Saturday, August 11, 2007

Montoya on Missional

In the movie The Princess Bride, one of the characters keeps saying, "Inconceivable." Inigo Montonya responds, "You keep saying that word. But I don't think it means what you think it means."

I feel the same about how many are using the word "missional."

It is often confused with the church growth/seeker sensitive/purpose driven movement. Many see it as a fresh way to get more people coming to church on Sunday and to get them more involved in church programs.

Others are attracted to the philosophy of missional Christianity, but they can only think about it terms of the CG/SS/PD paradigm.

In an attempt clarify the difference between these two schemas, I have put together the following chart:

CG/SS/PD

Missional

Attractional

Incarnational

Programs

Relationships

Structured

Organic

Results oriented

Service oriented

Goal driven

Opportunity centered

Culture: marketing tool

Culture: arena for ministry

Charismatic leader

Empowering leadership

Staff-dependent ministry

Lay-initiated ministry

Centralized expertise

Distributed expertise

High "overhead"

Low "overhead"

Evangelism program

Gospel-saturated living

Excellence

Authenticity

Conversion

Transformation

Sign up for heaven

Follow Christ as Master

Bounded set

Centered set


At least that's how I see it. What do you think?

Pastor Rod

"Helping You Become the Person God Created You to Be"

2 comments:

M. Pease said...

Hi again;

I think that one of the problems with the word missional, is that we have a tendency to hear it in militaristic terms. Like in "Mission Impossible", one is given a task to accomplish in a given time with certain resources and against certain odds.

In the Kingdom of God however, missional implies a lifestyle that produces a new kind relationship with the world that reflects our relationship with our Creator, Savior and Lord.

Anonymous said...

Excellent... If I hear "missional" refer to a seeker sensitive church one more time... I mean they're almost polar opposites. Such a great concept being ruined by language.