Friday, June 02, 2006
"Missional"--Only if You're 4 Steps Removed
Everybody is talking “missional,” but I don’t believe they know what they mean by it. It has lost its meaning from what David Bosch started. He quoted Mahler saying, “The mother of all theology is missions.” The point is missions isn’t something you do--it is an expression of who you are. Who you are is how you live the Kingdom. I don’t like the world “missional”--I used to. When it first came around, it communicated “missions is who I am and who we are as a people.” However, today it has been redefined. To call things "missional"--that may be good--but Bosch, I doubt, would have called it such.
A better word for missional today would be relevance. Most people using this are saying we are living incarnationally in our community. A lost man does that. He lives in his community and it’s part of him so he does social service and practices good citizenship because we are all into “community.” As preachers, we’ve learned to preach in relevant ways to our culture. That is fantastic, but it’s not missional. Many postmoderns would consider themselves missional. I wouldn’t. They’ve relevant--just like Schuller was to his generation, Warren to his, and now postmoderns to theirs. Are you still reading?
To live relevant in your own culture is survival. It’s smart. It’s good business. It’s good education. It’s good health. It’s just good living that makes sense. Non-relevant people in their community that are religious are simply sectarian. The goal isn’t to make them “missional.” They first have to be relevant. No one will be missional who isn’t relevant. How can you speak to another culture if you can’t even speak to yours?
So what is “missional?” It’s living incarnationally beyond your own culture to the end of the establishment of the Kingdom of God. Your own culture--that’s a given. One step removed--that’s someone of your race but of a different tribe or homogenous unit. Two steps removed--that’s a different ethic in your nation. Three steps removed--that’s a western culture or nation--though different--still has western under-pinning. No doubt, these take a certain amount of stretch to happen. Four steps removed--it’s the least, the farthest, the most different, the other side of the world. This requires loving like God--Jesus coming to the “sick” who were nothing like Him, but He made the connection. This requires the Holy Spirit--the modern missionary to the transformation of the believer and his conformity to God.
So what difference does this make? First, those who love the farthest are the most effective in loving all the others. Second, those who love those farthest are loving like God and connecting us to what He cares about most, and how He wants us to love.
Missional--to use that word makes us feel good and “special.” Missional--to redefine the word, or water it down, making us think the Great Commission stops with us and our "culture” makes the Gospel tribal--not global.
A better word for missional today would be relevance. Most people using this are saying we are living incarnationally in our community. A lost man does that. He lives in his community and it’s part of him so he does social service and practices good citizenship because we are all into “community.” As preachers, we’ve learned to preach in relevant ways to our culture. That is fantastic, but it’s not missional. Many postmoderns would consider themselves missional. I wouldn’t. They’ve relevant--just like Schuller was to his generation, Warren to his, and now postmoderns to theirs. Are you still reading?
To live relevant in your own culture is survival. It’s smart. It’s good business. It’s good education. It’s good health. It’s just good living that makes sense. Non-relevant people in their community that are religious are simply sectarian. The goal isn’t to make them “missional.” They first have to be relevant. No one will be missional who isn’t relevant. How can you speak to another culture if you can’t even speak to yours?
So what is “missional?” It’s living incarnationally beyond your own culture to the end of the establishment of the Kingdom of God. Your own culture--that’s a given. One step removed--that’s someone of your race but of a different tribe or homogenous unit. Two steps removed--that’s a different ethic in your nation. Three steps removed--that’s a western culture or nation--though different--still has western under-pinning. No doubt, these take a certain amount of stretch to happen. Four steps removed--it’s the least, the farthest, the most different, the other side of the world. This requires loving like God--Jesus coming to the “sick” who were nothing like Him, but He made the connection. This requires the Holy Spirit--the modern missionary to the transformation of the believer and his conformity to God.
So what difference does this make? First, those who love the farthest are the most effective in loving all the others. Second, those who love those farthest are loving like God and connecting us to what He cares about most, and how He wants us to love.
Missional--to use that word makes us feel good and “special.” Missional--to redefine the word, or water it down, making us think the Great Commission stops with us and our "culture” makes the Gospel tribal--not global.
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