lifeasmission

The word missional, as I was sure it would, is becoming increasingly popular. I am hearing of more and more mega (and non mega) churches who wish to embrace this idea of what it means to be missional. On the surface I think this is great. I am convinced that the missional church movement is a good thing for the church in western culture. I worry however if these churches will not end up doing more harm than good if they don’t get a few things straight. Here’s a short list of what I think they need to get straight if they are to make an authentic transition (maybe you have more?).

1. Missional churches operate out of a different theological paradigm than traditional evangelical and liberal churches. No church should think that they can merely add being missional to their already existing theological framework. Being missional flows from a particular understanding of things like God, gospel, salvation, Scripture, the church, discipleship, etc. Please do not think that you can truly be in any sense missional if you are unwilling to revisit your understandings of these things.

2. Because missional churches appreciate the intrinsic link between theology and mission, they are incredibly intentional about the methods and mediums they employ to communicate the gospel message. Here’s a test, if you read that lest sentence and understood “communicate” as verbal, you probably don’t get what it means to be missional. No church should refer to itself as missional unless they can make a case for how the way they communicate the message of the gospel is in keeping with the gospel itself (this is further complicated by the first point - needing to rethink the gospel).

3. Missional churches are willing to say they are sorry. Because missional churches understand themselves as a sign of and witness to the reign of God in the world, they are desperately concerned that they be faithful to that calling. And what being faithful to that calling means is not being perfect, but being transparent and repentant. Churches who come to understand that being missional is by God’s design, and who haven’t lived that way previously, cannot simply move toward it without asking for forgiveness from their congregations and communities. Churches who are unwilling to say, “We are sorry that we haven’t been faithful to God’s calling for us as a people,” cannot ever be missional churches.

I apologize myself if any of this seems harsh or overly critical. If it is, or if I am, I hope it is in the same spirit as Jesus’ dealings with the Pharisees. These were people that should have known better, but they were blind guides who didn’t realize they couldn’t see. There problem was not necessarily that they were above repentance, just that they didn’t realize what they truly needed to repent of - their theology and consequent way of being and living. In Paul, Jesus ended up using one Pharisee in particular in a historic and monumental way. Likewise, I would love nothing more than for the bride of Christ in western culture to embrace its missional calling. It’s just that we need to be radically true to that calling if we are to avoid doing more damage to the church’s reputation by being faddish, trendy, or worse, unrepentant.