What is missional?
The board of the foundation I lead will be gathering today to discuss a proposed new strategic direction which will take us to mid-2011. Up to now, we have been involved in sponsoring a variety of initiatives – most faith-based – which didn’t have much in common beyond a common faith perspective. My goal today, however, is to introduce a common, unifying theme to direct our grantmaking. The question ‘what is missional?’ will be high on our own list of concerns as we deliberate.
So it’s ironic that today is also the day of the synchroblog on the same question. I’m excited to add my 2c worth, and I’m intrigued to see what the other 49 bloggers state on this topic today. (Thanks Rick Meigs for organizing this.)
I’m going to start with a story: the story of Sarah Lance who works in Kolkata, India with Word Made Flesh. And then I’ll finish with some observations on what makes this story, and ones like it, missional.
Coming down off the rooftops is hard. We visit one brothel every Tuesday. On those days we go up to the rooftop and have the most amazing conversations with our friends who live there, looking at the sky as the sun sets. For a moment, I can forget that we are on the roof of a brothel, that the women who live on the floors below are selling themselves and that the streets below are being filled with darkness as the sun sets…
To celebrate the two-year anniversary of Sari Bari, we took the ladies out to eat at a nice restaurant, all of us dressed in saris to mark the occasion. We went from the restaurant to the movies to escape into the illusion of Bollywood. After two years, it was easy to see the marked changes in the women who have come to be part of our community. They are healthy, and many have recovered from multiple serious health issues. Two women were hospitalized when they first came to work with us, but now stand as a testimony of healing and life being recovered and made new. All the women, including the trainees, reflect a glow that they did not have when they walked through the doors. They love each other. Some of them love Jesus, and it really shows. They have begun to know that they are loved. If you ask them what business we have, they will tell you “freedom” is our business. If you ask them about life, they will tell you that it has so much value, and they are really starting to believe this. The women with whom we shared our celebration meal and stood at the entrance to the movies are not prostitutes, they are not rejected, they are not without value. No one could identify them as anything but beautiful Indian women on a day out. It was beautiful – a picture of profound redemption. It was our rooftop, so to speak.
Do you see how Sarah is being missional in this story? I love her willingness to get into the world of her friends, her desire to not judge by labels, and the risks she is taking to live in Kolkata amongst the women in the red light district.
Here’s my attempt at defining the elusive term. And no, I didn’t try to come up with a top ten list. It just happened!
Being missional is:
- having a focus outward, not inward
- serving with no-strings-attached, not driving an agenda
- listening to the needs of the community, not imposing one’s own solutions
- learning the language and customs of the community, not being incomprehensible or irrelevant
- enjoying the journey together, not feeling that the destination is the only thing of value
- moving out from our community incarnationally (I am at home everywhere), not bringing people into our community (I am only at home with my own kind)
- being all of us together, not ‘us versus them’
- learning to dwell in the margins or risky areas, not preferring the comfortable centre
- being changed – all of us – not just ‘them’
- belonging before believing, not believing before belonging
OK people, give me your feedback. What do you think?
Here are the others who are synchroblogging today:
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
Thom Turner
hi mark, and thanks for posting your ‘top 10′ list. it’s clear, balanced, and full of the heart of ‘missional.’ thanks for your post in the synchroblog, and trust your meeting will go well!
When I look at your list I’m amazed – they could be describing our work in DR Congo – I could draw parallels to each one – I think missional can be summarized as “recognizing how we are all of us the same” and practicing cross-cultural generosity as modeled by the unreligious neighbor in the story known as The Good Samaritan.
bang on mark – describes what we’re trying to move more fully towards with ND!!
wish i had time to develop a post for the synchro blog too – but will have to leave it to people more brilliant than i as i run between meetings in vancouver.
look forward to reading all the other posts.
encouraging to hear someone from your perspective give a thumbs up to the word and the concept.
Great post, Mark. Love the top ten list – #6 particularly resonates.
Mark,
Your list felt familiar to me – out not in, with not for, us not them. The incarnational aspect of missional, to embed and dwell, is rich with the tones of solidarity and identifying ourselves with others. Your post captures that essence.
thanks for the post Mark,
here is where I get lost though, I am all about missional in the sense of philanthropy. I believe Christ calls us to this. In fact, I believe He calls us to it to a degree of self sacrafice. I get confused though when the conversation turns to points such as 2 and 3. I believe that to say I do not have an agenda is disingenuous for myselt at least. I want to glorify Christ, I want to serve Him because of the grace he has shown me. I want others to hear and know the gospel, so I am not being honest if I say I have no agenda. This brings me to point 3, I do believe in one solution, which is Christ, so again I can not claim otherwise. I am a total believer in “by your love, they will know” but I can not pretend that I do not have the “solution”.
What am I missing?
please note: I am not saying you do not beleive these things, I am just working out thi whole missional thing.
Mark,
Thanks for entering this dialog and bringing us along!
As I look over your proposal about what it means to be missional, one thing that strikes me is that most of what you describe is occurring on the horizontal level. This is vital, and needs to be addressed, as the vertical level has been more emphasized in the past.
However, a model of mission, or of being missional, that does not integrate the spiritual aspect is insufficient for the need. I think this is what drives Joshua’s concern (above), and really is valid. We are not only servants of others (Jn 13), but we are also called to serve our one Master above all. There is One who has an agenda; the danger lies not in having an agenda, but in not constantly submitting that agenda to the only One who has a right to impose it.
Knowing what you’ve been involved with in the past, Mark, I don’t doubt that this is your heart. It’s important though, that we not make assumptions about what we are all holding to be foundational to our missional lives. Truly, we can only live missionally when we “no longer live for ourselves, but for Him who died and rose on our behalf.” (2 Co 5:15).
Peace,
Michael
Where’s the great commission in all that?
What is your ultimate goal as you reach out “missionally”?
It seems to me “missional” minded people have a hard time articulating that part. There is a lot of talk about incarnational, being in the community, planting seeds of transformation, but they can’t tell you what the final goal is that they would like to see realized. What’s the fruit that you would like to see?
Hi Mark,
I agree it’s a great list of features for being missional. But being missional as you’ve described it is the means (or some of them), but without giving a rationale, or philosophical underpinning, or purpose.
One can’t talk sensibly about any of the missional qualities you mention except as they are grounded in the biblical narrative of God’s mission in history (missional has a root – the word mission, and mission, in the Church, has always been understood to be salvational, whether salvational is understood in pietistic or social terms or both — or cosmic terms, as I believe). This is not the place to go into this in detail, but I would argue that missional (or other) lists are actually dangerously weakened when they are held in extracted form apart from the biblical narrative in which they find meaning. I think your writing a list as a spur to conversation is a good thing, so please take in that context my observation that list-writing, in and of itself, is a rather modern (Western) tendency to control and compartmentalize reality — not altogether a bad thing, but only useful if we don’t let go of the more organic narrative. The danger is it becomes the reality we have defined, rather than a greater reality that ultimately reamins outside of us, even as we are a part of it.
I don’t believe narratives are in some way sacrosanct by virtue of being narratives, but rather narratives — and especially the biblical narrative of God’s mission — are given to us precisely because they retain the nuances and plot meaning that we lose when we write lists.
To draw more from the narrative of Scripture and place your list in context, and return to my point above, I think missional features can only make sense when their root is understood — Christ, son of the only true God, whose exclusivity was lived out in his utter self-emptying for our sake. Missional is shaped by Christ and the cross. Missional is not all the things you mentioned just because they suit our post-modern fancies as well as our fear of causing offense — it is all the things you mentioned because at their heart, they are cruciform.
As I’ve written elsewhere: “If Jesus’ work on the cross is, theologically speaking, essential, then humility is, practically speaking, no less essential, for Jesus’ work of grace was born and lived out in a posture of total humility.” In the same way, humility (and grace) are — relatively speaking — meaningless except they flow out of the exclusivity and truth of Christ. If our missional living carries exclusivity without the cross, it is oppressive and bankrupt. If our missional living carries inclusivity without the Lordship of Christ, it is rebellious and bankrupt. Both bring tremendous harm to ourselves and others.
I only pop in here once in a while, but I love the conversations here. Keep up the good work.
Blessings,
Jonathan
Mark, I’m just finding you as a result of the synchroblog. I love the title of your blog. It’s the phrase I use to remind myself how to live missionally … live with open hands.
Your post is wonderful and gives feet to alot of the more esoterical ideas that are floating around. Thanks for being a little bit pragmatic.
Joshua – thanks for writing. I value your comments. They made me smile because I had the same reaction at the board meeting we had.
I wasn’t thinking at such a high level as you when I wrote about not having an agenda and serving without strings attached. There are core beliefs that I hold in my centre that drive all I am and do.
My words should be taken at a very practical, down-to-earth level. I was thinking about the years I spent overseas 1991-95 where we had to land in an unknown and strange environment and learn how to listen to people, not impose solutions, wait for them to invite us, etc before we were able to have an effective ministry.
At the same time, those of us who believe we have the solution must admit that even though we are convinced of certain truths, that we still see now through a glass darkly. We hold our convictions lightly in open hands.
Michael @ Pioneers…
Thanks! I’d echo what I just mentioned above to Joshua. My take on missional is low brow, with the spiritual core being what I am assuming all of us are united on.
George, here’s what I’d like to see: all of us are preparing the way for Jesus to truly reign in our world in the “holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (Rev 21.2). This metaphor describes a place of beauty, passion, creativity, fulfilling work, art, meaningful relationships, etc where Jesus rules over all that is eternal. As we live missionally, the eternal things which we do/create/engender/reconcile will flourish and thrive in this new city where God dwells. That is the purpose of being missional now.
For more on this read Andy Crouch’s new book (to be released in August 2008 ) Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling – see http://www.culture-making.com
Mark, its the kind of story my wife would often bring home with her after a day in the local shelter, or after a day as an outreach nurse. But I got stuck at your first point, and I’m in a similar place as Jonathan Wilson — even though I like lists
I want to respond with a question.
Is it a helpful frame to oppose the outward and inward movements? I feel the same temptation to do so, particularly when our inward, gathered, and extractional impulse is framed within isolated church culture (Christian ghettos). We preserved “something” of the inward movement but lost its essence because we lost the telos.
But I observe that there was this inward and outward rhythm in the life of Jesus. Being missional included this rhythm. Similarly, the movements that have had great impact on their own culture have embraced similar rhythms, in particular the Celtic Christians. I particularly like the way this is framed in the new book by Stock, Otto and Wilson-Hargrove. They describe the rhythm of inward and outward life under the rubric of Conversion. Helpful I think and I’ll blog on this one of these days
A bicycle remains in motion and in balance as long as both wheels are turning. But the wheels actually function differently. The front wheel sets direction (mission and telos) and the rear provides traction (abiding, nurture, formation, theological reflection). If you lose one wheel you’re in trouble.
We humans can see ok with a single eye. But two eyes provide depth in vision and widen the periphery of our sight. Rhythm, motion, balance and wholesight.. we need both the inward and outward movements.
Len, I like these rhythms as you describe them. Absolutely – we need both inward and outward, but I thought we were describing “missional” which I would view as outward.
I’m no unicyclist – I think we need the back wheel of nurture and formation as well, hopefully in synch with the outward orientation.