Missional Literature Review - Part 5 - Commonly Held Reasons for Change: Argument from Missional Hermeneutic

Argument from Missional Hermeneutic
The final starting point for those who call the church to adopt a missional lifestyle is a missional hermeneutic, “a framework within which to read the Bible” (Wright, 2006, p. 26). Recently, a growing number of major publications are centering full biblical theologies upon the mission of God (see Bosch, 1991; Wright, 2006; and, to a lesser extent, Beale, 2004). These works portray the Bible as a story of a missional God on mission in the world through a particular people.

Of this particular people, Wright (2006) states that the Bible is a narrative of the “indefatigable self-commitment of God to bless all the nations of humanity through the creation of a people as the vehicle of his goal of redemption” (p. 532). The pattern of God’s work is “in” to “out,” beginning with his people and moving to the families of the earth (Brownson, 1996). Abraham is called by God and told to become a blessing, Israel is redeemed out of Israel to be the covenant people of God among the nations, Jesus announces the coming reign of God for Israel and Gentiles, and the early church made Jesus’ proclamation a reality. Wright (2006) indicates the importance of the church recognizing the missional nature and pattern of the Biblical narrative, with the observation that “this is the people to whom we belong. This is the story to which we are a part. This is the mission in which we are called to participate” (p. 532).

Those who see a missional hermeneutic as a starting point for calling for the missional change in the church encourage Christians to see the Bible as more than just a bunch of facts and stories that can help them live good lives (McNeal, 2009; Wright, 2006). Instead, the Bible should be as a missional narrative that guides the community into missional living. In this approach, the Bible is seen to exist for a missional purpose, God is seen to be a missional God, and the people of God with whom the church shares an identity is seen as a missional people (Wright, 2006).