Missional living

Traditionally, Christians have seen mission as a either a special event (eg, a one-week series of meetings, or a conference) or as a full-time job for a few individuals (eg, sending a missionary to a foreign country for several years to convert new people to Christianity). Missional living is seen as a way of life for all Christians at all times.

The Missional Church Movement, a church renewal movement based on the necessity of missional living by Christians, gained popularity at the end of the twentieth century, mainly due to the publication of “Missional Church” by Darrell Guder in 1998, and advocates like Tim Keller Advocates contrast missional living in ordinary life with the idea of a select group of "professional" missionaries, emphasizing that all Christians should be involved in the Great Commission of Jesus Christ.[1]

The missional living concept is rooted in the Missio dei (Latin, "the sending of God").

In 1934, Karl Hartenstein, a German missiologist, coined the phrase in response to Karl Barth and his emphasis on actio Dei ("the action of God"), seeing God as the primary acting agent in the world and within the church.[2]

During the International Missionary Council conferences of the 1950s and 1960s, Mission Theology began to take shape. It came to public attention in 1962, in Johannes Blauw’s book The Missionary Nature of the Church.[3]

In 1983, Anglican Bishop, and missionary to India, Lesslie Newbigin published The Other Side of 1984, which looked at the close ties between Western Christianity and Western society and the loss of influence which the church had upon society around it. In 1989 he wrote that according to Jesus’s statements in the Gospel of John, every Christian has been sent by Jesus with the gospel into the community to live with those in the surrounding culture for the sake of the King and His kingdom: “The Church is sent into the world to continue that which he came to do, in the power of the same Spirit, reconciling people to God.”[4] Jesus said, “As the Father has sent Me, I am sending you” (John 20:21).

"No one can say: ‘Since I’m not called to be a missionary, I do not have to evangelize my friends and neighbors.’ There is no difference, in spiritual terms, between a missionary witnessing in his hometown and a missionary witnessing in Katmandu, Nepal. We are all called to go - even if it is only to the next room, or the next block.”"[5]

One author has written, "It is imperative that Christians be like Jesus, by living freely within the culture as missionaries who are as faithful to the Father and his gospel as Jesus was in his own time and place.".[10] This embodiment of the gospel is often referred to as "contextualization" or "inculturation."

"Both refer to more than a simple translation of the gospel into different languages and cultures in the way that one translates a history book or a science text. Rather, they point to the embodiment of the living Word in human culture and social settings in such a way that its divine nature and power are not lost. True contextualization is more than communication. It is God working in the hearts of people, making them new and forming them into a new community. It is his Word transforming their lives, their societies, their cultures."[11]

These five biblical distinctives form the foundation of a missional perspective:[12]

1. The Church is sent by Jesus Christ (John 17:18; 20:21, Luke 9:2; Matthew 28:19–20; Acts 1:8)
2. The Church is sent with the Cross (1 Cor 1:18, Eph 2:16, Col 2:14, 1 Pet 2:24, 2 Cor 5:17–24)
3. The Church is sent in Community (Acts 2:42–47; 5:42; John 13:34–35; 1 John 3:16–17)
4. The Church is sent to every Culture (John 1:14; Matthew 20:28; Acts 17:22–34; Luke 5:29)
5. The Church is sent for the King and His Kingdom (Matthew 10:7; 25:34; Luke 4:43; Rev 11:15–17; Jeremiah 10:7; John 18:36)

"Jesus was the first apostle. He was sent by his Father. He, in turn, sent the Twelve. They went to people who would then take the gospel to the rest of the world. Whoever received it would understand that they, too, had been sent. With the gospel being what it is, the church as bearer of the gospel is bound to be apostolic."[13]

The Missional Church Movement first arose during the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century. The movement seeks to rethink and redefine the nature of the church and create a new paradigm in which churches are seen as missional in nature, instead of attractional in nature. Leaders in the movement argue that instead of churches attempting to attract people to churches through church programs, churches should instead take the gospel outside of the church and engage society with the gospel, often by being involved not only in missions and evangelism but also in social justice movements. The missional church defines itself in terms of its mission - being sent ones who take the gospel to and incarnate the gospel, which is to announce to the world Jesus is its lord within a specific cultural context.

"Mission is not just a program of the church. It defines the church as God’s sent people. Either we are defined by mission, or we reduce the scope of the gospel and the mandate of the church. Thus our challenge today is to move from church with mission to missional church."[16]

The mission of the Church is to spread the gospel.

"Missional church is a community of God’s people that defines itself, and organizes its life around, its real purpose of being an agent of God’s mission to the world. In other words, the church’s true and authentic organizing principle is mission. When the church is in mission, it is the true church. The church itself is not only a product of that mission but is obligated and destined to extend it by whatever means possible. The mission of God flows directly through every believer and every community of faith that adheres to Jesus. To obstruct this is to block God’s purposes in and through his people."[17]

Missional living is a term that is used in contrast with historical institutional churches. Church leaders as well as Christians in general have often regarded the Church as an institution, to which outsiders must come in order to receive a certain product, namely, the gospel and all its associated benefits. Institutional churches are sometimes perceived to exist for the members and depend on pastors and staff to evangelize the lost. The "missional church", on the other hand, attempts to take Christ to "the lost". Members of the missional church are personally engaged in reaching their communities with the message of Jesus Christ.

• Inculturation
• Missio dei
• Anchor Gaslamp
• Missional community
• Mosaic Church
• Dan Kimball
• Emerging church
• Erwin McManus
• Mark Driscoll
• Brian McLaren
• Don Miller (author)
• Derek Webb

Theological and Philosophical Background

• John Bailey (Editor). Pursuing the Mission of God in Church Planting: The Missional Church in North America, NAMB (2007)
• David Bosch. Transforming Mission, Orbis Books, (1991)
• Neil Cole. Organic Church, Jossey-Bass (2005)
• David DeVries. Six-Word Lessons to Discover Missional Living, Leading on the Edge (August 2010).
• Michael Frost. Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture, Hendrickson Publishers (July 25, 2006).
• Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch. The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21st-Century Church, Hendrickson Publishers (November 2003).
• Darrell Guder (Editor), Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company (February 1998).
• Ross Hastings, Missional God, Missional Church: Hope for Re-Evangelizing the West, IVP Academic (2012).
• Alan Hirsch. The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church, Brazos (2007).
• George R. Hunsberger and Craig Van Gelder eds., The Church Between Gospel and Culture: The Emerging Mission in North America, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company (March 1996).
• Helen Lee. The Missional Mom, Moody Publishers, (January 2011)
• Patrick Keifert. We Are Here Now: A New Missional Era, Church Innovations Institute (2006)
• Dan Kimball. They Like Jesus But Not the Church, Zondervan (2007)
• Lesslie Newbigin. The Open Secret, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company (February 1995)
• Lesslie Newbigin. The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company (December 1989)

Practical Implications

• JR Woodward Creating a Missional Culture: Equipping the Church for the Sake of the World, InterVarsity Press (2012)
• Alan J. Roxburgh The Missionary Congregation, Leadership & Liminality, Trinity Press International (1997)
• Alan J. Roxburgh and Fred Romanuk. The Missional Leader: Equipping Your Church to Reach a Changing World, Jossey-Bass (April 7, 2006).
• Ed Stetzer and David Putman. Breaking the Missional Code, B&H Publishing Group (May 2006).
• Craig Van Gelder The Essence of the Church: A Community Created by the Spirit, Baker Books (2000)
• Craig Van Gelder The Ministry of the Missional Church: A Community Led by the Spirit, Baker Books (2007)
• Frank Viola. From Eternity to Here, David C. Cook (2009)

• Media related to Missional Christianity at Wikimedia Commons
• See the Missional Church Reading Room for extensive on-line library (Tyndale Seminary)