“Missional” Misses the Point Again

Here's an interesting point of view from David Foster (DavidFoster.tv)

There’s a brand new word bouncing around the church world. It’s the word, “missional.” It’s one of those made up words; a word that someone felt they needed to use to say something different about the way things are. But here’s the truth. “Missional” misses the point. Or maybe I miss the point.

People tell me “missional” means that the church ought to get out of its buildings and live like Christians in the real world. How is this a new idea? It’s the same idea that Jesus taught and the church has been teaching for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years. I’ve heard this since I was a child.

But what’s different in the “missional” movement is that they now somehow want us to believe that being “missional” is superior to being “attractional;” that going to be the church is more important than gathering in worship to be the church. If you ask me, missional and all of these new-fangled words are just more extremes, and missing the true point.

And the point is simply this: the church is not the church if all she does is gather in a building on Sunday and sing and preach to itself. The church is not the church if all she does is meet in Starbucks, and in homes in small groups, and rakes leaves of their neighbors. The church is the church when she gathers to worship and when she goes in service.

Maybe it’s a misunderstanding of the Great Commission because in the original language, the Great Commission is not “go, as though we wouldn’t be going, in all the world and make disciples.” It should be read, “as we are going.”

One of the constants of God’s people has always been to gather. And we’ve gathered everywhere: in tents, in buildings, in secret, in public, in arenas. In America we gather in theatres, in funeral homes, hotels, warehouses, schools, anywhere it’s big enough for God’s people to gather and worship. This is constant. This is essential. Gathering is important.
Attractional is essential. Did you hear me? It’s essential.

So let’s stop this hybrid idea that going to be the church somehow makes us deeper and more profound than gathering. We are both attractional and missional at the same time. Both deserve our concern because they receive equal emphasis in the Scripture.

Maybe I feel this so deeply because I’ve recently been criticized in an article for being too attractional, and for that I will not apologize. Gathering people, Christians or non-Christians, together in order to worship and adore God, to learn His word; to gather to find hope in a dark and weary world is a good thing. It’s a God thing. It’s a thing we do 52 times every year, and will continue to do. But I also must confess that if all we do is meet, we’ve missed the point.

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This was written by David Foster. Posted on Monday, November 10, 2008, at 3:39 am. Filed under Advancing The Church, Blog. Bookmark the permalink. Follow comments here with the RSS feed. Post a comment or leave a trackback.