God’s Missionary People is a church growth and administration
resource which instills a burden as well as facts and concepts.
It presents a theology of ecclesiology applicable to every
evangelical body. The author works through realities of church
life or denominational organization, but seeks to present
them in their Kingdom perspective so Christians begin advancing
a Kingdom instead of maintaining a defensive fortress. This
book interacts with the historical development of the church
and covers all the six continents of the world engaging with
hundreds of pastors and missionaries across the denominational
divide.
Van Engen contends that as local congregations are built up
to reach out in mission to the world they become in fact what
they already are by faith: God’s Missionary People.
The book emphasizes the need to rethink the relationship of
gospel and culture so that new avenues can be found for creatively
contextualizing the congregation with the truth of the gospel
without imposing foreign cultures. The book also states that
there is an increasing urgency by pastors, missiologists and
theologians to redefine the church’s nature, mission,
relation to the Kingdom of God, and its calling in the world.
The author observes that it has become increasingly difficult
to separate the “visible” from the “invisible,”
the hope from reality features of the Church.
Van Engen further notes that, “since this fullness is
infinite, eternal, and unchanging, the vision of the church
is never limited to seeing only what is there; it always sees
what, by God’s grace, could and will be there”
(43). Citing the essence of the local church in the book of
Ephesians, Van Engen, states that “it is the body which
exploded into action in those early years, going to all the
nations making disciples, preaching, teaching and baptizing”
(51), in line with the Great Commission of Matt. 28:19-20.
While looking at the essence of the local church in historical
perspective the book notes that although the four concepts
of one, holy, catholic, apostolic church underwent significant
emphasis during the early centuries of Christendom, the church
struggled, rather unsuccessfully, during the next millennium
to maintain an organic, outward-directed missional view.
God’s Missionary People sadly notes that in twelfth
century the Roman Church believed the gifts were its exclusive
property and ultimately, the ideas of unity, holiness, catholicity,
and apostolicity, became self-justification rather than self-examination.
The book quotes Dietrich Bonhoeffer, among others, who introduced
other ideas in an effort to direct the local church toward
its life and mission in the world. Bonhoeffer is quoted as
having said “the church is the church only when it exists
for others” (75). The book states that “The church
is being obedient when it can be found out in the main thoroughfares
and streets inviting everyone to the eschatological wedding
feast of the Lamb” (81).
The book also underlines the importance of the fact that the
priorities for the life and mission of the church must be
appropriate to the nature of the missionary congregation in
relation to its environment and culture. The book refers to
Wesley Baker who in the mid-1960s gave a provocative analysis
of the role of individual members in today’s church.
Citing the disturbing difference between the committed few
and the involved many! Sadly, the situation is not very different
today. God’s Missionary People. further pointedly brings
out the implications of the “people-of-God” concept
for missionary congregations (152). While referring to the
missionary church as the Body of Christ, the book emphasizes
that the church is not a dictatorship, and it is neither a
democracy nor a tribe, and it is not a club (154).The book
also brings out a well thought biblical view of the clergy,
emphasizing the fact that missionary congregations must see
themselves as the whole people of God, with a mandate for
ministry in the church and in the world (156). It further
observes that church members are the people of God in the
ministry in the world with far-reaching implications for understanding
and developing leadership (165). For example, God’s
missionary people must be seen as servant leaders. Here the
servant concept is seen making modeling, illustrating and
doing a part of leadership itself (168).
While the book is one of its kind on the subject providing
good reading and well researched ideas which I must say have
a good scriptural base, I am rather disappointed that the
work and the person of the Holy Spirit has not been given
the prominence He deserves in mission. Jesus Christ, after
giving the Great Commission to the disciples required them
to tarry in Jerusalem until they were filled with the Holy
Spirit in order to be effective witnesses. This they did and
the results are well recorded in the Book of Acts and the
epistles. Van Engen should have given this prominence of the
Holy Spirit as an enabling agent for God’s missionary
people to accomplish what God has sent them to do in the world.
Apart from that omission, the book is quite excellent and
worthy careful reading by all.
Review by Harris M Gichuhi
