From Here to Eternity | EMS | Orientation of Being

Evangelical Missiological Society, "EMS Southwest Regional Meeting", April 4th 2024

David Ofumbi, Biola University

The Being-Orientation for Reimagining Ecclesiology and Mission for Church Influence and Growth

The Church strives to retain its self-giving mission orientation to maintain its identity as the Body of Christ in the world to function as the embodiment of the gospel and reproduce itself among all nations. The mission orientation also promotes its expression of diversity and the ability to continually evolve as it interfaces with the changing world it is sent into. So, the church cannot honor God in affirming and encouraging the diversity of all he has created without adhering to its life-giving mission orientation, which is the challenge of the human life orientation. However, the church has understood and pursued its life-giving mission orientation mostly as the challenge of doing based on the human life orientation of doing. This misjudgment has cost the church the benefits of both influence in the rest of the world and growth in the West. This paper argues that the life-giving mission orientation of the church is the challenge of being based on the human life orientation of being. Therefore, the paper introduces the human life orientation of being, which the church needs to establish institutions that will allow it to maintain its life-giving mission orientation to unlock the unprecedented era of church influence and growth. Unlike the doing-orientation, which mars the life-giving mission orientation of the church with its corporeal ideas from human experience, the being-orientation uses the incorporeal ideas of being, which are compatible with the ethos of the gospel. So, the paper calls for the adoption of the human life orientation of being.