The Reformation and Missional Communities

When Martin Luther was ousted from the church, the struggle of being the church became a new challenge. Were the Reformers really the church? The Roman Catholic authorities told them that they were most certainly not. They weren’t church; they had no real pastors; and the people were apostate outsiders cut off from God’s grace.

The Roman Church possessed the authority to be church. The understanding of the Word was theirs. The administration of the sacraments was under their control. The outsiders were a sham, fake, inauthentic.

So the struggle began. What were these little communities of believers in Jesus to do?

As they searched the Scriptures they discovered something. They WERE the church!

Thus began the development of the Reformation Church as missional communities.

The Lutheran Confessions express this joyful discovery of the reformers. The Apology of the Augsburg Confession says in Articles VII and VIII: “In accordance with the Scriptures, therefore, we maintain that the church in the proper sense is the assembly of the saints who truly believe the Gospel of Christ and who have the Holy Spirit” (Tappert, p.173).

Article XII of the Smalcald Articles declares: “We do not concede to the papists that they are the church, for they are not. Nor shall we pay any attention to what they command or forbid in the name of the church, for, thank God, a seven-year-old child knows what the church is, namely, holy believers and sheep who hear the voice of their Shepherd. So children pray, ‘I believe in one holy Christian church.’ Its holiness does not consist of surplices, tonsures, albs, or other ceremonies of theirs which they have invented over and above the Holy Scriptures, but it consists of the Word of God and true faith” (Tappert, p.315).

Based on the Bible, the Reformers saw church as the body of Christ, “holy believers and sheep who hear the voice of their Shepherd,” bunches of redeemed people gathered by and gathered around the Word of God.

The Reformers resisted the assertion that church could only be church when papist authorities deemed it to be church by their control and decree.

The church was more than an institutional entity. It was living, fluid, vibrant, and reaching. Article IV of the Smalcald articles comments on the Gospel: “We shall now return to the Gospel, which offers counsel and help against sin in more than one way, for God is surpassingly rich in his grace: First, through the spoken word, by which the forgiveness of sin (the peculiar function of the Gospel) is preached to the whole world; second, through Baptism; third, through the holy Sacrament of the Altar; fourth, through the power of the keys; and finally, through the mutual conversation and consolation of the brethren” (Tappert, p.310).

God was moving among His people. His movements were not limited to the authoritative outlets that the Roman officials allowed.

The church of the Reformation established itself as missional communities: assemblies that were fully the church, filled with and utilizing the gifts God bestowed upon the church, reaching out with a life-transforming Gospel for the expansion of the church.

Under the heading of the Mass, Article XXIV of the Apology of the Augsburg Confession states: “As for outward appearances, our church attendance is greater than theirs [the papists]. Practical and clear sermons hold an audience…The real adornment of the churches is godly, practical, and clear teaching, the godly use of the sacraments, ardent prayer, and the like” (Tappert, p.259).

Real church—the body of Christ—was reaching real people in real, practical and completely Scriptural ways. The Reformers successfully “bucked the system” to defend that fact that they were really the church—more real than the dead, Scripture-forsaking opposition.

I wonder sometimes if the church today is squelching the spirit of the Reformation church. Do we discourage anything outside of our institutional controls, our human structures, and our personal plans, or do we really believe that the church is the body of Christ, missional communities that gather around, and fill the community with, the Gospel? Are we opening the floodgates of Gospel by recognizing and encouraging the mutual conversation and consolation of God’s people for a lost world, or are we, like the Pharisees in Luke 19, commanding the followers of Jesus to quiet down, organizing them in ways that make them a harmless and benign group of near-sighted lemmings?

I hear people say that our denomination needs to define its ecclesiology better. From what I read in the Scriptures and Confessions, our ecclesiology seems very clear. Perhaps we look for a better one because our current one is risky, entrepreneurial and uncomfortable.

We need to do better as stewards of the church. We need to take risks, to live up to the Reformers, let alone Jesus Himself. Through the master in the parable of Luke 19, Jesus said, “Risk your life and get more than you ever dreamed of. Play it safe and end up holding the bag” (vs.26 The Message).

I’m for Reformation style risks. How about you?

Missional Worker Inspiration

Are you a missional worker? In Luke 10, Jesus appointed seventy-two people and sent them. He said, "I am sending you." Into the harvest fields they went. Jesus didn't say, "Some of you are only spectators." He didn't tell a group, "You stay inside the building while other go out into the world." No. Believers were sent.

I was sitting next to a firefighter recently. We were at a meeting of a Mission Society. This full-time firefighter coordinates and leads mission trips to Brazil. He told stories of medical journeys that changed people's lives as the love of Jesus was lived out and proclaimed. He described the way he helps local church members make a global difference. The firefighter is a missional worker. In the midst of his busy life, he has a mission focus and is being used by God to make Kingdom gains.

What about you? What's your mission? It doesn't have to be in South America. It can start at home!

Reggie McNeal, the articulate mission strategist, gave a talk recently that contained nugget after nugget of missional wisdom. For every missional worker, I'd like to share those quotes so your soul can be stirred to action as we ask the Lord of the harvest to send workers:

"We need to be apostolic, to share the faith with people who have no spiritual scripting."

"The culture is having a God conversation while we get distracted with church conversations."

"The Church is a who, not a what. If I am a believer, then everywhere I am is the Church, the sent ones. This expands the bandwidth of the Christian movement in the world."

"You run into Jesus where there are people in need."

"Apostolic preaching happens in the streets, marketplace, all the world. We made preaching an inside church thing."

"If we're the bride of Christ, what's on His heart needs to get on our hearts pretty quickly."

"The church's scorecard should be the measure of missional agents, not church attenders."

"The apostolic model is to deploy then debrief."

"Apostolic leaders make heroes of the right people."

"The best leadership releases you to bless people."

"You are a viral agent of the Kingdom."

Dear friends, you are sent! You are a missional worker! There is no failure for one who brings the blessing of Jesus to others.

If you're interested in Missional Worker Training, click here for information and registration.