Three and a half years ago, I heard the word missional for
the first time. Since that time, I’ve heard this word used hundreds of times in
almost as many different contexts. Based on its large number of uses, it seems
many of us have a pretty fuzzy understanding of what it means to be missional.
I’ve heard the word “missional” used by churches to label a
category in which they place some of their activities or programs. For example,
someone might say, “When we do such-and-such, we’re being missional.”
I’ve heard the word missional used in the context of it
being a church model. When used in this context, the “missional church” is
often contrasted with the “attractional church” as if they are two completely
different church models which are diametrically opposed to one another.
I’ve also heard the word missional used to describe a way of
life. When used in this context, being missional is understood as a way people live.
As a student of and practitioner in the missional movement, I’ve
discovered that being missional was intended to be a way of life rather than a
church model or a label to assign to certain church activities. Let’s dig
deeper into this definition.
Defining Missional
Did you know that Jesus is on a mission? He didn’t create
the entire earth and then abandon it to work out however it happens to work
out; he is involved in every infinitesimal detail of everything that takes
place on this planet because he has a sovereign, divine plan for every last bit
of it. His mission is to bring glory to his name by raising every single one of
his chosen people to life to be his disciples who are transformed into his
image so that they will spend eternity united in marriage to him, their one and
only king.[1] This
concept forms the foundation of what it means to be missional.
Jesus could accomplish his mission all by himself. After
all, God created the entire universe simply by speaking it into existence. He
doesn’t need anyone or anything else to help him accomplish his mission. Yet,
he’s invited his people to participate with him in his mission and he’s given
them specific roles to play.[2]
What an honor and a privilege it is to have the opportunity to participate with
the God of the universe in accomplishing his mission, not because he needs us,
but because he receives glory by allowing us to see his work being
accomplished.
When Jesus talked about what it means to participate with
him in his mission, he didn’t talk about it as if it was just one more thing to
add to our busy schedules. Instead, he made it very clear that following him
was a 24-7-365 thing.[3] He
didn’t say, “For one hour a week, deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow
me.” Instead, he said, “During every minute of every single day, deny yourself,
take up your cross, and follow me.” Being missional is a way of life.
Participating with Jesus in his mission is something which is intended to permeate
every facet of our lives rather than simply being another small piece of the
pie.
We’ve now arrived at a definition of missional. To be missional means to participate with
Jesus in his mission every moment of every day.
Now that I’ve defined what it means to be missional, I want
to bring this concept to life through a question and answer format.
Do I Have to Go Somewhere Specific in Order to Be Missional?
The short answer to this question is “No.” You can be
missional wherever you are.
The Great Commission was a call to “Go,” not a call to stay.
We’re certainly not called to live as hermits in the middle of the jungle. Instead,
we’re called to go to where the people are.
We don’t have to go halfway around the world in order to be
missional. Most of us can be missional right where we are while doing the
activities we’re already doing. Some of you reading this article go to work on
a daily basis. Some of you go to the grocery store regularly. Some of you go to
the gym or participate in athletic events on a regular basis. Some of you
attend church services weekly. While you’re in all four of these places, or any
other places you go throughout the week, you probably have an opportunity to
interact with lots of people. You have an opportunity to be missional in every
single one of these places.
When you go wherever you go throughout the week, you’ll meet
people who are experiencing Jesus’s work in their lives. They may not realize
he’s at work, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that he is at work. How
might Jesus be calling you to participate with him in his work in these
peoples’ lives?
A lot of times the best clues into how Jesus is working can
be found in observing the struggles people are facing. It seems we struggle
when we lose something we value. As Jesus works in our lives, he seems to remove
the things we value other than him (idols) and replaces them with him. What idols
are being challenged in the midst of the struggles? Mining the depths of these
struggles isn’t something we can realize in a five minute conversation. Rather,
it’s something which can only be realized when we spend lots of time with
people.
If you want to be missional, then you have to be willing to consistently
interact with the same people over and over again. One-and-done events may be
flashy and garner lots of participation, and although you can participate with
Jesus in his mission with these types of events, on the whole, they fall short
of the intent of being missional because you will probably never see the people
again.
Is Missional Only about Reaching Non-Christians?
When I first started learning about being missional, I thought
many of the missional experts were saying that being missional was isolated to
participating with Jesus in his mission to reach non-Christians. This is a big
misnomer.
Becoming a disciple of Jesus isn’t a one-time event; it’s a
life-long process. As I shared earlier in this article, part of Jesus’s mission
is to transform his people into his image. This doesn’t happen overnight. We spend
our entire lives being transformed, and even when we reach the end of our lives,
we’re still not completely transformed into the image of Jesus.
If part of Jesus’s mission is to transform his people into
his image over the course of their lifetimes, then it makes sense that he would
call his people to participate in that part of his mission too. Discipling
Christians is just as missional as discipling non-Christians.
This also doesn’t mean Jesus only calls us to participate with
him in his work to transform existing Christians; he also calls us to
participate with him in his work to transform non-Christians. People don’t
magically, out of the blue, decide one day to follow Jesus. Instead, Jesus has already
been at work for years to prepare the soil of their hearts to receive the seed
of the gospel when it gets planted.
Throughout our lives, we’ll probably be called to
participate in Jesus’s work in the lives of Christians and non-Christians
alike.
Is the Church Important to Being Missional?
The short answer is “Yes,” but I need to explain this
further.
How do you define the word “church?” If the church is
defined as “Jesus’s disciples gathered together to worship him,”[4]
then the church is not only important, but is absolutely necessary to being
missional. Jesus’s disciples not only need, but will earnestly desire to join
together in worshiping him. Mind you that worship is not narrowly defined as gathering
together in rows and singing songs about Jesus, but is more broadly defined as
living our lives in submission to Jesus. Even by doing something as simple as getting
together with another Christian for lunch, we can engage in Jesus worship
together without ever singing a single note of a song.
If you define the church as an institution, building, or
event on Sunday mornings, then the church, in this sense, is unnecessary to
being missional. You don’t need to be a part of an institution or attend a
service in a building every week in order to participate with Jesus in his work.
By and large, Christians in America have decided to gather together to worship
Jesus by organizing weekly events sponsored by an institution held in designated
buildings, but that doesn’t mean this is the only way, nor even the “better”
way, to gather together to worship Jesus. I’ve observed some great Jesus
worship take place outside of institutions, church buildings, and church services
by people who are living their lives both in submission to Jesus and fellowship
with one another as a spiritual family. In countries where Christians are
persecuted, this is the only way they can live. They can’t meet together in
designated church buildings for public worship. Yet, they continue living their
lives in submission to Jesus and in fellowship with one another.
That’s not to say you can’t be missional in the traditional
church environments. Certainly you can. But what I’m getting at is that it’s
not necessary to enter into this type of environment in order to participate
with Jesus in his mission.
–
As a topic which I am extremely passionate about, I’d love
to continue writing about it, but in the interest of your time, I’ll stop here
for today. Hopefully this brief article has helped to clear up some of the
fuzziness you may have had about what it means to be missional.
Before you go, I’d love to hear your feedback on this topic.
Is this topic interesting? Would you like to hear more about it? Are there
questions that came to mind as you were reading this article that I didn’t
answer? Feel free to respond in the comments section below.
[1] This is a
compilation of the following passages (and many more): Isaiah 43:7, 1
Corinthians 10:31, 1 Peter 4:11, Ephesians 1:11, Colossians 1:20, 2 Corinthians
5:19, Ephesians 2:1-9, 2 Corinthians 3:18, Romans 8:29, John 17:9-11, and
Revelation 19:6-10.
[2] A
couple of verses which affirm this point are John 6:37-44 and 1 Corinthians
3:6-7.
[3] “If
anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily
and follow me.” – Luke 9:23
[4] For
a more in-depth explanation of this definition of the church, see my article
entitled “Is
the Church Dying?”
No comments:
Post a Comment