Tag: whatismissional

Missional – Not Just for Hipsters

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.

Changing the Scorecard quotes from Missional Renaissance

“The rise of the missional church is the single biggest development in Christianity since the Reformation.”

“Going missional will require that you make three shifts, both in your thinking and in your behavior: From internal to external in terms of ministry focus; from program development to people development in terms of core activity; from church-based to kingdom-based in terms of leadership agenda.”

“These three shifts call for a new scorecard for the missional church. The typical church scorecard (how many, how often, how much) doesn’t mesh with a missional view of wwhat the church should be monitoring in light of its mission in the world. The current scorecard rewards church activity and can be filled in without any reference to the church’s impact beyond itself.”

“A church in Ohio passes up the option to purchase a prime piece of real estate that would allow it to build a facility to house its multisite congregation. Instead, it votes not to spend $50 million on church facilities but to invest the money in community projects…New expressions of church are emerging. One pastor has left a tall=steepled church to organize a simple neighborhood gathering of spiritual pilgrims. He is working at secular employment so that he doesn’t have to collect monies to support a salary; rather, he and his colleagues are investing in people on their own street….Another entrepeneurial spiritual leader has opened up a community center with a church tucked inside of it. He has a dozen other ministries opeerating in the shared space.” [Hmm. that last sentence sounds familiar to what we are doing.]

“The missional church renaissance is not occurring in a vacuum. Just as in the fifteenth century, larger social forces are at work that conspire to create conditions ripe for this kind of development. The confluence of three significant cultural phenomena is fueling the current collaboration and creativity: 1. the emergence of the altruism economy; 2. the search for personal growth; 3. the hunger for spiritual vitality.”
Reggie McNeal

What is “missional”?

To borrow from Christian writer, Bill Kinnon, missional is incarnational, positional, and relational.

However we understand The Divine Mystery, we know that we are its hands and feet. It is up to us to incarnate the values we want to see in the world.

We are to position ourselves out in the world, meeting people where they are – in their neighborhoods, workplaces, bars, etc.

We are to have relationship with others – not just “like-minded” people or people who might want to join our churches. Many of the people we minister to will never walk into a Unitarian Universalist church, will never sign the membership book. But we are called to extend kindness and love our neighbor.

I have a friend who is a missional minister who plays poker once a week. One day, one of the guys at his table introduced him to another as “This is my spiritual advisor.” My friend looked confused. “Bob, you’ve never once set foot in my church."  "Yeah,” said the guy. “But what do you think you’re doing when you’re here?”

We try to “go to church” wherever we are. Letting our lives speak. Looking for ways to help others. Using our individual, unique gifts to minister to others – whether we are called Reverend, Candidate, Board Member, or just Joe. We are all ministering.

And being wholly transformed ourselves, in the process.