meaning of missional by Frank Viola

the following was posted on a blog site called futuristguy

1. What does “missional” mean to you?

I found the link on The Blind Beggar and came over here to see what was happening. The post and comments generated a lot of thinking … thanks for an opportunity to synthesize some of what I’d already been pondering for a long time.

After thinking about the meaning of “missional” for at least a year, I think I’m finally getting a handle on the “what,” “so what,” and “now what” of it all. And as it turns out, it’s a much bigger picture than I realized!

To me, “missional” means everyday discipleship that brings our personal presence into all venues where we have influence. This is both individual and corporate – living out and the character of Christ as individuals and Kingdom culture as a community of sojourners among our neighbors and neighborhoods. There will always be a dynamic tension or paradox between missional individuals and community. We cannot sustain being missional on our own, but if we are not being missional individually we cannot sustain being mission-shaped corporately.

Being missional involves being both contextual (relevant in our engagement with these cultures) and countercultural (resistant and challenging to the anti-biblical aspects of these cultures). It neither colonizes (attempts to control the culture or make it conform externally) nor syncretizes (lets the culture control us). Mission-shaped engagement with our neighbors and our/their cultures calls forth expectancy, creativity, and responsibility. It also challenges us to advocate for those who have been victimized, to call out those who perpetrate evil and injustice, and to be present with people in the midst of the mundane moments, pains, and joys of their life.

Living this kind of intentional, mission-shaped life requires us to practice regularly the disciplines of:

GIVING (sharing, blessing, praying),

RECEIVING (listening, asking, thanking), and

PERCEIVING (Who/What did I notice that was a surprise? What do I wish I’d done differently/more Christlike just now? How was the Triune God providentially at work in it?)

Persevering in these disciplines develops our missional consciousness and our conscience.

The practices of giving, receiving, and perceiving help transform us from religious consumers into spiritual-cultural producers. Missional attitudes and actions make an incremental difference in the lives of ourselves and others over time, as we root ourselves into the locales and spheres of influence God providentially graces us with. As Tolstoy said, “True life is lived when tiny changes occur.” So, being missional is about living out an incarnational life of gradual changes in the commonplace activities of each day together. It is about sacrificial obedience that costs, not seeking for super-spiritual or super-supernatural or self-serving experiences that we think will pay off.

2. Do you feel that this is a good word – why or why not?

“Missional” is a fairly good word to use … when applied with understanding of it as a term of spiritual production, not religious consumption. However, many now seem to want to USE the term WITHOUT LIVING by the terms of the term. I have to wonder if their name-it-and-claim-it approach relates more to marketing promotion than to missional paradigms. If they don’t want to use the word appropriately, then they should not use it at all.

This misapplication is very naughty behavior, even if driven by sincere desires to reach people for Christ. Purveyors of missional emptiness ought to be sent to theological time-out until they have repented of their dilution of the term’s terms, meanings, and methods!

3. To your mind, what is the difference between a “missional church” and a “non-missional” church? Give examples if you like.

Oh, oh …now there’s The Big Question: differences between missional church and non-missional church. I’m a researcher on paradigms and cultural systems, so I’ve got a lot of technical blah-blah-blah ideas and reasons on that subject. Let me say the relatively non-technical stuff here, and leave the rest for my blog or somewhere else, sometime else.

I like what Brother Maynard said in his summary of the Missional SynchroBlog in June 2008: “Live your faith. Share your life.” That keeps things integrated and holistic – and that’s the essence of the missional paradigm. The reverse: “Live your life. Share your faith” is reductionist. The essence of non-missional is compartmentalizing – it divides evangelism and missions and discipleship and etc. away from the rest of life.

I’ve blogged about the differences this way:

What makes mission and missional different? Mission requires “incursion” – people commute into the community, and then return to their home turf when they are finished. Missional requires “incarnation” – people root into the community, because that is their home and they never finish.

I also think a key difference lies in the realm of being collaborative producers instead of passive consumers. In non-missional churches, there are deep-level paradigm assumptions that set up surface-level operating systems that block people from being discipled as spiritual producers; they keep people immature religious consumers. And while creativity is definitely a reflection of God’s image in us, I’ve yet to figure out what aspect of God’s personhood or character consumption reflects

distinctions by topher

IHA and ADH

IHA


INCARNATIONAL An incarnational community cooperatively goes into cultures that already exist, and become like them to reach them. They believe that God is already present in these cultures and therefore, their role as missionaries is not to bring God into that group, or take that group out of the culture into a sacred space, but they help others to see how God is already working in and around them in the ordinary as well as the miraculous.
HOLISTIC A holistic community sees God's hand in the ordinary situations of life. They are able to see and understand the prevenient grace of God at work in places that have not been reached by the church. Rather than relying on programs and services to proclaim the gospel, they are able to show the gospel lived out in their ordinary lives and in ordinary situations. People then see a spirituality that is holistic, meaningful, and relevant to their yearnings for an almighty God that meets them where they are at and a church that meets them in the same way- where they are, as they are.
APOSTOLIC An apostolic community recognizes the responsibility that each believer has been given to play a role in the kingdom. Each member is a leader. As each member is living by the two-fold practice of LISTEN & OBEY, they are simultaneously learning how to feed themselves spiritually and be accountable and communal. They therefore, become less reliant on community for spiritual nourishment, while choosing to be involved in community out of obedience, love, accountability, friendship, worship, wisdom, and co-labor-ship. The apostolic community typically shares a common set of "missionary practices." These are spiritual disciplines that provide common ground for the community as well as a means for the members of the community to LISTEN & OBEY. As the members of the community gather, these lifestyle disciplines provide an informal liturgy for the community, with much to share, and much reason to worship the Lord together.



ADH


ATTRACTIONAL An attractional organization seeks to create a spiritually comfortable and sanctified place within a culture that can serve as it's community's hub. They then attempt to invite people into this space, with the hopes of extracting them out of their old community and transplanting them into the new christian community. The focus is on providing alternative 3rd places so that people can meet new friends, and find new clubs, and new activities to be involved with during the week. This type of organization is also sometimes referred to as "EXTRACTIONAL."
DUALISTIC A dualistic paradigm sees the world as divided between the sacred and the ordinary. Although God is in both places, we are expected to encounter him more fully and deeply in the sacred spaces than in the ordinary. This is because sacred spaces are designed for an encounter with God. Through the use of architecture, lighting, artwork, alters, ceremonies, music, etc... these spaces are also protected against unnecessary distractions or possible stumbling blocks that could hinder someone from making a connection with God or with another believer in fellowship.
HIERARCHICAL A hierarchical organization is an organization that is characterized by the separation of clergy and laity. The laity entrust the work of the kingdom to the few qualified leaders, who then provide vision for the laity and the steps necessary to achieve that vision. The clergy (or staff) provide services to the laity which include: the sacred space to meet, a vision for the organization's role in the Kingdom, teaching (in the form of a sunday message, and often classes offered during the week), small group coordination and management, mission trips, counseling, etc...

I recently attended a local Acts 29 workshop for Pastors and church planters. The guest speaker was a guy by the name of Jonathon Dodson. He was a very intelligent dude in his 30's, who brought a huge amount of info to the thirty men sitting. I was able to take some notes and have decided to post his outline while I await the MP3.

The premise (for those in attendance) was to "deconstruct' the way we think and/or do church.

I. Missional Church
What is it?
-Not a church with a mission
All churches have a mission i.e. doctrine, social

A missional church is a church AS a mission, not a church WITH a mission.
So then we must make a conceptual shift between old church and missional church

Vocation
Church WITH a Mission
•what you do
•extraordinary (elitist)
•project forums - event driven

Natural
Church As a mission
•who you are
•optional • essential core
ordinary people
people focus (disciple)


Three things need to happen for shift
•correctional (head)
•practical reorient life back into mission
•effectual
This is not a dichotomy!

Missio dei means the God sender. Mission is an attribute of God, and is not something God does! We must have a better understanding of theology proper. If you want to have a church you must start right now!

Three ways not to be missional

•event driven (consumeristic)
•evangelism driven (soul winning at expense of social renewal)
This has also become answer driven; right spiritual answer, ticket to glory. The right answer does not mean salvation; believing right fact, brings no discernable evidence
• social driven


Missiology syncretized

Syncretistic missiology
•institutional church- forced
•intuitive missional church - natural

Gives example of "gospel conversion" using Colossians 1:3 as proof text.
•Christ
•church
•mission

When planting, you actually don't launch a church, you really launch a service, because doing church as a mission means you are the church already doing the church work in the context of your own life.
You cannot be missional inviting people to hear a sermon 1.5 hrs per week

Quote- 'You are saved into full time ministry, not to go into ministry" Jonathon Dodson

(At this point he gives an example of communal commands. Not necessary to publish this ex.)


Session II.

institutional
pulpit- (all you know)
adopts programs of mission

intuitive missional not rely on teaching preaching alone
repent of old stuff
create a culture of prayer
discern missional leadership patterns bible


Finally, ends session talking about ways to be intuitive in your descriptions of sin and the need for repentance as it relates to our post mod culture.

Quote- ''biblical exegesis is like underwear, it holds everything up"

'' people will complain because their idols are being removed"
(on implementing Missional concept in your church)

I asked who his mentors were? He responds by asking, dead or alive? I say, both.
•John Piper
•Tim Chester
•Abraham Kiper

Recommended Books
•You can change by Tim Chester
•Future of faith by Harvey Hex
•Praying life by Paul Miller