Being Missional

Excerpt:

‎The earliest known usages of the term “missional” occurred in 1883 in C.E. Bournes’ The Heroes of African Discovery and Adventure and then in 1907 in W.G. Holmes’ The Age of Justinian and Theodora.

Figure of a Missional Perspective (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The meaning of the term has changed enough that neither of these occurrences embodies the way it is used today. Today, the term missional is commonly used in conversations among Christians. As it has grown in popularity, however, it raises some theological concerns, challenges, and opportunities.
‎

The defining missiological debate in mission history has been the relationship between “church and mission,” which has become a catalyst for three dimensions of missional: missionary, mission, and the missio Dei. …

Barry, J. D., Grigoni, M. R., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Mangum, D., & Whitehead, M. M. (2012). Faithlife Study Bible. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.

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“The missiological consensus that Newbigin focused on our situation may be summarized with the term missio Dei, ‘mission of God.’”  

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“Is the church’s mission primarily the delivery of the message of the gospel—in which case the verbal element is all that really matters? Or does the church’s mission include the embodiment of the message in life and action? Sometimes this question is raised as the tension between proclamation and presence. Or between words and works. We will explore the integration of what the church is meant to be as well as what the church is meant to say.” (The Mission of God's People: A Biblical Theology of the Church's Mission, p. 30).

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• Mission Is The Telos Of Theology (kwiyanifiles.wordpress.com)
  To say that theology “comes out of mission” makes perfect sense to me as someone who engaged theology via the route of missiology.
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  mission is not just the mother of theology. Mission is also the telos [purpose, goal, and end] of theology.
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  Good theology is born out of mission, but it also dies for mission Thus, I suggest, missio Dei might be the main purpose of theology. Of course, theology is more than just an academic discipline geared to enlighten and educate the mind. It is a spiritual exercise that enhances and serves mission. It is time for a mission-shaped theology (not just a missional theology or a theology of mission) to begin to take root.
  
• Umunthu as Missio Dei (kwiyanifiles.wordpress.com)
  A person, in the umunthu sense of the word, is one who humanizes others through selfless and sacrificial generosity.
• What Does it Look Like to be Missional? (thehighcalling.org)
  Much of the buzz about missional ministry is found among young church planters and consultants in new missional networks, like Missio Alliance, Forge, Missio, Verge Network, Acts 29 Network, and GCM Collective. I’ve been interacting with missional church leaders for the past nine years, ever since I started my previous website, Vanguard Church, which Friend of Missional named a “Catalyst for Missional.” So even old goats like me have been involved.
  But more importantly, the idea that churches should be “missional” has been around for a long time and has been articulated by some very thoughtful theologians and practitioners.
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  Do I see my work as a means to worship God? Am I thankful to him for the gifts, skills, and talents he has given me? Do I thank him for giving me opportunity to serve him in all that I do? Do I intentionally pray that God could use me and my work to bring him glory?

To whom do we want to be enslaved

Be enslaved to Christ

Name tags of two of . Created by Saaby. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In our search to come some where or to accomplish something it can well be that we do try to find solutions in human organisations. We try to clinch to those who seem to have the power to make everything work better.

Perhaps we are blinded and do not notice the reality behind the curtain. We want to believe those organisations would be able to create what we are not (yet) able to do, and we show them are weakness, but by doing that we also give them the assurance they can go ahead and take charge over us.

By putting our hopes and aspirations on those human constructions we perhaps forget to see the real man behind it all, or the man in whom we should better trust more.  Though we may try to follow Jesus not seeing any advancement around us, in this world, the danger looks around the corner that we go and clinch more to those human organisations instead of trusting in the cornerstone of the Church and in his Father, Who calls those Who He wants to be with Him.

But by not having patience enough, we do think human people could bring a solution. Normally they could help, yes. Normally people should help to continue missionary work, and getting people to come together to share the Word of God. In this world we do often forget that it is ruled not by Christ yet and not by God but by the powers of this world, where so many are being tempted to have a taste of such power.

Getting doors slammed against our face, undergoing several trials, it is up to us to get up after falling and to try to continue our way, in the name of Christ, and not in the name of such or such organisation. Our hope and our eyes should not be on those worldly organisations nor on worldly-things but on the spiritual and on the powers which are above all human power.

Hopefully we have found that answer and are among those who “followed him”, making our lives count in some meaningful ways, according to our abilities, in the way we follow him.

A last thought: “whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved” (2 Peter 2:19). Let us be enslaved to Christ; remember, it is not possible to be only half committed....

Each of us has to make the choice to whom we wanted to be connected and in which way we want to be united. We should find each other in love to be willing to be united under Christ willing to grow as a part of his body, and to become one in spirit with him (1 Corinthians 6:17; 12:27; Ephesians 5:30)

As son and daughters we should give each other the outstretched hand of peace and co-operation, with the aim to help each other to become one in Christ (Galatians 3:26, 28)

It is in Christ we should be willing to grow, giving ourself up as a volunteer to become a tool in  God’s workmanship ‐‐ His handiwork ‐‐ born anew in Christ to do his work (Ephesians 2:10) Hand in hand with brethren and sisters in Christ we should feel connected, not being slaves of this world or bounded by handcuffs to one particular organisation here on earth, but as free fellow citizens with the rest of God’s family (Ephesians 2:19)


In case we do have to be enslaved to somebody, or have to be a prisoner of, than it should be Jesus  Christ, the Nazarene man who liberated us from all chains. (Ephesians 3:1, 4:1)

As children of God we should come to see who is our brother and who is our sister,  and accept them with their own peculiarities, living under a new law, not made by man from  worldly organisations, but by a Supreme Being. A higher law and a more glorious dispensation.  By faith we receive it and should embrace it,  no longer walking after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

Everything we do should not be for our own glory or for the glory of one particular worldly organisation. We should be a product of the Spirit and this Holy Spirit, the Power of God should find a welcoming place in our hearts. We should be willing to give ourselves so that the Holy Spirit can abide in us and that we are offering ourselves for His glory and no longer for our own.  (1 John 5:4)

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