Making the Case for "Missional Principle Number One"...
Here it is from Roland Allen:
Without putting too fine a point on it, I think Allen puts his finger on the exact question we should really be asking when we take a look at the church in North America. If we had the chance to go into every congregation in North America today and ask this question of the people there, what would their response be? How many of us truly see ourselves as God's ambassadors in our workplaces, our homes, and our neighborhoods? How many of us would claim the vocation of "missionary" or some other synonymous term to describe who we are as God's people? How many of us really believe...not just intellectually...but by the way we live our lives that we ARE the church? How many of us spend time reflecting and thinking and meditating on this truth even as we move throughout our day?
You see, until we begin to grasp this nettle and deal honestly with the implications of this vital question, we will never become a truly "missional" church. If the dynamic of the Kingdom of God is summed up by the missionary character of God Himself (i.e. Father sending the Son; Father and Son sending the Spirit; Father, Son, and Spirit sending the church into the world)...if we, as God's people, bear His missionary image and likeness...if the Christian faith is truly a missionary faith...then is it not hypocritical, if not downright heretical, to accept the notion that somehow one could be a Christian and not be on mission? That somehow filling a pew on a Sunday, giving financially, or having one's name on the membership role is enough as long as one prays a particular prayer? Isn't the Christian faith more than getting one's ticket punched to heaven? Doesn't it require more? Maybe even everything? Have we spent the past fifty years or so focusing so much on the lowest common denominator (just getting folks to "accept" Jesus...whatever that may mean) that we have lost sight of the broader vision of the Kingdom of God Jesus came preaching, teaching, and living? Is anyone else afraid that in focusing so much on gaining converts, we have missed out on the call and command to "make disciples" and thereby missed the entire point?
Please don't hear this as a rant...it is actually more of a lament for what could have been or could be if we were to get serious about following Jesus once again. I fully get that this "missional" worldview takes time to sink in. It doesn't happen overnight and everyone is at a different place on the journey. But quite frankly, I meet a lot of Christians who have been following Jesus for a number of years and yet seem no closer to understanding their "missional vocation" than they were when they first made the decision to follow Jesus. I guess I expect more from them. I expect more from the churches that are supposed to be nurturing and equipping their faith. And I think it high time that we face the reality that our entire project may be a failure no matter how large our congregations, how full our coffers, how loving our communities, how many missions we support, or how much "good" we may do. If we are not equipping God's people to incorporate their entire lives into the mission of God into the world, if we are not teaching them to align themselves body and soul around God's mission of redemption and reconciliation, then we are failing. To be sure this will look different in different contexts, but the overall guiding principle must be the same. If the same "missionary" Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead now lives in us then how can we settle for anything less than a truly missional church?
Nice post! I'm glad you clarified it wasn't a rant! LOL Dave
Posted by: dt | December 04, 2008 at 09:08 AM