Seeing the wood and seeing the trees

Two recently published articles may encourage us to both zoom in and zoom out to see a clearer picture of our own missional context.

Mission and church seem to come in conversation a lot at the moment. It happens at a denominational level, such as the debates around mixed ecology in the Church of England. It happens at a local level, thinking about how churches engage in mission.

I imagine it would be hard to find a pioneer who hasn’t been asked whether what they are doing is church, or why they are not ‘bringing people to church.’

There are some healthy conversations to be had around mission and ecclesiology, and in some places these conversations do happen, but often discussion splits along old fractures, and we find ourselves entrenched and struggling the same debates – fresh expressions or parish – social action or evangelism – liberal or conservative. 

The old adage warns that sometimes we can’t see the wood for the trees, but perhaps there are also times, when we don’t see the trees either.

Seeing the wood

It is not easy to sum up the whole field of missiology in 10,000 words. In fact, I think it is probably impossible but that was the task set for Cathy, Harvey and me when we agreed to write an article on missiology for the St Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology.  

This was an opportunity to look at the whole wood, not just a collection of trees.

As you would expect, there were plenty of decisions of about what to include and what to leave out. We were keen that this would be an article which tapped into the diversity of missiology and was not afraid to ask the difficult questions about the past. 

For me it was a helpful exercise to take a step back and to think about the big picture of mission, the big questions and the big areas of thought and practice which have shaped missiology over the centuries. Sometimes we need to tell the bigger, longer story so as not to get trapped and entrenched in the same old debates. 

You can read our article, Missiology, along with the entire St Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology online, open access. Do have a look at the range of other articles available too.

Seeing the trees

As well as seeing the wood, it is also possible not to pay enough attention to the trees. It is an easy mistake just to name them all as trees, and not see the individual details and beauty of each. Not just to be able to name the type of tree – beech, maple, or chestnut – but to see the way each tree is unique, shaped by its surroundings, environment and history. 

The other article I want to point you to is one I wrote looking at a church in numerical decline. 

It is too easy to see the numbers and write off a church as the wrong type. In this article I take a slower, deeper look at a church in numerical decline, and suggest, despite the narrative of decline normally presented, that there are still signs of God at work. 

I ask whether a church in numerical decline might actually offer an invitation to slow down and notice what God is doing.

Sometimes we get caught in debates about mission and church when what we need is to take a closer look, to really listen to what is going on at ground level. 

You can also read the article, Declining to be church?, online. It was published in Practical Theology.

Your bigger picture

So do check out the articles if they sound of interest and maybe consider if there is an opportunity to do some zooming in and zooming out in your own situation and context. 

What is the bigger picture you might have lost sight of? And what does a really close look at the details of life lived begin to reveal that was previously obscured?

The invitation is to see both the wood and the trees and ask how this might open up the conversations and nuance the debates.

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