authoritarian and serving themselves at the expense of God’s mission. That way, they deface the missionary identity of the Church. Engaging with available literature and observing multifarious leadership trends in Africa, this article unravels problematic Christian leadership development and succession in view of Jesus Christ’s servant leadership model. It disconnects self-centred incumbents and connects the few who are Christ-like with tomorrow’s leaders.Contribution: This article advances Christian leadership development and succession in view of Jesus Christ’s intergenerational servant leadership model.

Rethinking the identity and economic sustainability of the Church: Case of AOG BTG in Zimbabwe

With burgeoning economic challenges that have been hard-pressing Zimbabwe for more than a decade, most Zimbabwean classical Pentecostal churches who do not strategically multiply their revenue in reciprocal correspondence with God-given resources have been disabled and forced to narrow their missionary focus towards proclamation of the gospel and neglected other dimensions of mission, such as diakonia. The partial focus on the gospel in word without corresponding deeds portrayed an exclusively Salvationist and less integral image, and defaced ecclesiastic identification when Zimbabwe is anxiously in dire need of a wholesome Church that values and attends to all areas of their lives. While extensive attention has been paid to the conceptualisation of ecclesial identity in general, and manipulative economics of some charismatic churches in Zimbabwe and Africa, research about the identity and economic sustainability of the Zimbabwean classical Pentecostal Church is sparse. Thus, this study filled the gap, taking Assemblies of God, Back to God (hereinafter referred to as AOG BTG) as a case study. Applying theonomic reciprocity theory, complemented by the concept of sustainability and engaging purposively sampled in-depth interviews, this article interfaced missionary identity with economic sustainability and recommended the adoption of contextually feasible strategies to capacitate the Church to meet the rising operating and missionary costs in the volatile Zimbabwean context.Contribution: This study reviewed the ecclesial identity, interconnected Zimbabwean classical Pentecostal ecclesiology with current economics and observed circumstantially applicable strategies to restore a blurred identity.

Creating Start-Ups for a Better World: The Venture Creation Process of ‘Missionary’ Founders

How do ventures that are focused on solving social and environmental problems come into existence? Drawing upon social identity theory, this study focuses on the venture creation process of Missionary founders. More specifically, we investigate in what way the strength of a founder’s Missionary identity affects the relationship between two central entrepreneurial actions – i.e., conducting discovery and exploitation related start-up activities – and firm emergence. We test our hypotheses using binary logistic regression on a sample of 133 nascent entrepreneurs from a recent longitudinal study. Our results suggest that Missionary founders find it more difficult to develop and implement their business model in comparison to other founders, resulting in a different importance of discovery and exploitation related start-up activities, and, possibly, in some cases also leading to an escalation of commitment.

‘It is well with the child’: Changing Views on Protestant Missionary Children's Health, 1870s–1930s

Esme Cleall observes that for nineteenth-century British missionary families ill-health was constructed as being ‘reflexive of and contributory to a specifically missionary identity’. This article argues that while this was a persistent theme, a new and significantly different discourse emerged emphasizing missionary families’ health. Children were central to this discursive shift. The article focuses on missionary children's health, using selected Anglo-American cases. There was an uneasy overlap of religiously motivated rhetoric that still expected illness and death to be part of missionary childhood experience, and a professionalized discourse that redefined missionary families as sites of health and well-being. This culminated in medical and academic literature within religious and missionary circles that constructed missionaries’ children as a new category. Thus churches responded both to the development of the medical profession and to the development of modern child-centred thinking and practices, in the process developing a new missiological or theological response to childhood.

The Impact of Entrepreneurs’ Social Identity and the Mediation Effect of the Decision-Making Logic on the Bootstrapping Behavior of Nascent Ventures

Purpose – This article studies the impact of entrepreneurs’ social identities on bootstrapping behaviors, and the mediation effect of the decision-making logic. Theoretical framework – This article uses the theory of social identity and the theory of effectuation as its theoretical approach. Design/methodology/approach – We used regressions and structural equation modeling based on a survey of 365 newly-created firms in China’s Hangzhou Economic and Development Area (HEDA). Findings – Our findings suggest that entrepreneurs who have a Darwinian identity prefer payment-related bootstrapping and owner-related bootstrapping, while those who have a missionary identity prefer joint-utilization bootstrapping. The empirical study also finds that causation mediates the relationship between Darwinian identities and payment-related bootstrapping, Darwinian identities and owner-related bootstrapping, and missionary identities and joint-utilization bootstrapping. Practical & social implications of research – By exploring the influence of entrepreneurs’ social identity on bootstrapping behaviors and the mediation effect of the decision-making logic, this study might help entrepreneurs choose suitable bootstrapping behaviors according to their corresponding social identity. Originality/value – The findings contribute to our understanding of factors that drive the bootstrapping behaviors of nascent ventures from the perspective of entrepreneurs’ social identity, and they provide a richer and more complete way of explaining bootstrapping behavior from the perspective of identity theory. The findings also contribute to the literature on the relationship between entrepreneurs’ social identity and bootstrapping behaviors by depicting and empirically testing the mediation mechanisms of the decision-making logic. Keywords – entrepreneurs’ social identity, bootstrapping, effectuation, causation.

What’s My Purpose Now?

This study investigates how first-time religious missionaries use communication to readapt to life outside the mission field after returning home. The findings suggest that returning missionaries used communication to facilitate the reentry. In-depth qualitative interviews with 14 Christian missionaries revealed three common experiences: reconciling the missionary identity, reentering the social context, and transitioning to the post-missionary life, as well as four types of communication used to facilitate the reentry: storytelling, disclosing, connecting with God, and silencing. These findings provide insight into the experience of returning missionaries, their spiritual development, and use of communication.

From Mission to Competition: The Experiences of 10 LDS Missionary Student-Athletes Returning to Competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I

The purpose of the current study was to explore the experiences of LDS missionary student-athletes returning to competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I (DI). Using Consensual Qualitative Research methods (CQR; Hill, 2012) including a semi-structured interview guide, 10 DI student-athletes/returned LDS missionaries were interviewed regarding their experience (i.e., mean age of 25 years; baseball, cross-country/track and field, football, and swimming). A research team with five members constructed four domains and 16 categories representing DI student-athlete/returned LDS missionary chronological identity changes during this experience: (a) the development of an LDS missionary identity; (b) challenges associated with returning to DI student-athlete identity; (c) benefits of mission identity on DI student-athlete identity; and (d) practical implications for sport psychology professionals and other support staff. Suggestions for future research are also given.

“Relationships Are the Currency of Mission”

Pope Francis’s evangelistic rallying cry in has rendered the Catholic Church’s mandate to evangelise unmistakable. At the parish level, the response to this mandate has varied from wholehearted and intentional cultural change to polite indifference. Sociologically, structure and culture inescapably influence individual agency in embracing missional identity at every level of the Church’s life. The question of structure—and specifically, pastor transitions from parish to parish—is considered in terms of its impact on a parish’s effectiveness at mission. Structural change may seem impossible; and yet, taking the lid off the question of structure allows us both to acknowledge its influence on the Church’s effectiveness at evangelisation, and to raise questions indicating instances where change might be possible.

How Social Identity Affects Entrepreneurs’ Desire for Control

In order to obtain a better understanding why some entrepreneurs retain more control over their venture than others, this article analyzes the relationship between the social identity of the entrepreneur and her/his desire for control. In fact, entrepreneurs face an important tradeoff between attracting resources required to build company value and retaining decision-making control. Yet, we currently lack insight into whether and how entrepreneurs’ social motivations shape this trade-off. This study draws on social identity theory and a unique sample of 148 buyout entrepreneurs, as this setting confronts aspiring entrepreneurs directly with the value–control tradeoff. In our logistic regression, we find that entrepreneurs with a strong missionary identity, where venture creation revolves around advancing a cause, hold a higher desire for control. We do not observe a significant relationship between entrepreneurs having a Darwinian (driven by economic self-interest) or communitarian (driven by the concern for the community) identity and the desire to control their venture. When adding the moderating role of the portion of personal wealth the entrepreneur is willing to invest in her/his venture, the relationships between having a Darwinian or missionary social identity and the desire for control become significantly positive when the entrepreneur is looking to invest a larger portion of her/his wealth.

교회 내 북한이탈주민 부서 사역의 쟁점과 과제: 선교적 교회론과 접촉 가설에 기반하여

This study investigates the current status of North Korean migrant departments in major Korean churches and looks at the challenges of their ministries based on missional ecclesiology and the contact hypothesis. Based on the examination of the key issues of each church, this study suggests the following directions for the North Korean migrant department ministry. First, it argues that the ministry of the North Korean migrant department must be closely connected to the missional identity of the entire church. Next, it suggests that the department should be a channel to increase mutual understanding between North Korean migrants and South Korean church members. Finally, it suggests that the department should be a place to establish North Korean migrant leadership in the church.

Calvin, Bucer and missionary opportunities in times of crises

In this article it is argued that insights gleaned from John Calvin’s and Martin Bucer’s missionary passion and vision are relevant to contemporary missional churches in times of crises. First, Calvin’s manifold personal crises in the 16th-century context were explored historically. Subsequently, modern missiologists and historians’ views were critically engaged to ascertain how we could properly interpret the Reformers’ missionary vision without drawing oversimplified and anachronistic conclusions. The widespread misrepresentations that often downplay the Reformers’ resilient missionary vision were invalidated by explicating their lucid mission-mindedness during their time. It is indicated that much can be learned from their identity and practices as missionary pastors expanding the mission through pastoral care. The current COVID-19 pandemic and its deep impact present the global church with an opportunity to recommit itself to its essential missionary calling. Although Calvin or his colleagues did not create a complete theology of mission, the conclusion was made (through a thorough literature study and primary sources investigation) that their whole theology and Christian life had a missionary core. This challenges churches from a Reformed background today to critically reclaim their tradition and to mould their future missional identity from the roots up, crises and all.Contribution: The lack of attention to John Calvin and his company of pastors’ mission-minded theology and practice presents a contemporary challenge to the field of mission studies. This article expounded the often overlooked significance of the Reformers’ essentially missionary theology and practice. This was done through a historical investigation, which eventually contributes relevant, contemporary insights from the 16th century to mission studies and missional churches today.

Founders’ Social Identities, Work-Life-Balance, and Stress: A Stakeholder perspective

Recent research on entrepreneurial well-being has shown that prosocial motivation and autonomy have significant impact on founders’ stress levels and life satisfaction. While the literature has identified stakeholders as both reference points for entrepreneurial ambitions as well as potential constraints for entrepreneurs’ autonomy, we know little about how founders’ sense-making of their stakeholders in relation to their own self-understanding shapes their well-being. This study applies a stakeholder perspective informed by social cognition theory and applies survey data from 110 German-speaking commercial and social start-up entrepreneurs to examine the effects of the interactions between founders’ social identities and perceived stakeholder power on work-life-balance and stress. Our results show that the influence of social identity on stress ultimately depends on founders’ perception of their stakeholders’ power. An altruistic Missionary identity is positively connected to stress via work-life-balance but only if they do not perceive their stakeholders as strong. On the other hand, a more self-centered Darwinian identity has a negative, indirect effect on stress but only if they perceive their stakeholders as having comparably little power. Accordingly, our research provides further arguments for the importance of examining individuals’ sense-making of both themselves and their social environment simultaneously when studying results of founders’ cognitive processes.

교회의 선교적 정체성

교회의 선교적 정체성

The Missional Future of Free Churches in a Secular Context: A German Case Study

Abstract Similar to most Western nations, Germany has experienced a history of secularization, resulting in church decline. However, some Christian communities have been less affected by decline. The historical free churches (Freikirchen), usually of an evangelical nature, have not only developed a more explicit missionary identity than the mainline churches, some of them have also been able to experience church growth against the larger trends. In this paper quantitative and qualitative data are presented based on a study of the Bund Freier evangelischer Gemeinden (BFeG) in Germany. These data show that general church growth and conversion growth are correlated, that young churches grow better (in both respects) than older churches, that the net conversion growth (conversions minus decline) of younger and older churches is overall largely the same, and that growth results in Berlin outperform the results in other cities and in the BFeG as a whole. These results are put into context by extended case studies of two churches, one old and one young, and they are discussed with a view to existing studies of (free church) mission in the West.

Connecting founder social identity with social entrepreneurial intentions

PurposeDespite recent advances in research on antecedents of social entrepreneurial intentions, founder social identity has rarely been part of the research effort. This paper aims to investigate how different types of founder social identity affect social entrepreneurial intentions (SE intentions).Design/methodology/approachThis study investigates how different types of founder social identity, such as Darwinians, Communitarians and Missionaries, affect SE intentions. Specifically, this study predicts that entrepreneurs with Darwinian identity would be less likely to form SE intentions, while those with Missionary and Communitarian identities would be more prone to form SE intentions. The hypotheses are tested on a sample of 725 individuals recruited using Amazon Mechanical Turk. Most of the hypotheses, except for Communitarian identity, are supported by the data analysis. The results contribute to the literature on founder social identity and SE intentions and demonstrate that founder social identity is one of the important antecedents of social entrepreneurial intentions.FindingsTwo of the hypotheses were supported by the results. Specifically, this study found a positive relation between Missionary founder social identity (its locus of self-definition is “Impersonal-We”) and social entrepreneurial intentions. This research also confirms that Darwinian founder social identity (its locus of self-definition is “I”) has a negative impact on social entrepreneurial intentions.Originality/valueFirst, a person’s social identity has been largely overlooked in social entrepreneurship intention literature (Bacq and Alt, 2018; Hockerts, 2017; Zaremohzzabieh et al, 2019). The findings provide the empirical evidence that individual-level antecedents, especially one’s membership in a social group (i.e. social identity), exert a significant impact on the formation of SE intentions. Second, among the two types of founder social identity predicted to have a positive influence on SE intentions, only Missionary identity was found to have such a positive impact. The typical Communitarian locus of self-definition of “Personal We,” is less influential than the self-definition of the typical Missionary locus of “Impersonal We.” This might imply that not all types of feelings of belonging to a community have a positive impact on the formation and development of social entrepreneurial intentions. Finally, this study found that Darwinians are less likely to pursue social entrepreneurship although the definition of Darwinians is close to the definition of traditional entrepreneurs (e.g. profit/opportunity seekers). This may signify that the traditional concept of entrepreneurship may not be enough to explain different types of entrepreneurial motivations (e.g. social vs commercial entrepreneurship).

Free for Mission

Working at the intersection of ethnographic and missional theology, this essay argues for the central role of fieldwork for discerning missional identity in congregations. Recent developments in ecclesiology and ethnography have clarified the embodied nature of theological knowledge, disclosing the practical wisdom and cultural locatedness of the researcher and congregation. While ethnography has been used to help congregations understand their context and discern a missional vocation, the ongoing theological and formational nature of such practices are often undertheorized in relationship to missional church. Drawing from Robert Jenson’s notion of the Spirit as God’s freedom, liberating God and creature for God’s future, this essay suggests ethnographic fieldwork as a liberative practice for the congregation, freeing it to participate in the boundary-crossing and sensemaking work of missional church. In working with congregations, I’m often greeted by some version of the question: “Are we (meaning, the congregation I’m working with) missional yet?” The question comes loaded with curiosity and concern. What, they ask, is a missional church, and would we know one if we saw it? Even more significant: how will we know when the work we are doing to renew our theological imagination and develop partnerships with our neighbors will pay off? The question comes from a good place, but it also leads into a deceptive trap, for any answer will betray the dynamism that “missional” tries to name (Guder 1998, 3–5). And yet, the question also unveils a theo-practical ambiguity at the heart of the missional church. The problem is not just that missio Dei theology holds together unreconciled tensions between the God-church-world relationship, but that the boundary-crossing practices that shape the missional vocation of a congregation are viewed instrumentally, as a means to a missional end. Congregations, seeking to identify as “missionary by [their] very nature,” and reorient congregational life through practices of missional discernment, can be forgiven for thinking of “missional” as a fixed arrival point (Guder 2015, 9). In what follows, I explore the theological significance of ethnographic practices for missional congregations. A staple of many approaches to missional renewal and missional church plants, church leaders and steering committees regularly employ the basic tools of ethnographic fieldwork to better understand their own community and their context or neighborhood (Croft and Hopkins 2015; Roxburgh 2011). In descriptive terms, these practices equip congregants for deep listening, attentive observation, and disciplined curiosity. They also place congregants in new places and with new people, drawing these experiences into congregational reflection and discernment. While neither professional ethnographers nor academic theologians, congregants are given through these practices new connections to neighbors and offered new vantage points from which to reflect upon the life and ministry of the congregation. As such, they are not simply a means to a missional end, but rather practices that already participate in God’s missional future. Congregational ethnographic fieldwork can cultivate new social realities which glimpse—and perhaps even liberate—the congregation for God’s mission in its particular context.Of course, ethnographic fieldwork is not a theological practice by itself, nor can missional theology be collapsed into ethnography. At stake in this discussion is how otherness is reconciled with the missio Dei, how one envisions the relationship between God and God’s creation, the church and God’s present and coming Reign (see Swart et al. 2009). Drawing from Robert Jenson’s understanding of the Spirit as God’s freedom and God’s future, I suggest a liberative approach to missional church. Rather than a fixed identity or a future telos, the missional church is liberated for God’s mission by and through the neighbor, the stranger, the other in and through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The church sent into the world recognizes and receives God’s “preferred and promised future” in the concrete relationships cultivated (Keifert 2006, 16). Ethnography, shaped by this missional intention, becomes an ongoing practice for missional theology, not only a step toward a missional identity.

The Effect of Social Entrepreneur‘s Social Identity on Innovativeness

본 연구는 중국과 한국의 청년 사회적 기업가를 대상으로 사회적 정체성과 기업가 정신에 대해서 탐구하고자 한다. 먼저 중국과 한국 청년의 사회적 정체성 및 혁신성에 대한 차이를 분석한다. 또한 사회적 정체성이 혁신성에 미치는 영향을 파악하고자 한다. 연구를 위해 중국과 한국 청년 사회적 기업가들을 대상으로 설문지를 통해 자료를 수집하였으며, 최종 275부가 실증분석에 이용되었다. 사회적 정체성에 대한 요인분석 결과, 경쟁적 정체성, 공동체 정체성, 사명감 정체성의 3개 요인이 도출되었다. 사회적 정체성의 3개 요인과 혁신성에 대한 중국과 한국 청년의 차이를 분석한 결과, 경쟁적 정체성을 제외하고는 모두 유의한 차이가 있는 것으로 나타났다. 또한 중국 청년 기업가들이 한국 청년에 비해 경쟁적 정체성을 제외하고는 공동체 정체성 및 사명감 정체성에 있어서 유의하게 높은 것으로 나타났다. 사회적 정체성이 혁신성에 미치는 영향을 분석한 결과, 공동체 정체성을 제외한 경쟁적 정체성, 사명감 정체성은 혁신성에 유의한 정(+)의 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났으며, 사명감 정체성이 가장 큰 영향을 미치는 것으로 나타났다.This study explores social identity and entrepreneurship among young Chinese and Korean entrepreneurs. First of all, it analyzes the differences between China and Korea on social identity and innovation. It also seeks to understand the effect of social identity on innovation. For the study, data were collected from Chinese and Korean youth social entrepreneurs through a questionnaire, and the final 275 copies were used for empirical analysis. As a result of factor analysis on social identity, three factors were derived: Darwinian identity, communitarian identity, and missionary identity. As a result of analyzing the differences between China and Korea on social identity and innovativeness, there were significant differences except for Darwinian identity. In addition, Chinese young entrepreneurs have significantly higher communitarian identity, missionary identity and innovativeness than Korean entrepreneurs. An analysis of the effect of social identity on innovation has shown that Darwinian identity, missionary identity, excluding communitarian identity, has a significant positive effect on innovativeness.

The 2015 European Refugee Event and Founder Social Identities: A Multi-Country and Multi-Level Study

How are founders’ social identities affected by societal trigger events? To address this question, we build on social identity literature and theorize how the abrupt and significant increase in the number of refugees in Europe in 2015 is related to the strength of Darwinian, Communitarian, and Missionary social identities of founders residing in the affected countries. Furthermore, we introduce a country’s percentage of foreigners before the 2015 refugee event as relevant contingency factor. Using a dataset of 6,841 nascent entrepreneurs from 24 European countries, we reveal a positive relationship between the 2015 refugee event and the strength of founders’ Communitarian identity. This relationship is even stronger when the previous percentage of foreigners in a country is lower. Interestingly, we do not find significant relationships between the refugee event and Darwinian or Missionary identities. Our study provides important contributions to the (founder) social identity literature and valuable implications for policy and practice.

Mission awakening in the Dutch Reformed Church: The possibility of a fifth wave?

The Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) had a strong missionary DNA since the planting of the church. This missionary focus and fervour, however, ebbed and flowed during the history of the church. Saayman described that the mission upsurges in the DRC in four waves or ‘periods of extraordinary mission endeavour’. The current research aimed to develop this theory through a literature study on the sociopolitical context and the developments in the ecclesiology and missiology of the DRC since the planting of the church up to 2013. The research found strong evidence to define a fifth wave. The fifth wave was influenced by contextual changes (e.g. a secularising, a more integrated multicultural society and the realisation of the needs of the poor) and loss of influence and money by the DRC. Furthermore, the growth in the church’s missional identity can be seen in the following aspects: the influence of theologians like Lesslie Newbigin and David Bosch; a belief that mission is not something the church does but something the church is; a shift from a Christocentric theology to a Trinitarian theology; a holistic view of salvation; a commitment to the local context of the congregation and a focus on bringing healing to their local communities; and lastly, the success of the Gestuurde Gemeentes network and, more recently, the Mission Shaped Ministry training.

In, not of: The theological task and the mission of the church

This article demonstrates how an interdisciplinary approach to thinking about mission allows for a more dynamic definition of who belongs to the Christian community. It argues that the church ought to understand its relationship to its sociocultural environment not in terms of who is “in” and “out” but in terms of the One toward whom this community is oriented, and the corresponding movement towards or away from this center. This will be done by bringing the exegesis of John 17:14–19 and Romans 12:1–2 into an interdisciplinary dialogue with Paul Hiebert’s “bounded-set” and “centered-set” models in order to show how the centered-set model provides a more theologically nuanced and faithful depiction of the church’s missional identity. Additionally, the trinitarian theologies of Thomas Torrance and Lesslie Newbigin will be added to this conversation to further demonstrate how Hiebert’s centered-set model, in partnership with a trinitarian ecclesiology which focuses upon participation, fellowship, and communion, reduces the stark divide of “in” and “out,” instead defining belonging to the Christian community with reference to the God who gathers and calls the church together.