Missional Theology

I'm sitting in class with two dozen, mostly friends and associates, studying Missional Church Theology.  Our instructors are Dr. John Franke from Biblical Seminary and Dr. Alan Roxburgh from Allelon and the Allelon Training Center.  We are launching an ATC in Kansas City through Jacob's Well.  This is some amazing content and wonderful dialogue about what it means to cooperate with the Mission of God.

The reality is that being Missional is first and foremost about God.  This is not the Churches Mission, it is God's Mission missio dei.  John Franke dealt with the most important question for those hoping to embrace a missional way of life, a missional church.  The question is, "Who is God?"  We focused on the Trinity and entered into a discussion on the Eastern view that God is social not solitary.  God is love and God is radical sociality.  The Trinity - God is one by virtue of their interdependent sociality.  Alan states that it is essential to start with the "Who is God?" question instead of the common mistake of hyper-focusing first and almost exclusively on ecclesiology.

This conversation is compatible with Dietrich Bonhoeffer's three questions (in order of priority): Who is Jesus Christ?; Where is Jesus Christ?; What then shall we do?  Bonhoeffer says the "How question" (the important question for many fearful that this conversation is a "slippery slope") is a question of doubt, a question of idolatry.