Missional Church
I am going to shift away from discussing liturgy and sacraments and write some reflections about Missional Church/Community.
By the way, I think the historic liturgy/worship of the church is highly missional. So we will get back to that and weave the two together.
Missional is a bit of an elusive word. I have been trying to get a grip on it for 9 years. But let me give an initial stab at a definition. A Missional Church understands that God is on mission in the world bringing his kingdom/reign. The church/a church is a broken and weak sign of the presence of God's kingdom.
One tricky thing about the word Missional is that we almost always use mission in an activist sense. Mission does connote action, but at its heart that is not what missional is. It is about being a sign of the kingdom -- and this next point is crucial -- when gathered and when scattered.
Here is a link to a good video that massages the idea of missional. I highly recommend it.
2 comments:
There are a few good bloggers out here who talk a lot about missional church and wrestle with what it means. I recommend Blind Beggar and SmuloSpace.
http://blindbeggar.org/
http://johnsmulo.com/
We don't all agree on every point, but I've found "missional church" to be a far more coherent concept than "emerging church."
I'll look forward to anything you have to say on the topic!
Thanks for the thoughts Pete.
I would second the Blind Begger; his blog is very helpful.
Your post reminds me of something Hirsch says in The Forgotten Ways. We must always remember the mission Dei, and thus stay the missional church. We can't be emerging, if we are not also missional.
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