What Is Missional?

When a word buzzes like a bee polinating flowers outside my apartment, it begins to fragment into personalized meanings. Fundamentalist, Evangelical, Missional, and Emergent are all terms that have been eroded in an onslaught of personalization, heresay, ambiguity, rhetoric, propaganda, and poor journalism (and blogging).

In times of fragmentation and poor definition, a good English student knows what to do: go to the Oxford English Dictionary:

missional, adj.

Relating to or connected with a religious mission; missionary.

1907 W. G. HOLMES Age Justinian & Theodora II. 687 Several prelates, whose missional activities brought over whole districts and even nationalities to their creed. 1976 J. R. NELSON in P. J. McCord Pope for all Christians? 165 In fairness to John Wesley, it can be presumed that in his self-awareness as a virtually monarchical leader of the movement he was guided by this missional principle. 2000 Star Tribune (Minneapolis) (Electronic ed.) 18 Mar., We are trying to help NAE to be more intentional in its missional focus.

Now over a hundred years old, missional has branched out from being about missionaries in the traditional sense to being about every person in the church community. A missional church has a wholistic "religious mission." And what is the religious mission of Christians other than the Great Commission:

"All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

So missional is a the participation of the church community in the discipleship, baptism, and teaching of all nations in the way of Jesus. How missional is put into practice is the stumbling block for many in the "missional" conversation.

The future of missional depends upon the renewing of vocation within Christian communities. For a church to become missional it must level the playing field for the individuals-in-community through humility and respect for the vocation of others. Pastors need not be higher valued than plumbers. As each member finds their role within a community at large, their vocational role must be defined as a "religious mission." With the recovery of vocation within the missional church, every member of a congregation may pray as St. Francis of Assisi:

Most High, Glorious God, enlighten the darkness of our minds. Give us a right faith, a firm hope and a perfect charity, so that we may always and in all things act according to Your Holy Will. Amen.

Missional then is the renewing of our lives so that we do "all things" with a "religious mission" according to the will of our most High, Glorious God. Only then will missional make sense because it will be not a system or concept but a way of life that is the way of Jesus.

This post is part of the Missional SynchroBlog organized by Blind Beggar.

The other participants in the MissionalSynchroBlog are:

Alan Hirsch
Alan Knox
Andrew Jones
Barb Peters
Bill Kinnon
Brad Brisco
Brad Grinnen
Brad Sargent
Brother Maynard
Bryan Riley
Chad Brooks
Chris Wignall
Cobus Van Wyngaard
Dave DeVries
David Best
David Fitch
David Wierzbicki
DoSi
Doug Jones
Duncan McFadzean
Erika Haub
Grace
Jamie Arpin-Ricci
Jeff McQuilkin
John Smulo
Jonathan Brink
JR Rozko
Kathy Escobar
Len Hjalmarson
Makeesha Fisher
Malcolm Lanham
Mark Berry
Mark Petersen
Mark Priddy
Michael Crane
Michael Stewart
Nick Loyd
Patrick Oden
Peggy Brown
Phil Wyman
Richard Pool
Rick Meigs
Rob Robinson
Ron Cole
Scott Marshall
Sonja Andrews
Stephen Shields
Steve Hayes
Tim Thompson