Missional Theology

We believe that the Church is the hope of the world. The church is called to live on mission, and we should rally around that mission that Christ calls us to and the essentials of our faith. That is how the church will change the world. We believe that God has called people into the mission of the Gospel, not just into a membership such as you would find at a local gym. We have been called to do something, to be a part.

Secondly, we believe that we are invited into a relationship, to know the person of Christ, not just to join some religious movement. All of Scripture points us to knowing Jesus and following Him, relationally. Thirdly, we believe that the message we are called to speak of takes priority over the methods used to communicate it. There are a few ways people have aproached this:

Territorially- these people define their church based on a set of rigid boundaries- what they are for and against (against alcohol, pro-seven day creation, etc...).
Pew-centered- These churches have no defined belief system at all. Everyone in the church believes a very different thing. In fact the only unifying factor with these groups is they are against the above "territorial people".

Missional- TDC would fall here. We believe we are called to take the words of Jesus in the end of the Gospels and do them- that the Church (the people, not the institution) should go and tell others about the Cross and the Resurrection and Life he offers.

We believe that the church exists in order to equip its members for the benefit of a lsot and dying world. The most important aspect of doing that is Christ and His Gospel being central, for it is the Gospel that has the power to save (Rom 1:16-17, 1 Cor. 15:1-8). However, the Gospel must always be presented within the context of the culture, which includes the music, language, art , and trends of a place where people live. The culture is then used as a tool to communicate the Gospel. The church emerges from the introduction of the Gospel into the culture. That is what the Church is.
So, it seems that being on mission involves 3 seperate parts- the Gospel, the Church, and culture.

There are several ways the Church has misfired on its aprroach to missions historically:

The parachurch ministry

There are many people who become so frustrated with the institutional Church, yet still want to do ministry, that they disconnect from the church. A parachurch ministry results. Para- means beside, which is how these ministries should act. They are useful as long as they come alongside the church and add to what the Church is already doing. Yet they must understand that the Church is central (and is the thing for which Christ died) not the Parachurch ministry.
Gospel + Culture - Church = Parachurch

Liberalism

These churches become so entrenched in culture that they eventually neglect the Gospel, or exclude important parts of it to fit culture better. For example, it is culturally popular at this moment to talk about how God is love, which is true. However, many people stop there and leave out the other important attributes of God, such as His justice, holiness, and pure hatred of sin. They eventually become se entrenched in the culture that their version of the Gospel looks just like the sinful culture around them, offering no way out of sin through the hope of the world, Jesus Christ. These churches, ironically, become irrelevant to the culture, and powerless to change the world.
Culture + Church - Gospel = Liberalism

Fundamentalism

These churches choose, instead of wrestling with being in the world and not of the world, to disengage completely from culture, such that there is a church speaking the gospel, but in a different language than the world. They tend to focus on the way things were, allowing tradition to override authenticity and relevance, and seek to draw people into the "safety" of the fold than to send them out into the world. They eventually lose connection to the lost, rendering the Gospel powerless to save.
Church + Gospel - Culture = Fundamentalism

The Biblical way to approach mission is to keep the Gospel central, introduce it into the culture, and allow the Church to be built by Christ through the process (Matt 16:18). It looks like this:

We believe that Jesus laid out the plan for missions in Acts 1:8, sending to our own Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and on to the ends of the earth. What would that literally look like for the individual an the church?

Imagine concentric circles representing each place Jesus spoke of here (one for Jerusalem, one for Samaria, on for Judea, and one for everything else.) Now imagine that each person had each of those places in relation to where they live. For instance, Jerusalem would be your own neighborhood (the smallest circle). Judea would maybe be where you work, play, go to school, etc (a bit larger circle)... Samaria would be maybe people you see less often a bit farther from your home (a bit larger circle). The ends of the earth would be, well, the ends of the earth (the largest circle).

If everyone had their own set of circles in relation to where they live, they would begin to overlap in certain areas. As well, if the church lived out this same method, reaching out and overlapping, reaching their own communities first and then partnering together to reach the ends of the earth, you can begin to see the potential to grow the Kingdom by reaching people with the Gospel....