missional living

***I meant to post this yesterday, but Typepad was down...***

Last week I met Ken Sorrell--a missionary with the International Mission Board who trains missionaries and US volunteers in the Middle America and Caribbean region.  (He blogs over at the Returning to Biblical Missions blog.) If there is any question as to whether or not he's got his head on straight, let me just say this: he was wearing a University of Alabama shirt (Roll Tide, Roll!) and he's also a 24 fanatic.

Anyway, he shared with me some concerns about the North American "missional" movement from an international missionary perspective. I must say, I have never thought of the current missional movement from this perspective, nor am I prepared to discuss it in this post at this time. However, Ken is in dialogue with others about his observations over at his blog. I'll be checking it out in the near future.

There is one observation that Ken brought up which really got me thinking and I will attempt to discuss it here. He mentioned that some missional thinkers & practitioners in the States are referring to "every believer as a missionary" now, and that this is essentially an unbiblical statement. Ken directs the dialogue to Acts where Paul and Barnabas are set aside as missionaries by the Antioch church, and he draws the conclusion that "missionaries" are only those persons who are "set apart" (or "called out") for such a specific task.

Is this just semantics? I think perhaps there are strong scriptural arguments for the claim that every believer in Christ has a "missional" responsibility, and that there also is the specific responsibility of "missionary" as it has been traditionally understood. Both can be affirmed as such. What will follow are three practical ways that I suggest to help people intentionally live missionally (i.e. with a missionary/sent-one mindset) within their own culture (i.e. outside the specific "missionary" task as it has been traditionally understood):

Three practical ways of living missionally:

• First, living missionally means engaging culture different from your own comfort zone. North America is so diverse ethnically, racially, religiously and even [sub]-culturally, that when you intentionally engage a culture other than your own with the gospel of Christ, you are being "missional." Simply put, this involves A) discerning which culture God is leading you to work with and then B) bringing Christ with you into your work, your neighborhood, your family, your hobbies, etc. within that culture. (Note: "Evangelism" occurs when you are bringing the gospel to bear in a culture that is the same as your own. Think cultural comfort zone. There is nothing inherently wrong with evangelism because it involves you bringing the gospel of Christ to your own culture.)
• Second, think critically about your culture and study it diligently. There are certain elements of culture which can be assimilated into your church, some that must be redeemed before being assimilated and some that must be outright rejected. What are those elements in your cultural context? In the culture that we are starting Metanoia there is a high level of artistic and creative activity. This can be outright assimilated into how we do church. There is also a deep longing in our community for people to connect spiritually with other people and with something outside themselves. This is an element of our culture which can be redeemed through direct proclamation of the gospel of Christ. Most people within our culture desire diversity, but they are unwilling to respect the values and beliefs of those who believe the opposite of what they do--hypocracy at its finest. This close-minded approach to diversity must be rejected.
• Finally, living missionally involves building bridges with the gospel of Christ and proclaiming the gospel of Christ. Missional living is not sending money to missionary activity overseas or tithing to a church ministry. Sure, that's being mission-minded, but living missionally involves a verbal proclamation of the gospel backed up with a life lived through the gospel. Living missionally involves discerning appropriate ways to proclaim the gospel of Christ within your culture.

I am currently listening to Dr. Timothy Keller's podcast, "Being the Church in our Culture" and it is extremely challenging. He offers six ways of engaging culture missionally. The three that I have come up with make it onto his list, but his list is much more coherent.

Missional Made Practical:

• Missional: A Primer 
• Missional Thinking (or, "All I ever needed to know about missional church planting, I didn't learn in seminary 3 years ago.")
• Missional Living (or, "Oooohhh... so that's how you do it!")
• Missional Ministry (or, "Uhh, yeah, we're a missional church... I think.")

Comments

[Mouse]

me thinks you have a sermon here :)

[Matt]

Studying culture? Yeah... that is great! As you have illuded to - this concept is no different than that of an international missionary. We must be students of our culture in the same way that a missionary in east asia would... and, for that matter, the same way that Paul was in Acts 17. I think you have made a great point that studying the culture is almost a step beyond just living in the culture. GREAT POST!

[adam feldman]

thanks, matt. i think it's important to note that not "every member" is a "missionary" if they are not living in a missional way (as described above). studying culture and understanding it on deeper levels is part-and-parcel to missiology.

[Kevin Bussey]

Interesting subject. I would say that most of the church isn't living missionally!

[mo]

So, we're not all called to be missionaries, but we're all called to participate in the great comission.

If that's the case shouldn't we all be students of culture to an extent? The difference being that missionaries take an interest in different cultures where as the rest of us take an interest in the cultures where God has placed us.

Just thinking out loud here.

[Joe Kennedy]

Mo. You've just summed everything I've been trying to say up. I no longer have to blog or speak. Okay, that's a joke. But I've got a newbie moving to New Orleans, and he wants to be an urban cowboy. He's from northeast Alabama. I told him the only cowboys in New Orleans were "brokeback." He's got to learn to adapt to the culture he's in, and that's the lesson set before us when he gets here next week. We should all be teaching our churches and friends how to be students of culture. I can drive less than 2 hours in any direction and meet up with a completely different culture than here in New Orleans. From Mobile to Baton Rouge to Hattiesburg. Three states, three cultures, less than 2 hours away, each. Crazy.

[adam feldman]

no doubt being a student of culture is important. however, i think the first step for many christians is to realize that they are, in fact, immersed in a culture... and it doesn't play newsboys on the radio or sell the left behind series in their bookstores...