There are many facets of the answer to the question I posed above but let me show you my cards beforehand and say: Missional theology and ministry is important because it gets the Gospel! If this is the case then the trendy label “missional” is at least an accurate description of a key aspect of our Biblical faith and at most an apt synonym for the entire package of Biblical Christianity.
Now, after making such a bold statement the question could legitimately be asked, “If Missional is a buzzword for Biblical Christianity then why the label?” Let me give some background: The modern missions movement begain in the late 1700’s when the renown Reformed Baptist and Father of Modern Missions, William Carey, departed England for India. As he went out and other western missionaries followed his example into the uttermost parts of the Earth they were all forced to come to grips with an aspect of the task they were entrusted with. That is, they were forced to deal with the phenomenon of Culture and in case anyone is wondering, 18th century European and North American culture was in no way similar to the various cultures that met these pioneering missionaries as they spread out over the non-western world. And so, while the essential gospel message that these men and women taught was the same it took different shapes and forms in order to incarnate itself into the local culture. They had discovered essentially what Paul meant when he said:
For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law, that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings
- 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 ESV
As time progressed, Missionaries became more and more skilled at incarnating the gospel into the various cultures to which they were sent and principles began to be developed on how to handle the difficult balance of being faithful to the message and theology of the Gospel and how to dress that message in the clothing of the local people. However, even while these developments were happening in missions, there was an neglect of these principles at home in the Western world. For a long time though, churches were able to continue to preaching and teaching in the ways that they always had while being oblivious to the culture because at its core, Western Society was still firmly rooted in an understanding of the gospel. Christians were oblivious to how to incarnate the gospel because, to a great extent, they didn’t need to.
However, with the increase in Philosophical Skepticism and the increasing advance of Cultural Postmodernism, we in the West are now living in a Post-Christian society and culture. The air we breathe is not the same air that even our Parents or Grandparents grew up breathing and this calls for new ways for the gospel to be articulated in order for it to be brought to bear on our culture. Basically, the Western church is now in desperate need of the incarnational principles that have been developed by missionaries and missions agencies serving in non-western contexts. However, now these ideas and principles are being applied at HOME. There is an enormous need for the church to be missionaries in OUR OWN CULTURE. This is where we get the term “missional”.
One thing I would like to point out is that the Church’s role as “missionaries” in it’s own culture is technically not a new development. This is what the Church has ALWAYS been called to and it is only because it has largely NEGLECTED this mission that we now find ourselves in a position where some who claim the name of Christ are actually hostile to this idea of incarnating the gospel into our own 21st century Western Context. It is only because the fish worked hard enough to convince itself that it wasn’t living in water that it was surprised to wake up one morning feeling wet. But more on that tomorrow…
