Monthly Missiological Reflection
#25
""From Theology to Practice:
The Helix Metaphor"
Something
needs to change!
Theologians are fond of denigrating strategy. One of my
colleagues will speak at a leadership meeting on "What the Church Needs
Most." The description of his presentation says, "What we most
desperately need today is not better strategic planning or even better
leadership skills--we need true saints." Obviously there is truth in
this statement: Holiness is more important than strategy and
leadership. Unsaintly leaders are dangerous strategy
formulators. However, this type of statement is simplistic.
Without intentional models of spiritual formation there are few "true
saints."
On the
other hand, practitioners frequently claim that theologians are ivory
tower thinkers, unable to connect with common people. Christian
Schwarz's research demonstrates that "formal theological training has a
negative correlation to both church growth and overall quality of
churches" (1996, 23). If Schwarz's critique is valid, the cause is
likely the cultural dislocation of seminary students so that they no
longer speak the language of the common people (Thielicke
1962).
Practitioners with inadequate theological formulation, however,
pose one of Christianity's greatest concerns. They only partially
understand the implications of the Gospel and thus teach a truncated
message. This failure to critically reflect on the Word of God leads
to a message shaped predominantly by their culture. Pragmatism without
theological reflection threatens the future of the church.
To clarify
the interrelationship of theology and practice and the nature of ministry
formation, I will describe what I call "The Missional Helix."
The
Missional Helix
Neither
theology nor strategy stands by itself as a self-contained discipline but
as an ongoing process involving various elements. In defining
ministry formation, image a spiral. As the coils turn round and
round, they pass the same landmarks, but always at a slightly different
level. This spiral, a helix, is descriptive of this process of
effective ministry formation.
The spiral
begins with theologies, such as Missio Dei, the kingdom of
God, incarnation, and crucifixion, which focus and form our perspectives
of culture and the practice of ministry. Cultural analysis
forms the second element of the helix. Cultural awareness
enables missionaries and ministers to define types of peoples within a
cultural context, to understand the social construction of their reality,
to perceive how they are socially related to one another, and to explain
how the Christian message intersects with every aspect of culture (birth
rites, coming of age rituals, weddings, funerals, etc). The spiral
proceeds to consider what has occurred historically in the missional
context. Historical perspective narrates how things got to be
as they are based upon the interrelated stories of the particular nation,
lineage, the church, and God's mission. Finally the spiral considers
the strategy, or practice of ministry, within the missions
environment.
The
missional helix is a spiral because the missionary returns time and time
again to reflect theologically, culturally, historically, and
strategically in order to develop ministry models appropriate to the local
context. Theology, social understandings, history of missions,
and strategy all work together and interpenetrate each other. Thus
praxis impacts theology, which in turn shapes the practice of
ministry. In the following diagram the broken line between the four
elements of strategy formation demonstrates how each interacts with the
others.
The Relationship between the Four Elements of
Ministry Formation
The diagram is a helix because theology,
history, culture, and the practice of ministry build on one another
as the community of faith collectively develops understandings and a
vision of God’s will within their cultural context. Like a spring,
the spiral grows to new heights as ministry understandings and experiences
develop.
The Missional Helix
Each of these four elements (theology, history, culture, and
strategy) is essential in reflecting on and planning for all types of
Christian ministry.
Conclusion
The Missional Helix is useful in at least two ways. First and
foremost, it provides a model of decision-making for the Christian
practitioner that must become both intentional and instinctive. In
other words, the missionary or minister should seek theological
understandings, cultural analysis, historical perspective, and strategy
formation in the process of developing patterns for ministry.
Second, the Missional Helix could be used as a model for theological
education. Equipping for ministry should not put high emphasis on
some elements and little consideration to others. Rather, it should
provide an intentional, integrated model of ministry formation.
The next Monthly Missiological Reflection will apply the
Missional Helix to one type of Christian ministry, that of church
planting.
Sources Used
Schwarz, Christian A. 1996. Natural Church
Development. St. Charles, IL: ChurchSmart
Resources.
Thielicke, Helmut. 1962. A Little Exercise for Young
Theologians. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
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