Exponential Conference 2011 #2

Missionally oriented Christology, Ecclesiology, and Theology: Well, unless you have been under a rock for the past few years, you have probably heard the word "Missional" tossed around when it comes to religion, Christian spirituality, and ecclesiological exploration. It seems to me that the word has been circulated rather liberally in recent years in an almost faddish kind of way... which seems a tad odd, since, in the truest sense of the word (whatever that is), to be missional should probably be a core anchor point for any Christian pilgrim or pioneer.... I know I have tossed it around several thousand times and consider myself to have a missional spirit. Definitions aren't hard to come by, in fact the word was defined and re-defined by nearly every person that spoke this week. A couple of macro level notions lingered in my head during my time in Orlando... 1) I haven't traveled the globe much, but in my travels to China, Mexico, and Central America, I came away with the sense that North American Christianity has cornered the market on the compartmentalization of mission and 'evangelism.' In other areas of the world it seems that there is little separation between reaching out to the least, the last, and the lost... and sharing a bit about why it is that we do what we do. While we, in the US, have labored assiduously throughout the 20th century to ensure an impenetrable divide between mission and evangelism, our brothers and sisters around the orb seem not to distinguish between the two except in cases where western religion has plagued indigenous people groups and their expressions of faith and spirituality. Perhaps one element of being "Missional" is to not separate how we care, help, and love from why we care, help, and love. 2) One frustration that I can't seem to shake is the reality that it is impossible for mainline denominations to be truly "Missional" in nature. Deep within our DNA is a strand of institutionalization that prevents us from being anything but institutional as we move forward through time... and by being institutional in nature we forfeit any possibility of living into any other "ional." When movement gave way to institution, our primary rhythm became self-preservation... and as the Right Reverend Amy Lippoldt once tweeted, "once you become an institution, you can never go back to being a movement." (that's a bit of a paraphrase) Perhaps our fate has been sealed... we have proven over and over again that we can "do" mission, but doing mission and being missional are worlds apart. The way I understand the narratives of the bible... we are invited by God to explore Christology, Ecclesiology, and Theology through a "missional" lens... our current practical exploration of those three elements has us peering through an institutional lens fogged over with a polity that demands primary attention toward self-preservation. I am left wondering if it was a dynamic like this that prompted John Wesley to initiate a movement....