If you’ve wondered more about the “missional” in this blog’s name, here’s some help from a thinker and author on the subject, Alan Hirsch. The article from CT’s LeadershipJournal.net is here, one quote is below. There’s been some conversation in the blogosphere lately on the effectiveness (or not) of “missional” churches/communities that I’d like to get to here, but this seems like a good place to start.
A missional theology is not content with mission being a church-based work. Rather, it applies to the whole life of every believer. Every disciple is to be an agent of the kingdom of God, and every disciple is to carry the mission of God into every sphere of life. We are all missionaries sent into a non-Christian culture.
Missional represents a significant shift in the way we think about the church. As the people of a missionary God, we ought to engage the world the same way he does—by going out rather than just reaching out.
I’m far from perfect on all of this, but the missional church most engages my imagination and most convicts me as a follower of Jesus. I think that’s why I gravitate so much toward what this movement has to teach us.
Guy M Williams 