church and leadership chris on 17 Nov 2008
Putting The Mission Back In Missional
For over a century now, the term “Missional” has been floating around the world. It began in British writings describing Anglican church leaders who had been reinvigorated by the calling and mission of Christ over the preservation of the church/state. Recently in the United States we have seen this term pop up everywhere, starting in youth ministry purpose statements and eventually leading to those same youth ministers starting their own churches under the banner of the Missional Church. It has been associated with the Emerging Church movement in America, though these ties are not always clear cut and are oftentimes assumed. While the Emergent Church tends to use the word “Missional”, those who define themselves as “Missional” do not always associate themselves with the Emergent Church. And while there are scads of blogs, websites and churches out there that have written and even founded their church on the principles of being missional, I thought I would drop a few thoughts on the Missional Church in general.
- The Missional Church is a redundant statement. The Church, by it’s very name is Missional. The body of Christ known as the Church is on mission in this world to accomplish the purposes that Christ has set out for her in this world - namely to declare the gospel of Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world. Now I realize that a lot of churches have repetitive redundancies in their titles and people like the idea of refocusing the Church away from being a religious social club back to becoming the hands and feet of Jesus in this world. No harm done. It’s just repetitive, that’s all.
- The Missional Church is not Missional if they don’t embrace the Mission. A lot of people mistakenly associate the term “Missional” with the phrase “Social Gospel” (another phrase that has received a bad wrap because of some bad leaders). In other words, some people will use Missional and refer it to taking care of the poor and being the hands and feet of Jesus to those in need. The Social Gospel is important, as the American Church has a tendency to spend all their money on themselves with very little left over to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick and take care of the poor in our midst. However, the Mission of God (Missio Dei, if you will) is to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In the same way we cannot tell the poor to be warm and well fed without taking care of their needs, we cannot take care of their physical needs and assume that their spiritual needs will automatically be taken care of as well. I get “restoring Eden” and living socially the way we were created to live before the Fall. However, we must bring the message of Jesus along with the works of Jesus. It’s both/and, not either/or. If you are not bringing the message of Christ to those you are feeding under the bridge, you are doing no more than any other secular social agency in the world. you might as well go join the Peace Corp or the homeless shelter downtown. Important work, yes! Just incomplete.
- Just because you embrace the term Missional and use it in your mission statement doesn’t mean you are superior. One of the things that has caused the most division in the Church at the turn of the century has been the Emergent/Missional/Traditional war. Last century, it was the Worship wars - hymns versus chorus’s. This century it’s this new divisiveness over terminology. Big corporate church is deemed as bad and small disorganized church is deemed as good. It’s almost like, in order for me to feel justified about what I feel God calling me to, I have to belittle what God is calling you to. Student Ministry has done this for years. (I am speaking in general terms now; I realize there are a lot of mature student ministries out there who view themselves as a part of the church and not a rebellious movement. Keep up the good work.) True, there are a lot of churches out there who seem to only care about getting big at any expense. There size has clouded their vision and they are maintaining the machine rather than multiplying the Mission. But there are a lot of huge churches out there who spend a lot of money and are reaching a lot of people for Christ. And while it is more difficult for a rich man to get into heaven, it is still our calling to reach them as well as the poor. The rich man’s Hell is just as hot as the poor man’s Hell. Just because you are called to reach the poor, don’t assume a greater nobility over those who are called to reach the wealthy. We’ve got a world to reach and we need each other to do what each of us does best. If you are called to reach the inner city, then go! Just don’t throw stones at those who are called to reach the suburbs.
- On the positive side, the Missional/Emerging movement has been good for reminding us to put actions with our faith. James said that faith without works was dead. There are a lot of churches out there who talk a good game, they just don’t put any feet to their faith. So to all my Missional brethren out there, thanks for helping keep the Church’s focus on being on Mission and not just talking about Mission.
- There are no bad Missional or Traditional Churches, just bad leaders. Movements don’t just happen, they are led. And leadership is everything in the movement. If you have a leader who is not focused on the Mission, then he/she will not lead the Church towards the purposes of Christ. So if you are a Traditional Church and you have a leader who is not focused on the Mission, then you will probably have a Traditional Church that fits the negative stereotype so often associated with Traditional Churches. On the other hand, if you have a Traditional Church that has a Mission-focused leader, then you will see that church do great things for the Kingdom. In the same way, there are a lot of people who describe themselves as Missional leaders who aren’t advancing the Kingdom of God in this world. Which means that they aren’t Missional and they probably aren’t leaders. It all comes down to leadership - plain and simple.
- If you are a Traditional (or Contemporary, or Gen-X, or Post Modern - whatever term you feel more comfortable with) Church leader, don’t assume because there are some bad Missional leaders out there that all Missional leaders are bad. You don’t like getting lumped into the “Traditional Church” category. Don’t lump everyone who has a goatee and who loves Rob Bell, Matt Chandler, Dan Kimball or Shane Claibourne into a category as “less than” because they don’t view the world the way you do. There’s a whole lot of people out there who aren’t being reached by Traditional (et. al.) Churches. The Kingdom of God needs these new leaders to reach a differenent crowd than the one your church is reaching. Pray for them to stay on Mission and help them when you can as you preserve the unity of the Body of Christ. Which leads me to my final point.
- Can’t we all just get along? How long will the Bride of Christ assign sinful motives to the misunderstood actions of its members? Just because someone sees the world from a different perspective than you do doesn’t give you the right to assume their hearts and motives. And I am saying this as a former motive-assumer. Through a lot of my ministry to students, I have assumed sinfulness in others who did not view the way the Church should look through my own narrow lenses. One of the things I have learned over the years is that it takes all kinds of people to advance the Kingdom of God. Yes, we should be passionate about the specific way God has called us to advance His Kingdom. But we must be very careful in assuming that our way is the way. Traditional Churches must succeed if we are going to reach traditional-minded people. And Emerging Churches must succeed if we are going to reach emerging-minded people. And Baptists and Catholics and Methodists and Presbyterians and Charismatics and Pentecostals must all do well and stay on Mission in order to reach as many people as we can for Christ. One church cannot reach a city, but the Church can. So rather than disparaging everyone who doesn’t do ministry the way we do, we should celebrate the diversity in the Body of Christ and pray for those who are not like us to stay on point. We need each other if we are going to reach a diverse world for the Gospel. We must preserve at all costs the unity of the Body of Christ and we must always remember that our struggle is not against flesh and blood. We are all on the same Mission. We simply have different roles to play in accomplishing that mission.
Well, these have been some of the thoughts rolling through my head on this subject and by no means is this meant to be the final word on the Missional Church. There are a lot of people smarter than myself who have said things more eloquently than I have. I’d love to hear your thoughts as well.
Thirsting for Him,
Chris