Words come and go, and right now it seems that one of the really cool words in Christian ministry circles is missional. In fact, missional seems to have replaced an early cool word, postmodern, which now seems fatally passé.
I regularly hear people talking about missional ministry, the missional church, and even missional youth ministry. It all sounds great. The word is still new enough for most of us that it conveys an image of innovation. Anyone can write about it or preach about it, and few would challenge the way the word is used.
Isn’t that what we all need: an all-purpose word that makes us look smart, allows us to feel better about our work and provides enough breadth that you really can’t go wrong when you use it?
I’m also part of conversations in which people are working to understand missional thinking in light of Scripture and Church history. Some of these scholars and theologians tell me the Western church has drifted far away from godly notions of mission.
For most of us, mission means going somewhere and doing something we consider missionary-like. It also includes activities such as:
* Going to church;
* Singing, praying, listening to sermons, teaching kids and writing checks;
* Temporarily changing our schedules to help the needy, particularly around Thanksgiving or Christmas, when we feel guilty about all our stuff;
* Organizing outreach events so we can invite our “friends and neighbors” to join us at church.
According to this approach toward being missional, we make occasional efforts to look outside the walls of our churches to invite people in; or if some of these people are too difficult or smelly, we devise ways to help them out now and then.
When I think about what God may have in mind, being missional means we are “a people belonging to God” (
We don’t enlarge God’s Kingdom as missionaries. We participate in His Kingdom work as His witnesses (Acts 1:8).
We hope this issue of YouthWorker Journal will nudge you into being more missional in mind, heart and service, as Jesus leads and calls.
