Introduction
Many Christian books continue to be
published all over the world. As the books continue to be published, there is a
need to review their content. This paper makes a critical review of the book
entitled God’s Missionary People:
Rethinking the Purpose of the Local Church. The book review in this paper
is done according to the reviewer’s academic concentration.
Van
Engen, Charles. God’s Missionary People:
Rethinking the Purpose of the Local Church. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker
Book House, 1991. 194pp.
Summary
of the Book
The book is intended to guide the
pastors and the laity who lead as they seek to guide the emergence and
development of the theology of ecclesiology that is applicable to evangelicals.
It is the book that brings out workable principles of church growth and how to
administer a vibrant local congregation.
Van Engen is scrutinizing the local
church in relation to the universal church by calling on church leaders to
begin looking critically at their opinions of ecclesiology.
In
part one which has five sections he discusses local churches as God’s
missionary people. He provides an overview to the whole essence of and intent
of being a local church. Among others, the author further looks at a new
perspective of the local church and the impact of modern ecclesiology on it.
The author also looks at the essence of the local church in the book of
Ephesians and its historical perspective. The writer of the book tries to bring
out the biblical foundations and truths that characterize the missional local
church. This is a church that is pure and reaching out to all with the gospel.
Van Engen (1991) argues that “to develop
a congregational missiology for the church is no longer an optional” (20). He
justifies this by suggesting that “the church of Jesus Christ may find its
fullest expression in relation to the world from within the kingdom of God only
if it lives out its nature as a missionary people” (27). A new paradigm is
advanced in the sense that the local church begins to look at its mission as
“both gift and task, both spiritual and social” (35). According to Van Engen this
has brought about the radical change by bringing a sense of urgency on the
ministers of the gospel towards the sinful mankind.
Van Engen then presents to us the
biblical images of the church that help to put the local church at its right
position with God and the world. These include saints, body, soldier with
armor, wife, chosen people of God, workmanship, building, children of light,
ambassadors, etc.
In part 2, the author highlights a new
vision of God’s missionary people presented in three sections. He clearly presents
the church as a community which transpires through koinonia, kerygma, diakonia
and maryria. Without these four
pillars the church has no life and has no meaning to the inward and outward
society. He further argues that “as the missionary people of God, local
congregations are branch offices of the kingdom, the principal instrument,
anticipatory sign, and primary locus of the coming kingdom” (101). This lead to
churches becoming more aware in their understanding that they are a community
ruled by King Jesus and knowing that it exists to spread the knowledge of the
rule of the king. According to Van Engen, by imitating the role of Jesus to
this world the church begins to operate in three offices of priest, prophet and
king (121-125).
In part 3, which has four sections, (pp.
133-145), the writer of the book spends some time in laying out the application
of becoming God’s missionary people. The author places an immense significance
on the role of the Holy Spirit in bringing out the vision of the church’s
mission in their various contexts. He indicates that the Holy Spirit creates,
sustains, directs and propels. Van Engen advances an idea of not having “super
stars” in the church. He argues that every believer is empowered by the Holy
Spirit and called upon by the scripture to participate in building the church.
As the church begins to develop missional goals it ceases to stop at just
having the statements of faith. These statements of faith are turned into
statements of purpose thereby making the church to become what is confessed to
be.
The book presents God’s missionary
people as people of God. According to the writer this has deep implications for
missionary congregations. He strongly attacks the distinction between the
clergy and the laity. This he says many times puts the congregation at the
receiving end without realizing that before God we are all equal.
Out of God’s missionary people flows a
missionary leader. These are missionary leaders at the same time being servant
leaders who model after Jesus. Out of this discussion one is stirred to begin
analyzing the status quo. He then wraps
up the book by bringing a crucial topic on missional administration in the
local church. All the good work done may crumble if the administrative
structures are weak or porous. Van Engen proposes that the “dynamic
administration must be culturally appropriate and contextually-equivalent”
(180). He then clarifies that “it is administration that missionary
congregations are given their concrete, practical, livable form” (185). Good
administration helps to avoid manipulation and facilitates evaluation. A church
should constantly evaluate itself. Missionary congregations can only evaluate
themselves on the basis of who they are without losing site of an
eschatological, emerging reality (191).
Critical Book Review of
God’s Missionary People: Rethinking the
Purpose of the Local Church
The book is scholarly, practical and
definitive look on how to view the purpose of the local church. It presents to
us the necessary facts and principles of becoming a vibrant missional local
church. He does this by placing much value on the believer being at the centre
of carrying out this mission of reaching out to the lost. Van Engen’s book does
address different missional issues concerning the local church that are
relevant in this era. It is worth reading and in it we may draw in principles
that are of substance in planting and raising missionary local churches.
The author seeks at presenting an
approach for the improvement of the purposeful local church without losing
track on emphasizing the empowerment that is in each individual believer. This
book has its roots both from the biblical foundation and modern missiological
theories.
Van Engen advances also the process of
raising a missionary local church taking into reflection the context. Tetsunao Yamamori (1993) agree with Van Engen
in stating that “this principle of contextual symbiosis first of all in the
life of Jesus, who varied the nature and type of his ministry to fit the
situation” (143). Above all, he cautions the local churches to always remember
that local congregations are branch offices of the kingdom where faith and love
must prevail. George Patterson and Richard Scoggins (2002) articulate it well
in stressing that “the most important thing to multiply churches is to obey our
Lord Jesus Christ in childlike faith and love” (21). According to Patterson and
Scoggins, these are some of the factors that present a church as a true
community of believers. Both authors seem to agree on the idea of each believer
playing his or her rightful role in the church to make it effective in reaching
out the lost.
This book is appealing to the academia;
however, I find some topics being practical that a pastor and the common
leader, and indeed a believer in the local church can grab its ideology. It is
bible based, realistic at the same time culturally receptive. Van Engen is
clear on his rationale of writing this book. He follows well his purpose,
argues his facts well and they look to be attainable. The book is a must read for every theologian who
desires to operate effectively in the ministry that God has entrusted him or
her. I recommend it to be one of the tools to be used in training missionary
leaders in a Seminary or at a Bible Institute.
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