What Is Missional?
Published: November 14, 2008
Perhaps one of the biggest reasons that the term "missional" get so over-used, misused and abused is that it cannot be understood apart from the "mission" that is at its root (both etymologically and conceptually).
At the heart of God's mission is the Gospel. While "What is the Gospel?" could be a Syncroblog in and of itself, I have always started with this very basic premise:
"The Gospel is the glory of the Triune God made manifest in His work to reconcile every person to union with Himself, communion with others, to fullness of life, and to harmony with Creation, in the context of community for the good of all."
(Before I move on, some have expressed concern that I make no mention of Jesus and His work on the cross, so let me make it clear. I firmly hold to the belief that our salvation comes through the redemptive and atoning work of Christ's death and bodily resurrection.
The above definition is not meant to be comprehensive, but rather offer a framework for the wider understanding of the Gospel, which has been God's intention from the beginning. Jesus, as I will show later, is central to what it means to be missional.)
God, in His infinite and uncomprehensible wisdom, choose to make manifest His work through us, His imperfect people (even if only in part).
Therefore, our whole lives must be shaped, guided and redefined by the purposes of God. Here, for me, is the first lesson about being missional: Missional is about implication, not application.
By this I mean that the mission of God cannot be something we add or fit into our lives. Nor is it even something for which we simply sacrifice to make room for. Rather, it is about examining the very real implications of what it would mean on every level of life if we were defined my this divine agenda.
It is not surprising, then, that as interest and engagement with the concept of missional develops, so to does the conversation and exploration of what the church looks like. This was lesson number two for me: Missional cannot be understand apart from ecclesiology (or vice versa).
The mission of God speaks to the very nature, identity and vocation of the Church. While it should go without saying that, when I say "Church" I am not merely referring to the building or the Sunday gathering, it sadly does not.
The challenge is that, even when we acknowledge this fact with our lips, our lives and language often fall back to this false assumption.
The most important lesson for me on being missional, on which I will spend more time developing, is this: Missional is incarnational.
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What Is Missional?
Published: November 14, 2008
The greatest beauty of a missional church, is that it is a communal reality.
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