lifeasmission

Missional: Put Up or Shut Up

May 8, 2007

I am sold on the missional movement.  In its truest form, as I have come to understand it, I find that it does the most justice to the character of God as revealed in Scripture and therefore to the nature and purpose of the church, of any other theological system I have come across (perhaps because it is in fact more of a movement than a system).  Consequently, I identify with the way in which it seeks to find expression – not in propositional statements, but rather in a narrative to be embraced and lived out.  But this is not meant to be an explanation, much less a defense of the missional movement.  Rather, this is both a declaration and a request.

Here’s the declaration.  I intend to give a tremendous amount more of my blogging time and attention to sharing about the life of my church community.  Here’s why…

I, and many others I know and respect, could think, reflect, argue, and scrutinize all that the missional movement means until the cows come home.  This is well and good, but the heart of the missional movement, is far more about living and being than it is about explaining and reflecting.  Most friends of the missional movement will be familiar with Lesslie Newbigin’s notion of “the church as hermeneutic of the gospel.”  More simply put, it is the life of visible and identifiable Christian communities which interprets (notice I didn’t say ought to interpret there – this happens whether we like it or not) the gospel for the world.  Therefore, I am of the mindset that the missional movement will be far better served by telling the stories of the lives of missional communities than any other endeavor.  This is not mean to disqualify other endeavors, but simply to say that they are indeed secondary.

Here, then, is my request.  For those of you who consider yourselves participants in missional communities, tell your stories.  Give others something concrete to match the missional conversation up against.  Use your life as part of a missional community as a means by which other might start wrapping their hearts and minds around what it means to be the sent people of God who embody the Kingdom of God in the world.

For me and the rest of us who resonate with the missional movement, it’s time to put up or shut up.  Missional communities aren’t perfect just because they call themselves missional, and I’ll be the first to tell ya that I think my own church community has a ways to go, but bottom line, if we can’t make this stuff live and if we’re not excited about it enough to share our stories, then it’s probably time to take a good hard look at what we’re really doing.

Posted in: blogging, church, missional