The head of the Council for World Mission has urged churches in the Western world to rediscover mission and new expressions of church or face their demise.
Speaking during a visit to member churches in New Zealand the general secretary of the CWM, the Rev Dr Desmond van der Water, said the Church in the West and northern hemisphere since the time of Emperor Constantine had been shaped by a model of being an essentially institutional Church, reports Assist News.
“At the centre of the task has been a maintenance function rather than a missional function,” he said.
“The acute challenge is to reshape and redirect the image of the Church as one not existing to maintain itself but existing for the sake of God’s mission.”
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