how missional works

There are some within the missiological community who argue that there is a distinction between "missions" and "evangelism". The thinking here is that when one uses the term "missions" it most certainly is within the context of a call into the unreached parts of the earth. The point is that those places around the earth that already have a functioning church reproducing itself are in affect not part of the mission. If you are in a country that has a reproducing church movement and you are committed to spreading the gospel then you are not doing missions, you are doing evangelism- the thinking goes.

So call it evangelism, but please don't confuse the point and call it missions or "missional".

While I understand the point and deeply appreciate the necessity of focusing especially on those parts of the earth that have yet to be reached, I am not as reluctant to call what we do in North American culture as we engage an increasingly "post-Christian" environment with the meaning and message of the gospel a "missional" approach.

My rationale:

1. I do not see a distinction between the call of every believer/disciple to engage the world they work, play, live in and the call of a missionary to cross over into a different culture for the purpose of engaging that unreached people group with the gospel. I think the overuse of the term "call" is regretful. I see that we are all called. I see that the great commission was given to all of His disciples. I see that if we come to believe that there are a select few who are called out for the purpose of missions we are in danger of excusing ourselves from the very thing our Lord has called all of us to do.

2. North America is now the third largest mission field on the planet. As Ed Stetzer puts it in "The Missional Code": North America is a missions context, not because people are less Christian than they once were (although that is true), but because God “sent” us to North America. It is a mission field because God sent us here as missionaries. However, we are missing a clear reality if we do not recognize that this a harder mission field than it once was. Historically, the Christian church was the first choice of spiritually minded North Americans – today, it often does not make the top ten list. Years ago, when people looked for spiritual answers they looked to the church. Now, many look to anybody and anything but us. The fact that historically the U.S. has been heavily influenced by Christianity does not change the current reality we face. Increasingly the people we encounter each day are antagonistic to the gospel, but no less a people group who are loved by God and therefore a focus of our mission. A lost person in Bethany Oklahoma is no less lost than an unredeemed person in Showbach Jordan.

3. To say that we seek to be missional includes both our global and local emphasis. Click here for a terrific analysis of the difference between a church with an evangelistic emphasis and a missoinal church. Our understanding of a missional strategy in unreached parts of the world informs and invigorates our missional approach in a post-Christian North American culture.

4. When we say that we seek to become a church in which every member considers himself or herself a missionary we are simply saying that the natural outcome of a life in Christ is a pull into a life of purpose and mission. "As the Father has sent me so send I you.." (John 20:21) , has direct and undeniable meaning to every believer. The incarnation of Christ was the ultimate example of contextualizing. He is our prototype in this sense. He came into our context for the purpose of the gospel. So if we are sent out as he was sent out, we also have a strategic mission. Our meaning and purpose as believers is to make the Word flesh in our own context. The more our life is given away the more we gain life.

As this approach becomes more and more clear to me- I see that some of the most significant missional activity going on in our church is outside the property lines of our campus on 30th and Council. I see a businessman who recently raised over 100,000 dollars for our orphanage in Motipur; I see a physician in our church who is feeding 300 kids in Rawanda a week; I see a couple in our church who are giving their lives for physically and sexually abused girls who have no place to turn; I see a young couple who lead a world wide medical missions ministry; I see a Connection Class that has adopted Cambodia; I see a retired business executive who has pioneered a way for missionaries to find a platform to reach some of the most unreached people groups in the Middle East by setting up an interactive internet program; I see a group of coaches who are taking a competitive team of young baseball players to not just play baseball this summer but to go overseas for the purpose of missions; I see a retired school teacher who has begun a ministry to people living on the streets.

Everywhere I look I see that increasingly our membership understands that God has placed each of us strategically in a mission field for the purpose of the gospel. I see that we are grasping the biblical truth that the church is to be populated with people who see themselves as on mission. We are a church of missionaries, not a church of consumers.

That is how missional works.