|TOP|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.”

|QUOTE|Speaking to Challenge Weekly, Rev van der Water admitted it was a daunting prospect but urged the Church not to be put off by this.

“The most difficult part is that the Church has entrenched itself as a social institution. It has infrastructure, buildings, staff -- and to reverse that trend is a huge task. It is an uphill battle.”

The general secretary of the CWM expressed his hope in the young and a revival of the Church in Europe.

“The bright part of it is that there’s a hunger, especially among the younger generations, for non-institutional expressions of faith.

|AD|“The movement towards ‘new ways of doing church’ is vibrant in Europe, which is an encouraging sign of the readiness by people even within the institutional churches to explore what I think is a movement of the Spirit.”

He warned that if the Church did not make serious changes it would face its eventual end, warning that “the consequence of not changing is an institution which is moribund”.

“It is a reality that many of the historic churches in Europe are dying. They recognise they are declining, hence the enthusiasm about the new ways of exploring church.

“Church leaders are telling me that staying the same is not an option.”

He cited theologian Emil Brunner who said more than a century ago that, ‘The Church exists by mission as fire exists by burning’.

“Without mission there is really no Church,” he said.
He also noted a shift in the flow of mission from the north to south model of the start of the missionary movement in the 19th century to the south to north model of today where more and more missionaries are coming out of Africa, South America and Asia to evangelise in northern countries.

He warned that Christians in the Western world need to urgently find more relevant expressions of being the Church and being able to share faith.

“The challenge for the West is no longer in Africa, Asia and the Pacific. The challenge for the West is on its own doorstep -- not trotting off to other countries but examining the communities around us.”