Missional Fanaticism

Since the birth of Josiah a week and a half ago I’ve had just enough energy and short spurts of time to be catching up on some blog reading. The articles I’ve read along with some specific recent conversations have led me to some lingering thoughts regarding the idea and definition of what it means to be “missional”.

In the blogosphere and in some churches I’m seeing many utilize and customize the term to the point to where it is becoming as amorphous as “emerging”. I tend to agree with many definitions out there and observe many who are faithfully living out their unique role in God’s mission. However, just as many seem to be living the life more accurately described as a "fan" of missional. After several years of following the emerging conversation (which at its essence I believe is a healthy movement of ecclesial renewal) I watched a similar accumulation of people I would only consider fans.

I’m getting this idea of fanaticism from a snippet out of Dallas Willard’s Renovation of the Heart in which he says,

Fanaticism ---in art, politics, sports, or religion, to name some of the main kinds--- is the result of inherently meaningless lives becoming obsessed with performance and trying to take all of their existence into it. Being a fan of… is treated as something deep and important. Because those who do this do not have a whole soul directing their lives toward good, rooted in God, they allow a “flow” they find outside themselves to take over their thoughts, feelings, behavior, and social relations. That flow intoxicates them. They absolutize the flow and no longer subject it to ordinary tests of truth, reality, and tried and true human values.

(Renovation of the Heart, 203)

I call out this “fanaticism” because one of my favorite missional mantras, “lower the bar on church and raise the bar on discipleship” I find far too often is not being taken seriously enough. I guess my hope would be that instead of so many asking “What is missional?” more would be asking “What is discipleship?”

I continue to lean heavily on Alan Hirsch who I often hear reiterating that our missiology is birthed out of our theology. We are missional because of the missio dei-the mission of God. Our mission to the world derives from God’s missional nature which is realized most clearly in the incarnation, Jesus Christ imbedding himself in the world with us. So, missional is taking on a missionary posture living incarnationally in our unique contexts.
And we take much of our missional instruction from the Great Commission, “…go and make disciples.” And it’s not the “go”-ing that concerns me, it’s the making of disciples where I believe we fall quite short. I personally feel the “go”-ing has become quite the sexy way of being christian. It’s cool now to sit in the pub and share a beer with our pagan friends and toss around the missional word in our churches without really following through on Jesus’ main concern… the making of disciples.

Our souls require something much deeper than being mere fans of missional living. The soil of our soul is rich, made in the image of God and full of potential but unless it’s turned, worked, cultivated, watered, the seeds remain on the surface and the fruit doesn’t mature.

I think what I’m using too many words to say here is this, alongside all of the conversation involving a renewal in mission or what it means to be missional there must be an equal emphasis in the spiritual disciplines practiced by the author and creator of the mission. Encouraging one another to not just participate as fans but rather to regularly practice silence and solitude, prayer and fasting, and real investment to the poor and oppressed will neutralize the trendy or sexy intrigue of being missional. Missional is about teaching people to fish, to feed themselves... about reproducing "little Christ's".

Another attempt at summary... Becoming a disciple of the Incarnation requires we be imbedded in culture investing in the least, last, and lost. It also means that along with imbedding ourselves in culture we sustain our saltiness by practicing and passing on the inner life habits modeled by the Incarnation.

Comments

[Wes Roberts]

...good works

...stimulating thought

...keep the post

...and go get 'em!!!

[Wes Roberts]

...I meant good words

... :-)

[Trevor Lee]

First, nice pic at the top, being a dad is awesome! I want to comment on one part of your post.

"And it’s not the “go”-ing that concerns me, it’s the making of disciples where I believe we fall quite short. I personally feel the “go”-ing has become quite the sexy way of being christian. It’s cool now to sit in the pub and share a beer with our pagan friends and toss around the missional word in our churches without really following through on Jesus’ main concern… the making of disciples."

I wholeheartedly agree that discipleship is where we fall short. We've been trained to believe that "losing" people is the worst thing that can happen so we make everything as easy and comfortable as possible. But this has the disasterous effect of making disciples who don't look much like Christ at all. Part of the reason we're pursuing an organic/missional church is that I think it provides the best potential for raising the bar on discipleship.

My other thought is that I haven't seen that it is cool now to sit and have a beer with a pagan friend. I wonder if this is a difference between the West and the Midwest or if the longer we're involved in missional ways of living (where this is encouraged and perhaps cool) the more it seems acceptable. I still see most Christians who aren't aware they are sent and even if they are, they aren't too excited about it.

Great stuff Ryan!

[+ Alan]

Good words Ryan. Congratulations on the baby Josiah by the way! This whole "missional" thing, as much as I'm keeping up with it, seems to be becoming a bandwagon of sorts for people to jump onto. As the "emerging" bandwagon isn't as sexy as it used to be, a new one is coming around - MISSIONAL! Awesome! And that's not that helpful I don't think. As much as it is being used of viewed like that, it will also fade away.

I like your connection there to the general Misseo Dei - God's Mission to us, to the whole world. Seems to me that's just it. It doesn't have to be given a special name, it just is a part of our nature if we are a part of His Nature. Now, we more or less participate in it, just like anything else. A problem is (maybe) that we aren't seeing this mission as being toward us - but toward someone else and us being the givers of it. That'll flat short-circuit things right there.

The mission of God IS our full and complete transformation into our good old Human selves again. And as we are so transformed, we can and will be a part of the transformation of others. But it continues to be aimed at us as well, ourselves, not just some poor, dirty guy on the corner - poor thing. We're poor, dirty folks in our own right as well.

Maybe I'm saying, partly, that this is all just regular Christian life stuff. It's about being formed into His Image and participating in the formation of others as well. That's it. That's always been going on in the Church in some way or another. OK, that's enough from me. Peace to you and your family.

[Ryan Taylor]

In response to TL, I suppose if I rewrote it I'd talk more about the idea of balance emphasizing the importance of not leaving either the going or disciple making behind. I guess I had my circle in mind when it comes to the lack of intentional discipleship happening. I agree with you, in general, mid-west does feel much more like old christendom than the west which makes it more difficult for church goers to leave their safety zones.
In response to Kentucky Al, Yes, it is just regular Christian life stuff especially to monks like you. At the same time whether I conveyed it here or not, I'm in agreement with Hirsch, that in general, westerners do need to re-boot their sense of calling and mission in the world. And to emphasize this ain't christendom no more around here.
Thanks for commenting dudes. Love you both!

[Doug Nolte]

"missional is taking on a missionary posture living incarnationally in our unique contexts."

I think that in the Mid-west there is a thirst for discipleship. We have more preachers than pastors. . . we hear from the pulpit what we do wrong in Gods eyes, rather than how much God desires us. . . sinners from birth. I am a stunted Christian that is just learning to grasp the concept of Grace. That is what the buckle of the Bible belt will do to you!

The mission field is very fertile for discipleship here. I imagine that sitting in a pub in Denver Colorado looks much different than sitting in a bar in a small farm community in Kansas.

You will definitely be missional to those in the bar in Kansas, but you might be stoned by the local "Pharisee branch" waiting to "witness" to you just outside.

I guess what I am saying is that the "unique context" of our landscape is so important to consider. What works in Denver may not work in Wichita. . . how we work within our circle of influence is so important.

How do I work within my community of agriculture and manufacturing, those that have grown up in the church, jaded by the church and given up on the church? Seems so many of our talented young leaders seem to drift to the "sexier" cities. . .

. . . come to Kansas, you'll be blown away!

DN

[Ryan Taylor]

Doug, thanks for the comments and kudos for you for sticking it out in Kansas. Are you pastoring there?
I agree there are some vast contextual differences between America's city centers and the more rural environments. This is something I'd like to see blogged about more. I once heard Tim Kellar speak on this and say that LA or New York in terms of philosophy and attitude was more like Hong Kong than say rural Kansas or Indiana.
But being from rural Indiana I'm still struck at the differences in posture and attitude between Denver and back were I grew up.

[Doug Nolte]

No, I don't pastor a church. . . I am a cop! Go figure. . .

Also, I hope my comments were not taken negative. . .that wasn't my intent at all. I am learning that there is a different way to do community in today's church.

I was a product of a conservative christian church. I don't throw the baby out with the bath water, lots of talk about sin allowed me to address my need for a savior, but a little light on grace, and thus when someone sinned, it was how bad and as wrong as it is, the attitude was "at least I didn't do that." Yikes. .. .

So, in my typical fashion, I learned about grace from the school of hard knocks. . .I believe it was Paul that told us that the more sin, the more grace. . . yeah. . . it really is true! I became a regular to your blog after reading the walking wounded post. . . you nailed it on the head.

I think that people need Christ in such a significant way but many of us are bogged down with the rules, we forget that there really are only two. Love God first and love others next. . .

[Ryan Taylor]

Appreciate your comments Doug and no the comments were not taken negatively.
I appreciate your comments about not throwing the baby out because I've found that if your like those of us who were raised in borderline fundamentilist environments, it's easy to allow yourself to swing to the extreme other direction and test just how much we can get by with in God's grace. Thats a relevant tension for me at times.
It's been interesting that the older I get, the more I feel like the Kingdom is not about behavior. Righteous living is supposed to be a fruit of following Jesus but not the point in and of itself.
Any chance you might come out the Tangible Kingdom conference in October?

[A Twitter User]

I wanted to come to the conference, but I will be at a Wild at Heart Boot Camp. . .

I am really intrigued and interested in how I can be encouraging this kind of atmosphere among our groups.

Reading the Intangible Kingdom, I found myself chuckling at how churches are using small groups to engage people. However, we typically find those that are most like us. So, we become just a mini click. . .not allowing anyone else in.

The more I go towards Jesus, the more convinced I am that the people he hung out with were the most unique, unlikely group. Rich, poor, black and white. . . .if they would follow, he would lead.

I like what you say about behavior. If we focus on behavior we lose what Christ did on the cross. It also sets us up to be our own god. I was recently asked, "is sin(behavior) something we do or something we are? I quickly affirmed "what we do. . ." but in and of myself I am a sinner, I will continunally sin. I can't change that behavior by myself. I am only able to by the grace of God. So, my behavior will always be suspect. But, my Savior covered my sins on the cross.

[Richie "Rich" Merritt]

Great Post Ryan!

I am a future church planter, and our goal is discipleship from day 1 - it will be in our DNA. Mission Statement - "Tranformed People, Transforming the World". Folks become transformed via discipleship and via doing. Balance is the key. I have ordered all of Bill Hull's books on discipleship; can you offer any other ideas?

By the way, I ran across your blog via the Missio website. I'll keep checkin on ya! Thanks for the insight!