Missional Explorer

What is Missional-A Short Answer

In one of my life contexts, I have been asked to submit my understanding of the word "missional" for the sake of future conversatons.   At this point, the best word-smithing I have found is by Rick Meigs otherwise known as Blind Beggar in the blogosphere.  I have found Rick's unpacking of "missional" to be closely related to what I have encountered over the past three years and would therefore like to use some of Rick's material as a springboard into this conversaton.  Here, for example, is a short answer definition of "missional" based on Rick's Friend of Missional website.  I will be adding to this over the next few days so that you can see what I will be submitting in the very near future.

Jesus told us to go into all the world and be his ambassadors, but many churches today have inadvertently changed the "go and be" command to a "come and see" appeal. We have grown attached to buildings, programs, staff and a wide variety of goods and services designed to attract and entertain people.

"Missional is a helpful term used to describe what happens when you and I replace the "come to us" invitations with a "go to them" life. A life where "the way of Jesus" informs and radically transforms our existence to one wholly focused on sacrificially living with him and others and where we adopt a missionary stance in relation to our culture. It speaks of the very nature of the Jesus follower.

"Out of the Corner of My Eye"

Pastor Joe put me onto another gem two weeks ago, this one a thought-full, provoking, incendiary poem reprinted in part below.   I have reprinted just the beginning and the end.  Check out the in-between, the real & complete deal at www.brianzahd.com! 

Out Of The Corner Of My Eye
by Blind Man At The Gate

I think I caught a glimpse of truth out of the corner of my eye
A ghost, a whisper, a suspicion, a subtle and subversive rumor
So dangerous that every army would be commanded to march against it
So beautiful that it would drive those who see it to madness
Or sanity
Does the whole of my kind suffer from mental and moral vertigo?
As Melville said of cabin boy Pip
He saw the foot of God upon the treadle of the loom
And dared to speak it
Henceforth his shipmates called him mad
As Vladimir said when they came to bury Fyodor
The spiritual leader must feel the falsehood prevailing in society
The prophet must struggle against it, never tolerate it, never submit to it
I think I caught a glimpse of truth out of the corner of my eye
Have we been so blinded by the bright lights of advertisers lies
That the only true vision is peripheral vision?
In the age of constant commercialization and overblown hype
Does truth shout with a whisper and stand out with subtlety?
I think I caught a glimpse of truth out of the corner of my eye
It terrified me as I fell in love with it
I said,
This explains everything
This changes everything
This challenges everything
This threatens everything
This transforms everything
Dare I speak it?
The truth I caught out of the corner of my eye?
EVERY EMPIRE OF MEN IS BUILT UPON A LIE
They come to kill, steal and destroy
EVERY EMPIRE OF MEN IS BUILT UPON A LIE
All virtue is subject to sacrifice upon the altar of imperial expediency
EVERY EMPIRE OF MEN IS BUILT UPON A LIE
God or gods exist only to serve its cause
EVERY EMPIRE OF MEN IS BUILT UPON A LIE
Religion takes off its mask when it says—
"We have no king but Caesar"
The ultimate betrayal
The final apostasy
EVERY EMPIRE OF MEN IS BUILT UPON A LIE. . . .

I glimpsed this truth out of the corner of my eye
To believe it will set you free
And you thought it was just Sunday School banality
Or empty religious sentimentality
To pray
Thy Empire come
Thy Policy be done
You had no idea it was dissident and subversive
Because every empire of men is built upon a lie
I glimpsed this truth out of the corner of my eye
And if you ask me my politics I will say
JESUS IS LORD!
JESUS IS LORD!
JESUS IS LORD!
This is more political than it is religious
I glimpsed this truth out of the corner of my eye

—Blind Man at the Gate
Across Nebraska

Kingdom of God People

Thoughts to Ponder:

1. The posture of Kingdom People according to Jesus in Matt. 16 is that of a wartime people going on the offensive to attack Satan, Hell, and all his purposes. . . where Jesus promises that "the gates of Hell will not prevail" from the attack of the called-out ones.  This is a people on a mission of destruction not a people hunkered down or shrinking in corners trying to protect ourselves from the world.  Kingdom People Gatherings take on a wartime posture of "conspire, collaborate, and create" opportunities to damage the works of hell in the world! 

2.  This discourse and picture of Kingdom People in Matt. 16 is then followed by the Pearl of Great Price where everything is sacrificed for it's acquisition.  Interesting story.  Is it accidentally placed here?

3.  Kingdom People Lifestyles & Gatherings are outposts of the future Kingdom now.

4.  If the above is true, what does it mean for our family, our school, my classes, our community?

The Sacrilegious Way

Hugh Halter definitely caught my attention this past week with his call to a "sacrilegious" approach to the world, tearing down walls of religion and religious expectations which will, by its very nature, offend religious conventions but also catch the non-religious way off guard in our willingness to take it to the streets. 

Walking in the steps of Jesus is full of such sacrilege in His time.  The woman caught in adultery, Jesus violating the Sabbath, hanging out with sinners--outsiders of the religious establishment-- in the "wrong" place at the "wrong time" with the "wrong" people.  Hugh suggests that people sinning in specific ways doesn't seem to be a big deal to Jesus.  He does not appear to be shocked, horrified, or in a hurry to condemn.  So Jesus is definitely not "freaked out" by individual sins or people sinning as we often are.  Taking on the general sin condition of His world (as well as our own), yes, but Jesus seems to expect the crappy stuff every day almost seeking it out to break the mold of "religiosity", to demonstrate to what lengths and to what people He was most interested in going (is it because "those people" would be most open to him?) and to counter the Pharisee approach by saying "look, you're concentrating on the wrong things".   

Hugh characterized evangelism in this culture and context as necessarily sacrilegious and iconoclastic.  .  .  both descriptions I desperately want to look into and apply in my context!

Church People and Kingdom of God People

I was privileged to participate in a Missio Intenstive for the second year in a row, this year featuring Hugh Halter and Rick McKinley.  I'd like to process a few things from the past few days in this blog so bear with me as I think out loud.

Gathering kicked off with a bang on Thursday afternoon when Rick lead with his hope that we would be "ruined" by God's Kingdom . . . which is probably want Jesus wanted His day and still wants in our own.  I think Rick meant "ruined" in that we would walk so differently in our times that our values, goals, and very identity as "the called-out ones" would brand us as tainted by the world around us.  Rick continued in this thought by saying that being ruined would probably bring us into tension not only with the world but also with our families (interesting thought for me).  But, he added, while the Church today usually avoids/swings away from tension, the facts are that the Church was originally birthed in tension and thrives best in this environment.  Tension and suffering is, in fact, where the authentic Church must be willing to live.

For our first session, we "lived" in Matthew 13 with the whole string of parables (sower & seeds, weeds, mustard seed, treasure in a field) where Jesus dramatically paints a people in contrast to the world around us.  Rick even pointed out the contrast and tension within churches saying that "church people are not necessarily Kingdom of God people", an incredibly rich and important statement I am  still digesting as to its implications!!