ABSTRACT
This chapter speaks into the now well-established ecclesiological tension of mission and maintenance, the church ad extra and the church ad intra. Recognising the significance for ecclesiology of the re-establishment of missio Dei thinking in missiology, the argument is made that there is a need to re-construe the life of the institutional church, the church ad intra, so as to better enable it to serve God’s mission in the world. Here, learning from the ARCS Practices under the headings of ‘the ad intra pull’ and ‘ek-centric church’, it becomes clear how the ad intra is necessary to the flourishing of mission when re-shaped in terms of a service to discernment of God’s on-going mission in the world. Whilst properly shying away from making clear ‘recommendation’ as to what forms such a re-shaped church structure might need, some hints are present in the practices around the renewal of formation and education, of lay people as much as clergy, towards an equipping with the skills required for daily discernment.
