This is not fully thought out. I am thinking this through as I write. I feel that “Walking With” is a phrase that may serve as a unifying theme for a Missions Theology.

The expression “Walking With” has a number of implications:

1.  Relationship. “Walking With” implies some form of mutual relationship. A stalker may share a common path with the stalkee, same as two strangers may coincidentally and temporarily share a common path. Neither would be said to be walking with. Walking with implies some form of relationship. It may be a leader walking with a follower. It may be two companions.

2.  Agreement. As Amos 3:3 notes… two cannot walk together unless they agree. The relationship is by mutual agreement.

3.  Movement/Process: Walking implies not so much a state of being, as much as a process. Life and faith and mission are not so much a place or destination… but a path that they share and develop with.

4.  Direction:  Walking has direction… a path that one goes on. It could be a trail newly blazed, it may be a well-worn path… but it goes somewhere.

5.  Commonality of Place and Time. Walking with means that two or more share a place and time on the path. As such, the path has more than direction, but a NOW, as well as a PAST, and a FUTURE.

“Walking With” as a theological concept may be applied in several ways:

• God walking with Man as His creation
• Christ walking with us as His disciples
• Us walking within the community as part of the church family
• Us walking within the cultural context as joining in God’s mission to the world

While I am focusing on the last point… the others need to be developed as well or else Missions Theology would simply be a ghettoized system unconnected with a broader understanding of God, the Universe, and Everything. I hope to look at these four areas (at least) in the next posts.

Related articles

• My Metaphors of the Moment (munsonmissions.org)
• We Are All Theologians? (iheartbarth.wordpress.com)
• Why Didn’t the Church Just Stick with the Bible? (Pt. 1)- The Importance of Doing Theology (cwoznicki.wordpress.com)