Missional Thinking
1. The Missionary God
2. The Mission of God
3. A Missional Church
4. Missional Proclamation
God is missional. His mission is to redeem the cosmos and a people for his own possession. But what does it mean for us to be “missional?” We have seen that Jesus sends us just as he was sent, so what is our mission? Entire books and conferences are dedicated to this very concept, so please consider my thoughts here a simple summary of the ideas. As God’s agent of redemption in the world, the church is the means by which God accomplishes his mission. Like our Savior we are sent to live among a people who do not know God so that they might see his kingdom and enter in. Our mission is to proclaim this kingdom as Jesus did because that becomes the very gateway through which people find the kingdom. (Proclaiming the kingdom is more than explaining the “Romans Road,” and will be dealt with in the next post.)
As I see it, a missional church must therefore be at least 3 things:
1. Sent.
The church must live as a sent people, not a only sending people. While we will always be sending others into the farther reaches of the world to take the Gospel of grace, we must also live as a sent people to the communities God has planted our churches in. We should stop allegorizing Acts 1:8 so that (in my case) Elburn, IL is my “Jerusalem,” the Chicago suburbs is my “Judea,” the state is my “Samaria,” and other countries are my “uttermost parts of the earth.” From Jesus’ perspective, Elburn, IL is in the uttermost parts of the earth. He has sent us, his people, to this culture/context to preach, demonstrate and invite people to enter the kingdom of God. To simply think of ourselves as established, and being the senders of others, robs us of the missional imperative to join God in his mission to the people who live and work in our neighborhoods. This means more than being evangelistic, and knowing our theology.
2. Engaged.
We must live, work, play and minister redemptively in our culture. The well-intentioned tendency of Christians in America to withdraw from culture has only weakened our effectiveness in communicating Jesus to the people we want to reach out to. Culture is not bad, but merely the combination of customs, values, rituals, beliefs, art, food and institutions among a specific people. Much of our culture and sub-cultures is good, but needs to find its full meaning in God. And of course much of it is corrupt and needs to be transformed by the power of the Gospel as demonstrated in the community of faith. Either way, the Gospel is seen as something authentic and life changing only in the context of a particular culture. It must be seen, experienced, and understood in comparison or contrast to what they know. This requires involvement in people’s lives and the culture we are a part of whenever possible. We cannot strip the kingdom of God down to a few principles that are merely applied to an individual’s private life. It is much larger than that.
3. Incarnated.
We and the Gospel must be incarnated where we are. What I mean is that churches will, and should, look different in each cultural context. A church in the inner-city will look different from those in the rural counties. In some cases they will address the same issues with the Gospel, but in many others the Gospel will bring about redemption in different ways to different issues. Instead of relying on one-size-fits-all programs and church models, it is necessary to allow the kingdom of God to present itself to the community through the church in ways needed by that culture. This is not an abandonment of truth, doctrinal standards, or biblical ecclesiology. It is the church moving forward with all of that to become what God intends us to be in each new place.
The “missional church” is almost a redundant expression. The people of God are inherently a sent people. It is who we are, and that gives birth to what we do. We just tend to forget this.
For further, and better, reading on the missional church check out some of Tim Keller’s stuff linked below:
The Missional Church by Tim Keller (PDF)
Other papers by Tim Keller
Vision Videos from Keller’s Church, Redeemer Presbyterian Church
I am the Lead Pastor of Redeemer Fellowship; husband to Jen; Dad to Katherine, Elias, Madeline, and Kilian. If you're in town you can probably find me in the local coffee house or running through the neighborhoods.
{ 8 comments }
Man, LOVE Keller. Did I mention he commented on my blog before?
Warning about how we apply Acts 1:8 is fantastic Joe. You think of that on your own?
Incarnated: I’ve been thinking a lot lately how not only is urban different than suburban or rural, but even one suburban church can’t even be like another. Incarnated in Elburn, IL and in Woodstock, IL are similar in many ways as sub/exurban areas, but ultimately each needs to be tweaked to specific culture and city and community. In a sense every church should be dramatically unique to their culture while also being undeniably the same in our mission and essential doctrine.
I agree Steve. The more similar the context, the similar the churches will look incarnationally, but each community is somewhat different and requires the Gospel and kingdom to be preached/demonstrated in different ways. The Acts 1:8 thing has bothered since my days at Moody. Everyone was presenting it allegorically. It just makes more sense to me the way Jesus meant it. Go figure.
I love it! Absolutely LOVE it! I have thoroughly enjoyed this thread. i also love how you have not defined this in an exclusionary way– “at least” is a great starter. Thanks for this brother.
dig your acts 1:8 thing. I was taught that in my Personal Evangelism class. I don’t think anyone in the class really bought it, but nobody said much. It sounds like something Rick Warren would say. Why do I say that it sounds like something Rick Warren would say? Because I was wondering what you thought of Warren’s current article on baptist press http://baptistpress.com/bpfeature.asp?ID=1898
I know his exegesis is usually horrific, and there are 100 things to criticize him about, but based on this BP article, how would your vision of a missional church differ from what he says? I’m not trying to set a trap for you or anything
I read the article. It’s okay. He says some good stuff in it that I obviously agree with. How that plays out in his church is different than it would in ours because 1) our context is different, 2) our theology is different and well, there’s more. But Warren has done some great things, and recently has shown the world that the church (or at least some of them) cares about justice and healing in the world. Just like God.
What I am saying sounds like some Warren might say, or Keller, or Van Gelder, et al. Unfortunately, it is not what most SBC churches would say, or practice. This, I believe, is starting to change on a small scale.
Joe-
Thanks for laying this out this way. Thanks for helping me see the direction God is leading you to lead our church. It’s an exciting road God has called us to travel and I can’t wait to see how He blesses it.
Great thoughts Joe. Fantastic stuff!
Thanks for the encouragement guys. See you Friday Pat!
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