About this journal: A letter from the board of editors

The Journal offers scholarly reflection for the purpose of faithful application.

Academics cannot be divorced from action. But well-intentioned activity without Spirit-guided, biblically-informed, theological reflection is often misguided piety that threatens great harm to the witness of Christ's disciples in the world. To say one is concerned more about ministry than theology does not mean that theology does not play a foundational role in one's ministry; it simply means one is dangerously unaware of whether or not the foundation is worth building on. And to the degree that missions has been thought about poorly, missions will be done badly. These are the convictions that have birthed the Truett Journal of Church and Mission.

Many of us have come into our theological education at the George W. Truett Theological Seminary with a sober sense of the challenges that face the church in the opening years of the twenty-first century. But as we have studied and struggled, a new hope has emerged for us: Jesus has not abandoned his church and God has not given up on the purposes God has for the world. This realization has inspired us both to be faithful to the best of the tradition passed on to us and to be bold in seeking from the Spirit fresh paths of obedience in order to bring wholeness to broken people in a broken world.

Because church and mission lie at the center of this renewed hope for us, we want to offer you an opportunity to consider creatively with us what it means to be the church and how we as the people of God can participate in God's mission in the world. Though our goal is to find what practical actions might exhibit our faith, we know no other way to do so faithfully than to begin with thinking hard and thinking well about who we are as God's people and what that means for how we live in the world.

When we say that this is a journal about the church, we mean more than an institution, an organization, a complex of buildings, or a series of programs. We mean a community of people who have been indelibly marked by the new kind of life found only in Christ and who have made an intentional choice to live life together to see that same kind of life birthed, grow, and mature in others' lives as well. We mean more than a group of people who share the same religious schedule; the church is people who share all of life together, who know and love one another so deeply that they can say, like Paul, that they experience a spiritual-emotional agony akin to childbirth while waiting to see Christ's life fully expressed in one another (Gal 4:19).

The church is people who are brought together and empowered by the Holy Spirit to give the life and ministry of Jesus an on-going "incarnation"-real human flesh and blood-in our world today. It is through the church-and not just through its preaching and its ministry, but also through its shared life together-that God gives a glimpse of the quality of life that awaits when God will reconcile all things in Christ Jesus (Col 1:19-20), an enticing invitation to receive and to enter gladly the Reign of God today.

And because the church finds its purpose and identity in God's intention to redeem all of humanity and all of creation with us, when we say this is a journal about mission, we mean something much bigger than what we do as humans. Mission is first and foremost about what God does. We can only be sent into the world because God has first sent himself into the world through Jesus Christ. Jesus is the great Missionary. Our mission is simply to give and live witness to Jesus' faithful completion of his mission.

And when we think about mission, we mean something more than global evangelization, even more than global discipleship. We certainly do not mean anything less than seeing all the peoples of the earth given an opportunity to know Jesus, but the salvation that comes through the Kingdom of God is not only a future reality. It also means liberation and freedom for people in this world, too. As such, we see mission as integrated ministry to the whole person.

And by mission, we do not mean a specific profession that is limited to a small, select class of Christians. The call to salvation in relationship with Jesus is a call to join him in his mission in the world, a mission given to him by his Father. All believers will play different roles with different emphases because of the diversity which the Spirit has given to Christ's body, but mission, in all its dimensions, must remain the concern and the commitment of all disciples of Jesus.

So what you will find in this Journal is the product of both the heads and hearts of Truett students as we seek to grapple with what it means to be the people of God in the world, living out the sacrificing, redemptive lives which God has chosen for us in Jesus. We agree with Martin KShler when he wrote, "Mission is the mother of theology."1 As we see it, the study of the church and the mission of God is the interdisciplinary nexus of a seminary curriculum. A missional ecclesiology is where biblical studies, Christian history, theology, preaching, pastoral ministry, leadership theory, and social sciences all synthesize their insights to shape our obedient participation in God's mission in the world. The missional church, empowered by the Spirit and engaged in God's purposes, is where knowledge that could merely puff up transforms into lived-out love that solidly builds up (1 Cor 8:1).

In each issue of the Journal, you will find four to six articles written by Truett students. Some will be academic papers presenting the fruits of rigorous research, some will be essays reflecting on experience in ministry, others will be sermons that effectively communicate a missional identity for the church-all of them will have the goal of providing insights for practical application within our church communities. For one of these papers, we will also include a few responses written by Truett students, professors, or alumni in order to include you even more deeply in the dialogue occurring within the Truett community. Similarly, each issue will feature several reviews of books (and possibly other media as well) that are proving to be significant voices in discussions both inside and outside of the classrooms at Truett. We will also occasionally bring an interview with a pastor, missionary, or other church leader to offer a snapshot of how God is working in one church community to fulfill God's purposes in the world.

Our intention is that fuller understanding through careful reflection would enable faithful obedience to the mission which Christ has entrusted to the church. This Journal does not aim to be the end point of your journey or the final and decisive word in a discussion. Even we, the editors and authors of this Journal, do not consider what is published in these pages as definitive conclusions. Instead, they have been for us-and we pray that they would be for you-a starting point or a next step in discovering fresh ways that the Spirit might desire to accomplish God's purposes through our church communities. This Journal is our invitation for you to join us in our ongoing journey to enter more deeply into the life of the Kingdom of God.

We are grateful for those who share our conviction about the need for fresh and faithful thinking about how to be and do church and mission in today's world and who have helped to bring this discussion to you through financial support of this Journal. We offer our deepest appreciation to Buckner Baptist Benevolences; Tallowood Baptist Church of Houston, Texas; First Baptist Church of Woodway, Texas; James Franklin; Baylor Health Care Systems; and the George W. Truett Theological Seminary.