Doctrine and Mission

I was reading Bishop Scott J. Jones address on "Unity in the Making" when something he said (or wrote) got me thinking.  He was writing about the beginnings of the Methodist movement when he makes this claim:

United Methodism lives by it mission.  We were not founded in a doctrinal dispute.  Wesley repeatedly said his teachings were the teachings of the Church of England, and Otterbein, Boehm and Albright would have concurred.  Our origins lie with the effort to carry the gospel to the poor, the unchurched, and the immigrant.  When we are clear about our mission, we thrive.  When we are confused about our mission, or when we adopt a partial mission in place of the whole gospel, we die.

While reading Brian McLaren's "A Generous Orthodoxy" the other night he said something like this.  The problem with Protestantism is that every time we have a doctrinal dispute, we tend to protest (hence the name) and start our own denomination.  We have become addicted to protesting instead of uniting under a common mission to share the gospel and build God's Kingdom.  As much as I appreciate the diverse traditions our different denominations have to offer, I would have to agree with McLaren.  Even in Methodism we have a history of dividing and more divisions are threatening the future of our church.  That is why I find a sense of pride and hope in the beginnings of the Methodist movement.  Wesley was not trying to protest doctrine but to widen our mission, to take the good news beyond the walls of the church.  He believed that God's grace was offered to all people.  The future of our church may depend on our ability to reclaim that vision of a church large of enough not just for the poor, the unchurched, and the immigrant, but for people who disagree with one another. 

Comments

[Jeffrey D Herzet]

Barry,

Reading through this and other entries on this site have started me wondering.

Where does a church head that seems to be looking inward, instead of looking outward when in fact they know they should be and are trying to look outward?

Is it necessary to make a giant leap of change, or can it be accomplished by small steps over a period of time? And if the changes are made, what becomes of the history, or do we try to hard to keep the sense of history and forget the future, or that which God calls us to do.

I have been struggling with my faith and the mission of my church for several years, and while the mission statement is said and is posted, is it followed?

[Ed]

It might be of interest to compare the concepts of "doctrine" and "mission." Doctrine implies the various basic teching of a religion, demonination, or specific congregation. It is a collection of concepts and values the organization believes to be essential or important. A particular doctrine is thus propogated within the congregation via various methods of teaching.

I see no problem with the concept of doctrine itself. The many church doctrinal statements provide people with a choice of the best religious organization for themselves. It is when a particular church sees their own doctrine as superior and more authoritative than that of other churches that problems arise. This is the commonly seen paradigm of an individual or organization believing they hold the absolute truth and all other beliefs are inferior. I believe this to be the major cause of protests and demoninatinal splits within Christianity.

The mission of a church actually is a subset of the doctrine of this particular church. It is a teaching based on the idea of the basic function and reason of existence for this particular church. Again, it is only when the particular church considers its mission to be the absolute truth and superior to all other missional statements that problems arise. This results in the idea that all other "missions" are inferior to ours and this leads to fragmentation of this church from the universal Christian community.

Regarding Jeff's comment, it is important to remember a basic concept of "true meaning." In order to find the true meaning of existence, an individual or organization must look outward -- beyond itself. Any person or organization concerned only with internal servitude will never realize its true meaning of existence.

Christian churches can have differing missions. All of these can be valid and worthwhile as long as they based on the basic tenets of the life and teachings of Christ.

The paradigm of any church is based on its interpretation of its history, current world situation, as well as it vision of the future. Changes can, and do, occur within churches. In general, these changes are easier to realize and better accepted if they are incremented in small steps. However, multiple small steps can obviously result in a giant leap if the the changes are valid and acceptable.