Missional Drift: Defining the Role of the Local Church in Diaspora Missions

Fifteen years ago a book by Darrel Gruder, a Princeton Seminary professor introduced the word 'missional' into the Christian lexicon. In the broader history of the church, this is like saying, "last Tuesday I heard someone use a cool new word." The word 'missional' has a short and complicated history, but it is a word that Evangelicals have increasingly become invested in--and one that many have developed an emotional attachment to.

I became intimately acquainted with this deep attachement to the word 'missional,' when I touched a nerve with my recent critiqued of it in a post entitled Is Everyone A Missionary? Yes and No.

It was not my intention to begin a conversation on the use of the word missional, in fact, I almost left the word missional out of the original post. I added it back in after having deleted it because I initially wanted to limit the conversation to the word 'mission.' I was quite surprised that so many people have not only read the post in its entirety, but that their discussion of it with me has centered around my use of the word missional.

I want to reiterate what I said in the aforementioned post: words have meanings, and we need to use them discerningly. The word missional was originally coined to describe the fact that the church of Christ is a missionary. Jonathan Leeman does a great job discussing the history of the word missional in a journal post at 9marks, so I don't necessarily feel the need to rehash that here.

I agree with the original definition of missional as it relates to the corporate nature of the church as a missionary. However, I take issue with its use as it applies to individuals or small/cell groups within the church. I believe that the use of the word missional among Evangelicals causes misunderstanding about the true nature of mission and individual people's place in the global advance of God's Kingdom.

The word missional is often used by its proponents to distinguish between churches that are attractional and those that are more focused on outreach in their community--the way that many of them go about becoming more 'missional' is to start small groups in the community with specific focuses on geographic or demographic niches that may or may not be represented in the church. However, as I spent time stating in the previous post, this isn't 'mission' as described in the bible unless it is actively seeking to establish new manifestations of the body among different ethno-linguistic groups in the community or abroad.

Missional churches by and large reach out to those same demographics represented in their church already. They talk a big talk, but often don't walk the walk. They establish small groups where Christ followers and pre-Christians can interact more comfortably. But here's the rub, they are still using an attractional model, they are just doing it on a smaller scale! For all of their antagonism against attractional models, very few 'missional' churches have taken steps to equip their church members in personal evangelism skills or challenged them to reach out to people significantly different than themselves!

The word missional used this way is just a synonym for outreach, saying a church is missional is not significantly different than saying a church is outreach-oriented. It is a new word (and not a very good one) for an old thing. The average missional church is young, white, college educated, middle class and uses missional terminology as a way to feel good and alleviate some of their post-colonial guilt. It often has more to do, subconsciously, with the style of music the church band plays and possibly the presence of couches and candles in the sanctuary.

We're all connected, internet traffic visualized.

In my mind, this is a waste of a the term missional as it could be used among Evangelical Christians! There is already a lot of debate about what the word missional really means, and I hope to offer here an alternative definition. Imagine if being missional meant actually being aware of God's global mission to reach the diverse ethno-liguistic peoples of the world with the Gospel and how that was being realized both globally and locally!

There are many opportunities to be truly missional in our local communities--one of the fastest growing segments of missiology (the theology of missions) is diaspora missiology. God is on the move, and so are the peoples of the world--we are increasingly living in a globalized world, and our local communities reflect the rich diversity of the global community. God is in charge of this global movement of peoples, in Acts 17:26-27 it says that He determines the times and places that people live with the purpose that some of them might come to know Him!

That means that God is moving people into our communities in order for us to share the Gospel with them! Mission is no longer only about sending men and women from predominantly Christian nations to share the Gospel with non-Christian peoples, but God is also bringing non-Christian peoples from all over the world into our communities where they may for the first time have the opportunity to hear the Gospel!

Our local college campuses, public schools, hospitals, businesses, restaurants and government offices already reflect these changes--there are hundreds of different languages being spoken around us. In communities around the country there are mosques and temples being established for the worship of foreign gods. However, the ministry and outreach to the tens of millions of new immigrants coming to our shores has often been relegated to the hands of a few.

What would happen if the church, the whole church, would wake up and see what God is doing in bringing the peoples of the world within our borders?! What would happen if our church members became 'missional' in regards to reaching out to the Middle Eastern, Asian, African, European and Latin American immigrants increasingly coming to our nation? Instead of a small group of volunteers giving ESL classes, or a lone campus minister reaching out to international studies, what would happen if everyone in your church was suddenly moved to share their lives with the stranger and the alien?

I don't like the word missional as it is currently being used, but I can envision a proper use for it. I hope that increasingly churches become missional as they engage in the mission of God to reach out to the people's of the world with the Gospel, as God is increasingly moving those people into our midst.

If you are interested in learning more about Diaspora Missiology, the Lausanne Movement has set up a website at GlobalDiaspora.org. They have also released a short booklet on Diaspora Missions entitled Scattered to Gather(pdf) which is available for free. Please pray and consider how you and your church may become involved in reaching the peoples that God is bringing into our midst.

Delegation and leadership.

Sharing apple pie is hard too.

"Why is delegation one of the hardest tasks in leadership?" This was a question asked by Dr. Howard Hendricks to his Dynamics of Leadership class at Dallas Theological Seminary while discussing the book of Nehemiah. I found Dr. Hendricks' lectures on leadership available for free on iTunes U and I highly recommend them to anyone involved in Christian ministry!

Dr. Hendricks further emphasized his original question by asking "Why is it so hard to give it away to somebody else?" 

Well what do you think? Why is delegation such a sticky area for so many people involved in ministry? Please leave your thoughts in the comment section!

Students, Missions and Church Planting Movements

I still have several posts on fruitfulness in the works--but I thought I would take a short discursion into another topic that I have been thinking a lot about lately which is vitally linked with fruitfulness.

Earlier this week I purchased a book entitled Global Church Planting--this book makes the case that church planting is the most effective way to reach people with the Gospel. It seems like the Lord is really keeping my attention focused on church planting as I have already been reading through Garrison's Church Planting Movements (free pdf) booklet--and this month's issue of Mission Frontiers is completely devoted to church planting.

Two of the most common elements in the rapid multiplication of churches are (1) raising up leaders and (2) employing reproducible methods.

Frankly, we are not developing enough leaders to get the job of world evangelism done, and this is in part due to the church structures and models that we choose to employ. The key to the leadership issue is a radical-rethinking of the priesthood of all believers. But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. (1 Peter 2:9)

The 'priesthood of all believers' is not simply a quaint notion, or a polemic against Rome, it means that every believer is called to be a leader and a disciple-maker in the area to which God has placed them--and few churches are intentional about training their disciples to become disciple-makers. 

Church planting is also too often associated with buildings and paid-full-time ministers--this kind of church planting is not reproducible without extensive funding and theological training. In these churches the vast majority of people are expected to financially contribute towards the church, but not directly participate in the mission of the church to make disciples. The paradigm needs to change: the key is in turning passive spectators into active participants.

Last night I was sitting outside of a convenience store in front of Kangwon National University reading about church planting on my Kindle while waiting for a couple of friends to pick me up for a bible study with some KNU students--and as I watched students streaming out of the front gate of the campus a convergence of sorts happened.

Intervarsity at NYU; beautiful picture!

I had studied in the past about how many Student Movements had lead to mission sending and church planting--but I had never done much thinking upon why that was the case. Then it struck me like a bolt of lightening and I wrote down this sentence: "Student movements bear fruit because they release gifts and talents for the Kingdom by equipping and training Saints." 

I remember when I was a brand new Christian in high school--there was a bible study being led on campus by one of the seniors. The group was started by students, led by students, taught by students--in fact it was even doing a good job of reaching out to students. But what it was also doing effectively was equipping these high school students to do ministry; it gave them a place to develop their different gifts for ministry and then release them for the Kingdom.

This pattern is similar among many university and college student groups--they often create a safe environment in which people can develop and exercise gifts of leadership, ministry and evangelism. It is no wonder that many of the best leaders in Evangelical circles come from campus ministry backgrounds.

Student groups are reproducible, especially if they are student led and student propagated--they generally do not require salaries for staff members (although there are some incredible missionaries who work among students with organizations like CRU, Intervarsity and Navigators), they don't need to spend money on buildings or maintenance, they tend not to be encumbered by strict traditions, liturgies, leadership structures, committees, etc.--this frees them up to do the work of making disciples, which they quickly equip and empower to make even more disciples.

It is no wonder that oftentimes student groups become ineffective when they lose this flexibility. Student groups then are a model for effective church planting. Pastors and church leaders could stand to learn a lot from fruitful student movements. If we want to see church planting movements and people movements begin in the developed world, we need to learn from and partner with successful student movements. This brings to mind a story from history that I will most likely give a full blog-post treatment to in the future:

Student movements are effective incubators for missions.

In the late nineteenth century a hand full of Japanese students were led to faith in Christ at a newly founded college in Hokkaido by a short-term missionary. The missionary returned to the States after eight months but left the young men with a charge, "Boys, be ambitious for Christ!" These young men, led the rest of their student body to the Lord and then went on to become some of the greatest leaders in the fields of education, politics, medicine, economics and religion in the Meiji period.

Sometimes the best thing a missionary can do is get out of the way--and student movements are effective incubators for missions and church planting because they provide an environment in which leaders can be developed without the encumbrance of stifling structures or dependencies.