The rise of the missional church is the single biggest development in Christianity since the Reformation. There is a scramble on for people to codify what missional means exactly. Part of that is distressing to me, since it is a movement, and movements frequently defy easy definition. To my way of thinking it would be better to give "marks of" or "characteristics of" rather than "here’s what it is." Once you get anything in formaldehyde it's tough for it to live long.
Still, the good news is that it's happening. And one clear distinguishing characteristic of the missional church is its cross-domain expression. That makes it a renaissance of sorts. The Renaissance was fueled by the bringing together of thinkers from various fields of math, science, and art. Elements of ancient were combined with new insights. This confluence of thinking resulted in a new way of seeing the world. The same thing is happening with the missional church right now. The activity and reflection of missional thinkers is not siloed. It turns to other domains of culture for insight and even partnership.
The modern way of looking at culture involved a prism-view of sorts, thinking about the various domains of culture (political, business, education, healthcare, arts, recreation/sports, etc.). The church was one of those domains, only tangentially touching the others. This view gave us great church-building efforts with little community impact. The missional church sees itself spread across those domains, with God’s people already deployed as missionaries in each arena. Missional church leaders understand that community impact and people development requires partnership with other domains. And they see themselves as uniquely positioned to call that party. This is why, recently, when we convened ten missional church teams in Dallas who wanted to tackle huge problems of their communities, they each brought community leaders from other domains with them. The resulting synergy was palpable. It was evidence of the kingdom.
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Post written by Reggie McNeal, Missional Leadership Specialist for Leadership Network.
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