The Messy Nature of Humanity and Church

The theological manuals written by those responsible for the mission of the people of God in the world must be subject to review by the reality of the presence and work of the Spirit through those engaged in the ‘frontline’ mission and ministry.[1]

--Ray S. Anderson

Reflective Practitioner

During the spring and summer of 2011 data for this study was assembled on alternative missional churches from the “‘frontline’ mission and ministry” as a reflective practitioner. The alternative missional churches allege they are the result of the emergence of a new era that engages different ways of being and doing church through contextualization. Their focus is to missionally and contextually engage with their cultures and communities through an exercise of various innovative and culturally relevant expressions. Their practices and strategies reflect the rhetoric of Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch in the book The Shaping of Things to Come[2] and the general reality of alternative missional churches represented in this research. Engaging in this research as an interested participant the goal reflected in the research is from a hermeneutic of suspicion.[3] The goal is to understand the reality of what is actually happening amid the alternative missional ecclesia for the potential of exposing unintentional Positive Deviance process and approach.

Location, Location, Location

The location chosen for the research is purposefully limited within the Metro area of Portland. The limited location allows for a snap-shot view of a specific region and its cultural dynamics. The research method is focused on a phenomenological study of the representative ecclesia in order to draw out the dynamics of each ecclesia’s practices and strategies amid their cultural environment. Each of the participating ecclesia was generously open to the research process. This section reflects on the research design and method, as well as my personal participation as a reflective practitioner.

Structure of the Study

This study is fashioned in such a manner that it reflects, primarily, the essential desires of learning firsthand about alternative missional ecclesia amid marginalized cultures and secondly to engage qualitative research and analysis. The approach of learning through a participant-observer location allows for firsthand engagement of the subjects. This reflects a postmodern preference of learning from the local expressions instead of engaging metanarratives and grand theories. The primary objective is to learn, from the embedded local and particular expressions of the alternative missional ecclesia, about their contextualization process, as well as their specific innovative practices and strategies.  

The study of the imaginative nature within each subject ecclesial expressions is to create a local and particular present-day perspective, in other words to investigate the reality of unintentional positive deviance practices and strategies. Hans Küng recommends, “. . . to think of any church as set apart from error and sin would be an ‘idealizing misconception’ which makes it ‘an unreal, distant ideal surrounded by a false halo, rather than a real historical church.’”[4] It is in the unpacking of the practices and strategies of the alternative missional ecclesia that the reality of the need for an empowering contextualization with theological praxis is revealed in reality. The messy nature of humanity and church planting is not hidden from sight, but is openly engaged as part of the growth process. Moving beyond dwelling in the world of theory and ideals the focus of a local study, such as this one, allows the ability to evaluate contextualization amid the marginalized and reveal their practices and strategies in real time.  

The study is aimed at learning not just what are the practices and strategies that bring about contextualization of the Gospel, but the how and why of the practices and strategies used to accomplish this goal. By tapping the practices and strategies the intent is to be able to learn about the motivation, mission and innovation of the practitioners. Thereby, allowing them to become the inspiration for other ministries and to invite others to become the next wave of practitioners, to learn similar and unique processes that will empower contextualization with theological praxis.

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[1] Ray S. Anderson, Ministry on the Fireline: A Practical Theology for an Empowered Church (Fuller Seminary Press, 1998), 16.

[2] Frost and Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come.

[3] The concept of a ‘hermeneutic of suspicion’ is used by liberation theologians in order to question ideologies and subconscious desires that maintain the status quo.  Juan Luis Segundo, Liberation of Theology (Wipf and Stock Pub., 2002), 7–9.

[4] Hans Küng, The Church (Image Books, 1976), 131.