On Facebook, Chris Walton wrote:
Can’t shake the thought that a lot of ‘missional’ church is hipsterism—but, more broadly, that a fundamental dilemma of promoting ‘relevant’ religion is that there’s not much of a common culture to appeal to anymore. A relevant church ends up picking some increasingly small subculture to speak to, and it’s hard to see a way around this.
Thanks for bringing this up, Chris, and giving me permission to quote you! I think a lot of folks are scratching their heads over this.
“Missional” has become a trendy word, and so many are tossing it around, it’s hard to know exactly what it means. And to a certain extent, it will always be that way. A missional church, much like a missionary outpost, is going to look completely different depending on where it is situated and who it is situated to reach out to. I think of Jesuit missionaries Matteo Ricci and Michele Ruggieri going deep into Chinese culture and Confucian wisdom – their churches looked quite different than the churches in Rome.
There is some deep scholarship being done with missionalism (I’ll use that term, rather than missiology, to be specific about the missional church movement, which includes missional theology, missional ecclesiology … and I guess missional missiology, if that doesn’t make one’s eyes cross too much.)
In the same way that if someone is a modern evangelical, they should be familiar with N.T. Wright, there are certain writers in the missional movement who, if someone is serious about this, they should know about. The granddaddy of it all, Lesslie Newbigin, plus Darrell L. Guder, David Bosch, Alan Roxburgh, Craig Van Gelder, Alan Hirsch, Michael Frost and the person who is making it accessible to those who aren’t necessarily in seminary or ministry, Reggie McNeal.
Note to anyone who wants to learn more about missionalism: start with McNeal’s Missional Renaissance, Changing the Scorecard for the Church to get a taste, then get Missional Church, A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America, which is edited by Darrell L. Guder and written by many of the big names, including Guder, Hunsberger, Roxburgh, and Van Gelder.
These writers are coming at this from a theological perspective, not trying to write flashy books about How To Grow Your Church In 10 Easy Steps. All Christian, so those who aren’t will need to be put on their Magic Translating Glasses.
(not available in stores)
Now, as to the charge of hipsterism, that can certainly happen. Missional Christian ministers are awakening to the fact that (gasp) there are people who are turned off by the Christian subculture. (“Water, what water?”) And so they’re trying to strip away the nonessential (really, Jesus didn’t say that pipe organs and hymns from 18th century Germany were necessary), and, like Ricci and Ruggieri, reach those folks who would rather be hanging out at a club.
Hey, hipsters can have a God-shaped hole in their soul, too.
(But I don’t deny there are some hipster churches that are not missional, they’re just places to receive shallow theology and loud, poorly-written music. “Sing one verse of ‘Mighty to Save’ and be sanctified, Dude.”)
So what does this have to do with UUs? I mean, we don’t have a subculture, do we?
(cough cough cough)
Well, we’re all in some subculture, right? The Prius-driving NPR subculture, the big hair and makeup suburban Mommy subculture, the down on the streets, nothing to eat subculture.
So who do we minister to?
Up to the individual. And every church will be different., depending on where they are, and whom they serve.
Do we have fun? Sure. I mean, c’mon, the name “Red Pill Brethren” does not hold deep theological significance.
But that doesn’t mean we’re not serious about what we do. Deeply, missionally, theologically, serious.
Red Pill Brethren 