3 Historical Streams of the Missional Church Part 1: The Missionary Stream

The missionary movement was the first (and important) stream of the missional church.

Christian organizations, churches, and authors have defined, refined, and redefined the application and expression of God's mission over the last 100 years.

Mission, as God's call and direction, has existed for far longer. We see mission in the Old Testament, leading up the life and mission of Jesus. Then, in John 20:21, Jesus calls us saying, "As the father has sent me, so send I you." So, mission is a biblical theme, but has received greater focus in the last century, first in what we call mainline Protestantism today, and later among evangelicals.

In this blog series, I want to focus on three significant historical streams of mission in the last century, and focus on the ideas now encapsulated in the missional church conversation. During the last century, we can learn from these streams as they've developed over the last century—the missionary stream, the mission stream, and the missio Dei stream.

I've recently contributed scholarly chapters to two books, one a missiology textbook and the other a contrast of missional views. In doing so, I've been thinking more on the meaning and emphases in the modern conversation about God's mission.

It's easy to miss the nuances of these three shifts in thinking if we don't have an historical overview of the church, mission, and evangelism. We can’t really know where we are or where we are headed without knowing from where we have come. Today, I am going to briefly review the first stream. Keep reading

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