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Editorial

Nigel Rooms
Church Mission Society, Oxford, UK, and The Queen’s Foundation, Birmingham, UK
nigel.rooms@churchmissionsociety.org

Welcome to the first issue of Ecclesial Futures. This journal 
is a new venture in missiological publishing with which we seek 
to fill a “gap” in current literature for academics and practitioners 
around the question of the future of local Christian communities 
in relation to the world as it is, not the world as it was. 

Background

Our new journal brings together, at least in the initial phases, two 
groups of scholar-practitioners. The first is an invitation-only an-
nual conference of around twenty to thirty people who have called 
themselves the International Research Consortium: Researching 
Missional Congregations (IRC). They include people from the 
USA, Europe, and Africa and cross several denominations, mainly 
Protestant. They meet to share existing research projects and form 
a learning community around how local churches can be trans-
formed by working with the theological concept of the missio Dei. 

The second is a “study group” within the International As-
sociation of Mission Studies (IAMS),1 which is the internationally 

1. See IAMS 2016.



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recognized association for missiology. IAMS has a growing mem-
bership in the hundreds and is truly global and ecumenical, 
combining people from Mainline Protestant, Pentecostal, Roman 
Catholic, and Orthodox denominations. Most of these denomina-
tions are represented on the journal’s Editorial Board, though we 
do want to see this expand this in future. 

Our Approach in Ecclesial Futures

We understand local Christian communities as (a) the hermeneu-
tic of the gospel and (b) meeting God’s future as it comes towards 
us in the shape of the reign of God within the particular time 
and place that each finds itself. This requires these communities 
to be in a constant level of transformation as they orient them-
selves towards God’s preferred and promised future for them in 
a rapidly changing world. We believe study and research in how 
local churches change to be increasingly faithful in their everyday 
apostolicity is urgently needed. 

We define local Christian communities broadly to include 
traditional “parish” churches and independent local churches, reli-
gious communities and congregations, new church plants, so-called 
“fresh expressions” of church, and “new monastic” communities. 

The sources of this work theologically are threefold at least:

(a) The missio Dei—we believe the missio Dei to be axiomatic 
for ecclesiology, that is missiology precedes ecclesiology. A 
large proportion, possibly worldwide, of local Christian com-
munities and the systems that support them were formed 
in modernity and therefore with the culture and norms of 
modernity, Christendom, and colonialism (although see the 
discussion below on the limits of this assumption). If adopt-
ing the stance of the missio Dei is indeed a paradigm shift as 
Bosch (1991) claims then it is no surprise that there is deep 
resistance to the implications of this “about face” within such 
communities and the systems that support them.2 Research-

2. While there is wide and critical acceptance of the basic tenets of the 



Nigel Rooms—Editorial

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ing how and why Christian communities may make this 
paradigm shift as they embody the missio Dei is vital work. 

(b) Andrew Walls (e.g., 2002) has traced the history of the wax-
ing and waning of Christianity over the centuries. His work 
clearly demonstrates that local Christian communities can 
both flourish and they can die, never to be seen again. For 
example, there is no Christian community in North Africa 
contiguous with that of the one present at the time of Au-
gustine of Hippo. Given this historical reality and the cur-
rent decline and fragility of the Church in many parts of the 
world we need to know much more about how and why some 
churches meet their end and some live, sustaining themselves 
through generational change. Thus, while we appreciate the 
contribution of congregational studies, ecclesiology, soci-
ology, and ethnography and will need to draw on all these 
fields in our own work, we do not believe they are sufficient 
research methodologies in themselves for the situation local 
Christian communities find themselves in. Rather we require 
an orientation to the future of how God is both calling and 
sending the Church in our time and place to witness to the 
coming kingdom. 

(c) The “missional church” movement, arising from the work 
of Lesslie Newbigin and later the “Gospel and our Culture 
Network” (GOCN) has been working on these questions over 
twenty years, particularly amongst Protestant mainline de-
nominations in USA and elsewhere. There is a large amount 
of literature published over those two decades, too large to 
cite here. A recent example might be Gelder and Zscheile 
(2011). While this movement has no monopoly on these 
questions, our work will need to stay in critical contact with 
developments in “missional church,” while broadening the 
concerns across the whole spectrum of denominations from 
the World Church engaged in mission. 

missio Dei amongst theologians and missiologists, there is also good evidence 
that its receptivity in local Christian communities is extremely patchy and 
fragile across many denominations (Clark et al. 2010). 



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Further implications of local Christian communities taking mis-
sion seriously and areas of contestation in this field (which may 
prove fruitful areas of research and publishing) are: 

(i) The return of the locus in which theology is generated “in, 
with, to, for, under, and against” the local church (and there-
fore away from the monopoly of the academy). 

(ii) The relationship between ordained and lay leadership in lo-
cal Christian communities. 

(iii) How and where leaders are identified, discerned, and theo-
logically educated for mission.

(iv) The relationship between a local church and its “world” or 
context. Issues of contextualisation or as some prefer “cul-
tural negotiation” or “intercultural mission” require urgent 
attention. 

(v) The place of local churches formed outside of Christendom 
and modernity in this debate—we add a further paragraph 
regarding this here below, especially in relation to “missional 
church.”

This fifth point above is an important issue for the worldwide 
Church. A lot of existing research is emerging out of the challenges 
of mission in the Western world, but many practitioners and theo-
logians in the non-Western world are also passionately interested 
in the mission of the local church and reimagining ecclesial fu-
tures (cf. Bolger 2012). In order to discuss “ecclesial futures” in the 
non-Western world, we need to develop a missiological approach 
which seeks to contextualize the missional church debate in non-
Western churches. This is because the Western and non-Western 
Christianities do not always share the same historical background. 
While Newbigin’s critique of the Western churches and the sub-
sequent discussion about the missional church among his fol-
lowers (GOCN) emerged out of the new historical background 
of post-Christendom in the West, some non-Western Christian 
churches do not share such an experience of Christendom and 
post-Christendom. Thus, when we talk about the ecclesial futures 



Nigel Rooms—Editorial

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in non-Western churches there is a whole new task of listening, 
research, analysis, and theorizing.

A Call for Papers 

Having described above our theological and missiological ap-
proach we now call for contributions to the journal. This first issue 
presents, we think great examples of the kind of articles we wel-
come and we hope to range much more widely in time. All articles 
are peer-reviewed, around six thousand words long and will make 
an original contribution to the field. The co-editors are very open 
to discussing with potential authors their ideas for submissions 
and are happy to correspond until something suitable emerges for 
peer review. We would also really like to encourage new authors 
who have not published before—and to this end some members 
of the Editorial Board are happy to mentor potential writers in the 
process of submission to peer review. Here are some titles/content 
of the kind of articles we would love to publish. They are just a 
sample of course. 

• Longitudinal studies in congregational development over five 
to ten (or more) years

• Diagnoses of why different churches flourish or die 

• Ethnographic studies of the cultural changes required in 
flourishing churches

• Methodological treatises on how to research in this field 

• How local churches can learn to experiment and fail 

• How might a whole denomination transform itself towards 
embodying the mission of God? 

• Astute, hermeneutically-aware bible scholarship on the fu-
ture of the contemporary church

• Implications for theological education of the local church “as 
the hermeneutic of the gospel” 



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• Contextual studies of transformative churches from wide-
ranging places—from the deeply secular to say, animist/sha-
manist contexts and everything in between

• What kind of leadership is required for the local church to 
embody the mission of God? 

• What does a local church need to know before it can engage 
in mission? 

• Systemic studies of local churches and the systems that sup-
port them

We envisage original research papers, review papers, case stud-
ies and occasional conference reports. The work will come from 
Masters, Doctoral, and post-Doctoral researchers as well as prac-
titioners. It will originate in seminaries and university theology 
departments as well as the judicatory bodies of particular denomi-
nations and local churches themselves. We expect papers to come 
from all corners of the world since the church exists in very many 
places. 

The Articles in This Issue

The body of this issue is five articles from three continents and 
from at least five denominational backgrounds. Without exception 
they are all working with the missio Dei, each with their own criti-
cal approach and at the same time “thickening” our understand-
ing of this key foundation for the so-called “missional church.” At 
the heart of the issue are three articles presenting field research. 
These are excellent examples of the work we would like to show-
case in the journal. What is interesting to me is how provisional 
such research turns out to be—presenting a snapshot of a much 
longer journey, always raising more questions, never giving easy 
answers. We are “consciously incompetent” in this time to know 
what “church” might authentically look like—my hope is that this 
journal will contribute to deepening and widening our vision for 
what the church might be. 



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Nelus Niemandt is a long-standing and well-respected mis-
siologist from South Africa. He has been involved for many years 
in the drive of the Dutch Reformed Church to become a church 
shaped by the missio Dei. His article opens this issue as it presents 
the theological and missiological “big picture” for readers of the 
journal. His research concern is giving content to the missio Dei 
since it can easily become the blessing of all things and therefore 
somewhat devoid of content. Niemandt notes the importance of 
“flourishing life” in recent theological literature and official Church 
documentation and connects this directly to the mission of God in 
which the Church3 participates. What is especially helpful is that 
he then goes on to explicate church praxis which arises from this 
missional stance. The article stands as a marker for what this jour-
nal represents and sets us off in the right direction—notably facing 
towards the future and the eschaton. 

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA) is de-
clining like many other mainstream western denominations. Kris 
Stache, a Lutheran theologian based in Dubuque, Iowa wanted 
to do something different in a research project as she set out “to 
explore the stories, metaphors, and texts that shape a ministry 
leader’s understanding and practice of visionary leadership in 
the ELCA.” In her article Stache presents important field research 
(thirty in-depth interviews with specifically identified and chosen 
“visionary” leaders) which, for me as editor, puts further “flesh on 
the bones” of the missio Dei as set out in the first article—we have 
here in fact many actual on-the-ground descriptions of “flour-
ishing life.” Stache’s approach is to encourage these key leaders 
to tell stories which point to the presence and activity of God in 
their ministries—noting how they witness the missio Dei. What 
emerges is a wonderful testament to asking the right questions of 
the right people! These voices, as they speak about the activity of 
God in their communities and through their leadership need to be 
heard. As Kris notes there is true holiness here in the stories they 

3. In this journal we will stick to the convention of capitalizing Church 
when referring to the institution or Church body and church when the local 
manifestation in a Christian community is in mind. 



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tell. Overall, while there is no “magic bullet” for decline there is 
clearly a “future and a hope” for the ELCA if the six ways that God 
is working through these leaders can be “passed-on” to others. 

We now jump straight in to so-called “fresh expressions of 
church” with Sabrina Müller from Zurich, Switzerland. The fresh 
expressions movement is one of the Church of England’s respons-
es to the post-Christendom decline of the Church and Sabrina 
studied it for her doctoral research. The particular aspect of this 
ecclesiological shift she addresses in this article is the notion of 
the “mixed economy”; that is, how do these new forms of church 
exist alongside and even in harmony with what has been present 
for centuries. In a journal focused on the future, the third submis-
sion in the first issue is a historical survey of how fresh expressions 
came to exist and be accepted as a fit and proper ecclesiological 
form of church. This is no accident however since what we learn 
from Müller is how institutional change happens in an overall 
Church institutional system. She then connects that learning with 
the reception of the principles of fresh expressions on continen-
tal Europe which broadens the scope of her work in fascinating 
ways. There are three things that commend this article to me. First 
the physical border crossing nature of the original research—as a 
Church of England priest it is wonderful to have an outside view 
on my own context. Second the theological borders that are also 
being crossed by this work—missiology and practical theology 
looks very different even across Europe and it is important to have 
the questions the fresh expressions raises aired in this way. Finally, 
the article leaves us wanting more from Müller given the breadth 
of what she has been capable of here. 

Crossing another border into Germany we now meet Michael 
Herbst and Patrick Todjeras from the University of Griefswald. 
Their robust and in-depth field research is presented here on new 
forms of church in rural Germany. Once again the background is 
overall Church decline and in some places reactionary responses 
offering only denial concerning the reality of what is happening. 
However rather like Kris Stache, Herbst and Todjeras go looking 
for places where something new and visionary is happening and 



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subject these initiatives to their intensive research methodology. 
The interventions they discover demonstrate an incredible range 
of both missional and innovative approaches. These are catego-
rised in really helpful ways. In a connection with Müller’s paper 
they discover differences in leadership between their research and 
other research on fresh expressions and the mixed economy which 
raises, of course, more research questions. They conclude with 
several really helpful recommendations for how these innovations 
could be encouraged across the whole Church. 

Last, but no means at all least, there is a really important ar-
ticle from Scott Hagley which asks what we are doing theologically 
when we research in and with missional congregations as they 
attempt to embody the missio Dei in their life together. In interest-
ing ways this article sums up this issue, critiquing several parts of 
it and offering many new paths for the journey ahead. Hagley is 
a scholar-practitioner based in Pittsburgh, PA, and he is able to 
move seamlessly between the complexities and questions of both 
Trinitarian theology and post-modern ethnographic researching. 
This paper will repay reading, re-reading and inwardly digesting 
as Hagley utilises Jenson’s Trinitarian understanding to develop 
a pneumatological solution to questions raised about the triune 
God’s relationship with the world. Drawing on the work of Natalie 
Wigg-Stevenson and Mary Fulkerson in ethnographic research, 
Hagley provides concrete proposals to enable a congregation’s self- 
understanding as a missional church as they participate with the 
Spirit in their public worlds. 

We present a handful of book reviews in this issue (which 
we hope will develop with the journal in future issues), covering 
material published in our field—and readers will notice from fur-
ther afield. Thus, one of the reviews brings thinking from studying 
online innovation and creativity to churches participating in the 
mission of God. 

As I close I’d like to thank a few people. My co-editor, Steve 
Taylor, for constant encouragement. The publishers at Wipf & 
Stock for taking us on as a new and untried journal. All those in-
stitutions, who need to remain anonymous, but who generously 



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funded the start-up of the journal. The Editorial Board all of whom 
reviewed the papers presented here with acumen and alacrity 
making substantial improvements to them. Patrick Todjeras who 
has put the book reviews together at very short notice. You, our 
readers who have picked up the journal and hopefully learnt from 
it. Please spread the news and consider writing an article or review 
a book for us. Do be in touch with the editors with your com-
ments, thoughts, and questions; we would love to have feedback 
on this first issue. 

Bibliography

Bolger, Ryan, ed. 2012. The Gospel after Christendom: New Voices, New Cultures, 
New Expressions. Grand Rapids: Baker.

Bosch, David J. 1991. Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in the Theology of 
Mission. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis. 

Bria, Ion. 1996. The Liturgy after the Liturgy: Mission and Witness from an 
Orthodox Perspective. Geneva: WCC.

Clark, J., et al. 2010. Foundations for Mission in the UK and Ireland: A Study of 
Language, Theology, and Praxis. London: CTBI.

Gelder, Craig van, and Zscheile, Dwight J. 2011. The Missional Church in 
Perspective: Mapping Trends and Shaping the Conversation. Grand Rapids: 
Baker.

International Association for Mission Studies (IAMS). 2016. “Christian 
Communities and Mission.” Online. https://missionstudies.org/index.
php/study-groups/ecclesial-futures-local-christian-communities-in-
mission.

Stamoolis, James J. 1986. Eastern Orthodox Mission Theology Today. Maryknoll, 
NY: Orbis.

Tennet, Timothy. 2010. Invitation to World Missions: A Trinitarian Missiology 
for the Twenty-First Century. Grand Rapids: Kregel. 

Vassiliadis, Petros, ed. 2014. Orthodox Perspectives on Mission. Oxford: Regnum 


