Transforming Mission in Post-Communist Context: Towards an Integrative Approach

What might a theology of mission for post-communist context look like? The fall of communism in 1989 initiated a process of total social transformation, resulting in tensions between positive developments, including civil liberties and the market economy, and the high social costs associated with these changes. On the basis of the critical analysis of the Polish context, informed by broader perspectives of the global mission movement, the author argues that what the Church in this region requires is not just a change in methodology in mission, but rather a much deeper change, namely, development of a new integrative approach to mission imbedded in community. From this arise three aspects of such a missional community: a Community of Love, a Community of Word and Life and a Community of Transformation. These, when dynamically integrated form contextually relevant and missionally transformational vision of Church-in-mission, capable of beginning to respond to some of the main challenges arising in the post-communist context.