Summary: Salt, Light, and a City: Introducing Missional Ecclesiology

This paper summarizes Graham Hill's 'Salt, Light, and a City: Introducing Missional Ecclesiology,' which explores missional ecclesiology through conversations with twelve leading thinkers. Hill examines the theological aspects of the missional church, contrasting viewpoints from figures like Joseph Ratzinger and Karl Rahner. The book emphasizes the church's role in society, ethical community, and public theology, advocating for a Christ-centric, spirit-empowered church that undergoes rational transformation. Hill stresses the importance of reshaping missional postures and practices, urging disciples to understand Trinitarian theology and missional ecclesiology to promote salvation and adapt to modern societal changes through practical theology and Christian education.

Running head: SALT, LIGHT, AND A CITY: A SUMMARY
SALT, LIGHT, AND A CITY: A SUMMARY
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Author Note

1SALT, LIGHT, AND A CITY: A SUMMARY
The term Ecclesiology means a theological discipline that tries to define and
understand the church. Missional ecclesiology is done from a missional point of view where
the church is identified as a witness of the community, called by the messenger of god and is
sent to the world to fulfil the mission of Jesus Christ. This paper is a summary of the book
Salt, Light, and a city: introducing Missional Ecclesiology written by Graham Hill. Missional
church conversation says that the church needs to acquire a new understanding of Jesus
Christ. It is important for the people of the 21st century to rethink about the foundations of the
church and the services provided by the church for the community. Hill has been
investigating on this subject for over a decade by missional experiments as a church planter, a
coach and a Baptist pastor.
This book by Graham Hill is about missional ecclesiology. In this book, Hill asks a
vital question that what does the church think about truly being missional. It provides the
thought of twelve leading thinkers and shapes their thinking into a conversational text in
order to understand the ideology church (Hill, 2012, pp-xi). Hill takes a contrasting approach
to shape the understanding of the missional church by including scripture and theology. Hill
critically examines the theological aspects of the missional church by conversing with the
twelve great thinkers.
In the beginning of the book, Hill has surveyed a dozen of Euro-American
ecclesiologists and theologians who represent each stream of a church. Joseph Ratzinger
belonging from the Roman Catholic sections argues that the primary focus of the church is to
understand the essence of the society (Hill, 2012). Karl Rahner puts forward the idea of Jesus
Christ’s presence in collective worship and witness (Hill, 2012, pp-29). The church should
serve the world and be attentive to people who are outside the church as well. Hill appeals to
the church for rediscovering an ethical community for public theology. The opinions of the
Protestants say that the church seeks to relate to the changing landscape through a creative

2SALT, LIGHT, AND A CITY: A SUMMARY
work of the Spirit. He considers himself to be a messianic of the church. Many thinkers say
that the church needs to reclaim discipleship under Jesus Christ. Barry Harvey says that
church is altogether a different city and believes that the church has a population from every
nation (Hill, 2012, pp-145). Hill puts forth all the ideas of these thinkers in the book without
agreeing to most of them.
Hill also reveals the mission of God that gives the structures, ministries, nature and
the theologies of the church. Hill says that it is not only about changing the style or the
structure of the church but also to reshape the missional postures and practices. Hill proposes
to have a Christ centric church which portrays a new picture of Christ. He wants a spirit-
empowered church that will look at the spiritual gifts just like the missional gifts (Hill, 2012,
pp-251). He also wants the church to go through a rational transformation that will give the
leaders a vision to overcome the unwillingness to transform. Hill insists the disciples to work
hard for capturing the Trinitarian theology and understand the missional ecclesiology to seek
forwardness.
In this book, Graham Bill depicts the necessity of changing the theology of the church
as modernization have changed the primitive mindset of the people. Church should only
concentrate on the primary purpose of god that is to manifest salvation to the nations. Hill
feels that the church should adopt alternate ways to adopt different ideology to serve the
society. According to Practical Theology, the teaching of God should affect people in the
society. Learning about the doctrines and scripture is not enough. Its application to transform
the world according to the ideology of Christ will bring in a lot of changes in the society.
Practical theology talks about the necessity of preaching Christian education and preparing
for clinical programs and counselling. This will help people to realise the importance of the
doctrine in order to make the world evolve rather than just learning about them.

3SALT, LIGHT, AND A CITY: A SUMMARY

4SALT, LIGHT, AND A CITY: A SUMMARY
Reference
Hill, G. (2012). Salt, Light and a City: Introducing Missional Ecclesiology. Wipf& Stock.

5SALT, LIGHT, AND A CITY: A SUMMARY
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6SALT, LIGHT, AND A CITY: A SUMMARY
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