Journal: Southern Baptist Journal of Theology
Volume: SBJT 23:3 (Fall 2019)
Article: What Are The Essentials Of A Local Church? Guidelines For Missionary Ecclesiology
Author: Zane Pratt

SBJT 23:3 (Fall 2019) p. 41

What Are The Essentials Of A Local Church? Guidelines For Missionary Ecclesiology

Zane Pratt

Zane Pratt is Vice President for Assessment, Deployment, and Training with the International Mission Board (IMB) of the Southern Baptist Convention. He also serves as Associate Professor of Christian Missions at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky, where he previously served as the dean of the Billy Graham School from 2011–2013. Dr. Pratt earned his MDiv from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and his PhD from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. From 1991–2011, Dr. Pratt served as a church planter and regional leader with the IMB in Central Asia. He is the co-author of Introduction to Global Missions (B&H, 2014) and a contributor to Theology and Practice of Mission (B&H, 2011).

Electronic Edition Editor’s Note: The endnotes in this article in the print edition skipped #10, resulting in their misnumbering. This has been fixed in this version, but the original print numbers are included within the footnote for citation issues in any quotations.

Ecclesiology is a debated subject in evangelical missionary circles. The debate surrounds two questions. The first question asks whether local churches are even needed on the mission field. Church planting can be messy and slow. So much of church life in the West, with its buildings and programs and large budgets, seems extra-biblical. The command of the Great Commission is to make disciples, not (explicitly, at least) to plant churches. There is, in fact, no explicit command to plant churches anywhere in the New Testament (NT). Shouldn’t missionaries concentrate on evangelism and discipleship, and leave off church formation as a luxury, maybe viewed as even a hindrance?1

The second question, asked by those who believe that church formation is an essential part of the missionary task, relates to the characteristics required by the NT of a local church. What is the nature of a local church, and what

SBJT 23:3 (Fall 2019) p. 42

are its essential structures and functions? At what point does simplicity become unbiblical reductionism, or contextualization become syncretism? How much of the missionary’s experience of church in his or her home setting reflects nonnegotiable biblical norms, and how much of it reflects human tradition or the missionary’s home culture? What role does the urgency of the missionary task play in the shape of the church? At the heart of all these questions lies one summary issue: what must be present in any church, in any setting, for that church to be a biblically faithful church?

The Neces...

You must have a subscription and be logged in to read the entire article.
Click here to subscribe

visitor : : uid: ()