EMQ » Oct – Dec 2024 » Volume 60 Issue 4
Missional Communitas
Summary: Kinship unity develops when diverse members graft together to form one entity. When those groups choose to humbly reach out to each other in acceptance, true partnership or koinonia naturally follows. This all comes together in missional communitas: a group’s unity of mind and purpose to fulfill the mission of God. This missional communitas provides the means for the church to participate in the mission of God.
By Christi Trimbur
In 2010, the World Council of Churches discussed ecclesial unity and koinonia:
The theological foundation of mission in unity is built on the koinonia of the triune God. Mission is based on the infinite love of God, who created out of nothing the whole of creation and humankind in God’s image and likeness, so as to make us partakers of this ineffable love. The Father sends the Son (John 16:5) to fulfill the plan of the divine economy. The Word of God was incarnate from the Holy Spirit and became human (Nicene Creed). This inner communion of the Holy Trinity is the source of the unity of the church and the aim of God’s mission: to invite every human being to experience fellowship with God and with one another according to the inner unity of the One God in three Persons (John 17:21).[i]
Grafting various groups together leads to kinship unity in Christ, which leads to koinonia, which leads to fulfilling the mission of God as modeled by the Triune God. The Church demonstrates the fulfillment of the mission of God through missional unity or communitas (see figure 11.1).
Figure 11.1: Progression to Missional Unity
