In the ongoing discussion of emerging church, a word that you'll stumble across regularly is "missional", so I thought I'd share my thoughts on the concept.
Once in a while you hear someone say, "Mark my words - someday America will leave it's Christian heritage". Welcome to the future, my friend. We are right now living in post-Christian America. In fact, it's a post-Christian world that we find ourselves in. "Christendom is dead" is how some will say it...
If this is the case (and it is), then we must stop thinking of missions only as sending someone "over there" (wherever that may be). We must recognize that everywhere is the mission field. This means that each and every one of us, as followers of Christ, must be constantly thinking about reaching the community around us. Gone are the days when we can make ourselves feel better by giving money to the "missions fund" while living in our "predominantly Christian" neighborhoods. There's almost nowhere left that's predominantly Christian anymore.
Moreover, we've got to stop compartmentalizing our thinking. We can't pick and choose times when we're going to do the work of evangelism. Evangelism must be always on our minds. The way I conduct myself at work, at market, at play. The conversations I have. Those I choose not to have. The relationships I work on. Those I let go dormant. How I respond to my neighbors. How I respond to my community. Everything.
Missional thinking says you never "go out evangelizing". You don't have an "evangelism ministry" that sets times and dates to do the work of evangelism. It's about your whole life.
But I don't want you to think that this is the same as the old "friendship evangelism" theory. Admitedly, for some emerging folk this seems to be the case. Just as giving money to a missions fund is a way for some folk to feel good about not sharing Christ with their neighbors, so too is "friendship evangelism" a convenient excuse for others to never actually say a word about the LORD.
Missional thinking embodies both word and deed. Think of Jesus' incarnation. He came into the world as a baby. He was born (in flesh) at a specific time and period in world history. He had to learn the customs and culture of the day. He worked within that culture for the Father's glory. So thinking missionally is thinking incarnationally - I want to live the Gospel before my community, within the culture that the LORD chose to give me as my own. That means my actions will be consistent with the Gospel. My thoughts. My words. My relationships. My every waking moment.
None of us will ever truly arrive at this goal. It's part of becoming like Christ - it's a process that none of us will see completed this side of glory, but we're to strive for it nonetheless.
[This issue is tied up with the Modern dualism of Secular/Sacred, too. More on that later...]
For now, what are your thoughts on being missional? Had you heard the term? What does it mean for our lives? How should we change our thinking about the very way we "do" church?
Hatushili
Friday, January 26, 2007
Make mine Missional, please
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13 comments:
Though I had not previously heard the term 'missional' (I've been living in a small, dark room for some time now), I am very familiar with the concept. I'm not sure I feel that 'friendship evangelism' is as poor of a term as you seem to indicate, but I do recognize the need to direct those friendships with a purpose towards the Lord. My understanding for years, and particularly for the past 2 has become one of being a living example. Many emergent churches stress that your life is a 'living witness'--it's just a matter of what the witness represents. I don't think that this is a bad message, but rather that it can be corrupted by excuses. Some would say that if they live well then all will be fine. That is just another form of secularism rather than a focus on the mission of sharing the message of Christ with others. When more accurately interpreted I believe we should live as He would have us live and *by nature* that will have us reach out to others.
For example, I once felt compelled to pray every day for a year that I would have an opportunity to talk with someone about the Lord. As an amazing testimony, God provided that every single day. Most days I was even bold enough to use that opportunity for His kingdom. Sadly, that same commitment hasn't existed in recent years, but it is a great example of what I think our attitude is supposed to be.
My apologies if this seems a bit incoherent as both my lack of sleep and the comment editor are giving me fits.
I don't like the term "friendship evangelism" because for so many it became little more than an excuse to keep their mouthes shut. It's not that I disagree with the ideal of friendship evangelism - it's just that the ideal seemed rarely to work itself out in practice.
Missional means I wake up everyday as if I'm a missionary ... because I am a missionary.
I think this means we have to change how we define "missionary" and what that term means. For way too many, "missionary" is somehow other - different, better, but definitely other than how they perceive themselves. It may also mean we must re-evaluate how we spend money on "missions"...
Funny, even in a postmodern world the old Sunday School classic still rings true: "Be a missionary every day; tell the world that Jesus is the way". But any missionary worth his weight in salt knows that you can't just "tell" the world that Jesus is the way.
Missional living requires that our faith be not just real, but reality.
Does that effect the way we view "church"? [Hint: I think it does]
Hatushili
WOW I have been thinking missional and didn't even know it.All that you said is how I have been thinking we should be for some time now.I couldn't have said it better if I had wrote it myself.We still need missionaries,but need to realize we are also missionaries,and there are many needs right here in our own community.I for one though have been doing to much "friendship evangelism"handing out tracts and such,but not communicating the gospel or even any spiritual verbal talk or deed in the name of Christ.People have all kinds of needs,some of which we could probably use to start a relationship and be a witness,but we don't take the time to find them out.If we are going to do missinal work,we have to slow down to do it effectivly.We have to stop and get to know our neighbors(everyone around us)and effectivly meet the needs they have which,at the top of the list will be spiritual needs (Jesus).Thanks for getting the fire started,now I need to keep the logs on the fire.As far as the church goes,I believe it's purpose is just that,keep the fire burning with the logs of God's Word,a feeding place for those who want to be "missional". I'm done,for now.
Forgot one important thing for all I said,ultimate result,to Glorify God.Bye
Don - this is too weird! I was just telling a friend of mine about this blog post and that I have another friend (you) who is missional but probaby doesn't know the term! Then along you come, and... I guess I know you better than I thought!
- Don said,
If we are going to do missional work,we have to slow down to do it effectively. [At least that's what he said after I corrected his spelling!] Anyway, I couldn't agree with you more! Building relationships takes time. Learning the local culture (unless you were born there) takes time. Figuring out where your gifts and abilities can be used in a local community takes time. Evangelism isn't something that can be done "cold turkey" in a postmodern culture. People simply don't care what I think unless they know me and begin to see within me a reason to listen. But when they do see that, I must be willing to verbally testify to the Gospel.
On the role of church: what does a church have to embody to "feed the fire", as Don said? Does the concept of missional living change the way we actually "do" church, or is church a simply a place to recharge the batteries of missional believers? What about those within the life of the church that aren't so sure about this whole missional thing?
On glorifying God: One of my real problems with emerging conversation is so little of it acknowledges this overarching principle - the chief end of man is to glorify God (and enjoy Him forever). Everything is about "creating community" and "incarnational ministry" - all well and good, but the motivation for and goal of our missional living has to be God's glory.
- Dan said:
... I believe we should live as He would have us live and by nature that will have us reach out to others.
So what does "reaching out to others" mean? I'm not accusing you of this, but I grow so weary of the teaching that the Gospel is all about personal salvation. Here's an emerging quote that I love:
The gospel, as proclaimed by Jesus Christ and understood by the early church, was always more than simply a message of personal salvation and, even more narrowly, the way to get to heaven when one dies.
Or this one:
Clearly the Gospel is not restricted to a message giving an individual assurance about eternal destiny. It is minimally that, but it is much more, being concerned as much with life before death as with life after death.
So again I ask, what does "reaching out to others" entail in this post-Christian world?
Hatushili
Great thoughts. The missional concept is growing and the Spirit is moving!
Hatushili said: What about those within the life of the church that aren't so sure about this whole missional thing? Don says: If the mission field is everywhere we are,then I say we have work to do right in our very own church(all bible believing church's as a whole).No we probablly won't convert or change the mind of all,but what a great crop to pick from for a start.These are the people we are closest to,that actually might understand where we are coming from on the issue of "missional".But let us not use that as an excuse to keep it among our church,but a place to start the fires burning.Preach it to them brother!!! And as far as my spelling,remember eye amnot as edyouacatted as you.Later
Don - I like where you're going with local church mentality. We can't afford to allow "missional" to become "a ministry" of the local church. It can't be relegated to a committee or once-a-month phenomenon. It has to be the ministry of the church.
I agree also that we'll likely never get everyone onboard with missional thinking, but that we've got to try. It's my hope that we'll find true missional living to be infectious to local churches. There's something vital and alive about the concept. It feels right because it is right; not the other way around.
Hatushili
Here's one man's working definition of a missional church:
A body of people sent on a mission who gather in community for worship, encouragement, and teaching from the Word that supplements what they are feeding themselves throughout the week. [Dan Kimball - if you don't know him, you should]
What does this imply about how we "do" church?
Hatushili
Like I’ve discussed with you Nathan, I find it disheartening that so many financially discerning churches are willing to send money to missionaries throughout the world; yet, they seemingly ignore their own community. Also, why do we send money to missionaries and allow them to use the money in whatever way they see fit to reach their particular culture for the Lord, and then spend months debating, and forming committees, and getting approval to do a simple outreach project for our own. Hypothetical situation: we send money to missionaries in Zimbabwe to add a gym to their church in order to better serve the community and youth. Of course we support this. Why then is it so hard for us to use our own resources to serve our community? This is a question. I know that if we, myself included, could start looking at ourselves as missionaries already in the field God wants us in, we could see some huge progress. So how do we do it?
Jered said:So how do we do it?
Don says: GTO ,All though I think it will be like pulling teeth for a time (months,years??,but we have to stay after it to see results that will change peoples minds about how the church is effectively changing lives.
For those of your outside our local church who are reading this thread (read: Dan, Mary, etc...), GTO is Glory Through Outreach - a ministry we started up a few years ago to attempt to plant "missional seeds" in the mind of our church. So far it has generally been a failure (at least in accomplishing this goal).
Don, I think your take is maybe the middle road we must travel. It's not really missional, but may well facilitate missional thinking.
If a modern church can become missional, this may be the way to do it.
Hatushili
I like this come visit mie it is also christian(t&t=gospel truth)
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