Is missional church just the latest church fad? Or is there something more theologically substantial at work here?
You can probably guess what my answer is, but I still encounter my fair share of people who are suspicious of it for one reason or another. Some people feel threatened by the inherent challenge in missional church to inherited forms of church structure. Others simply don’t want to get taken for a ride by marketers looking to make a quick buck.
I think Jonathan Dodson hit the nail on the head, though, in his recent post examining the dangers of transitioning to a missional church paradigm and practice.
People often adopt or reject the concept before they have properly understood it. This creates a bandwagon effect, uncritical early adopters who adopt an idea, jump on the bandwagon, without depth of understanding of what they have committed themselves to. Alternatively, there are the hypercritical naysayers, who naysay missional church as a fading fad. Ironically, the hypercritical naysayers commit the same error as the uncritical early adopters. Both responses fail to adequately investigate just what “missional church” is.
He presents a really helpful chart to talk about the difference between Church WITH a mission and Church AS a mission.
| Church WITH a Mission | Church AS a Mission |
| What You Do (Task) | Who You Are (Identity) |
| Optional (Elective) | Essential (Core) |
| Extraordinary (Elitist) | Ordinary (Everyone) |
| Project Focus (Event) | People Focus (Disciple) |
What do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
NICE chart 😉 appreciate it, something we are trying to go through in new church community
Part of finding identity in a new word or new movement is an implicit differentiation from something else. New language becomes old language. You can find similar ideas in older language. You'll find in Rick Warren's "Purpose Driven Life" "every member a minister" and sayings like that. Language embodies our idealism much more easily that the rest of our lives. "Missional" will be replaced by the next word that everyone will get excited about. That isn't to judge the effort, just to recognize that part of journeying together and trying to embody time in a world of change means continuing the journey of inventing vocabulary to express what is for us very old but yet good. pvk
Like Dodson's chart. And while missional is becoming a clay word, i think it will be around for a while. But, in the light of how movements tend towards being fad driven, I have coined another word. "Missiorganic" which combines the best of missional and organic concepts.