The missional church is the term for Christianity’s newest facelift. Although many may still be unfamiliar with the missional movement, it has come into common use by the professional Western Christian elite, especially those constantly looking for the next big thing in Christianity. At first glance, it appears to be the next thrill in a long parade of similarly well-intentioned revolutions, renovations, and fads in the Western (usually Protestant) Church's struggle to regain its ground in the increasingly post-modern, secular and morally progressive western culture of the last 20 years. The missional movement, however, offers something unique with not just a new church model but also, and more importantly, a complete redistribution of priorities for the very definition of church and Christianity.
The movement's origins can be traced back roughly 12 years to the publication of Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America edited by Darrell Guder. It arose about the same time as the Emerging Church and Simple Church movements, and for similar reasons, and was often clumped in with this "new church" movement but has since created a distinct life, following, and ideology of its own. It is targeted to, propagated by, and generally attractive to those on the fringes of traditional Western church culture and those seeking more from their faith than they feel traditional churches can provide them, people that Michael Frost calls exiles in his book by the same name.
Missional Living
Born out of a desire to recapture the vitality and meaning of Christianity and to reinvigorate its value to society, the missional campaign calls for a complete reformation of the church's values and prerogatives. The term 'missional' aptly describes the ideology that defines the movement. The main priority is for the church to begin to see itself as a mission-based organization. The major effect for both the church body at large and for individual churches is decreasing institution and increasing personal, active faith. In other words the idea of being missional calls the church to change from an "attraction mode" of enticing people into the church building for services, to a "incarnation mode" of meeting people where they are and influencing them with a Christ-like life. This ultimately results in churches changing their focus from a passive, audience-style congregation to an active, participating congregation both within the church and outside its walls.
For the individual, the missional mode is just as challenging, perhaps even more so. To be a "missional christian" implies seeing oneself as a missionary to one's own context. The emphasis of the Christian life is no longer on attending church, Bible studies, weekly outreach programs, missions trips and other church-sanctioned events, but rather taking upon yourself the responsibility of living out the gospel in every area of life.
Such a change in both of these realms, the church institution and the individual life, requires one of the central principles of the missional mode. A return to the utmost importance of having Jesus as the major focal point for everything Christianity concerns is paramount. In a time when many churches take advice from the business world, aspire to bigger and better production value and absolutely rely on financial contributions of parishioners, the idea of Jesus as lifeblood can easily be lost. In his defining book, The Forgotten Ways, Alan Hirsch, one of the forerunners of the missional movement, purports that the Western church has catered to the consumerist culture surrounding it to its own harm. As such, the missional movement challenges the Western church, and Western Christians, to re-prioritize. A return to the basic function of glorifying Christ and expanding the kingdom of God through good works and holy living is a chief concern for missional activists.
A Restored Christianity
All together the concerns of the missional movement are to bring about the original intention of the church to be a powerful redeeming force for the gospel. More than just repackaging church, the missional mode calls for a complete reshaping of Christianity; to change it from a passive production to a radical lifestyle that affects every part of a person's life. The movement is gaining ground quickly as people look for more meaning and more power from the church than in decades passed. And the missional challenge may just answer that call. This is one to keep your eye on.
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