I just had a most stimulating conversation with my rock-on-on-the-Rock friend Dave about “the meaning of missional.” Among other things, Dave asked me for a my one-sentence definition of missional. “Hah-HAH!” say I. ”I am likely to be working on that one the rest of my days!” Nevertheless, here are highlights of what I synthesized about my own perspective as we talked, and the post-con burblings of my brain in the minutes thereafter.
I see missional as an entire paradigm – a comprehensive construct that integrates all our thinking with all our doing. It is not just some outreach strategy or methodological model or set of trendy tips for new-cool-ministry. Paradigms replace each other, they don’t just serve as patch-ups for one another – that would be putting old wineskin methodologies onto new paradigm wineskins, and it will bust the bottle. (I know I mixed my metaphors, but hey – that was just a tricky attempt to illustrate the problem of trying to mix old with new, and match new wine with old wineskins!)
These days, we don’t have to go that far anymore to be “missionaries,” but we can still do that from at least two distinct perspectives: as “a mission” or as “being missional.” And, the way I see it, the ministry paradigm that best fits the current juxtaposition between global cultures as they are emerging and biblical Kingdom culture as has always been the goal manifested by transformed people groups is the missional paradigm – not the mission(s) paradigm.
In more traditional jargon, mission is a noun. “A mission” or “missions” constitute organized efforts to reach a particular community with a specific program, for instance, as with “a rescue mission” or “international missions.” Mission often involves some people who live in that community, supplemented by outside volunteers who provide a supply line of personal help, goods, and/or money. In emerging jargon, missional is an adjective. “Being missional” is a lifestyle of spontaneous activities that make sense in a particular community (e.g., neighborhood, coworkers) because of an intentional commitment to be involved with that group of people for the long haul. And so – with that three paragraphs of introduction, here is my current three-sentence “definition” of missional.
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.
P.S. I will be picking up on these ideas soon as I return to my Missional SynchroBlog post on Paradigm Profiling in The Missional Zone (Part 1) to share ideas about why some paradigms, operating systems, and methodological models do not qualify as missional, despite their purveyors holding a sincere concern for reaching people through mission(s). And I may even start sharing more of where I believe the missional paradigm could [needs to] shift to become even more biblically comprehensive and holistic. So – stay tuned for more perspectives from paradigm analysis … but first, must finish up a post on power for the series on Recovery from Spiritual Abuse.
July 10, 2008 at 11:24 am
The fun thing is that there are some missionaries who go on mission and mean to be missional. I have dear friends whose children represent the fourth generation of missional missionaries…they come here to visit and raise support and all, but their homes are over there.
The first generation, Great-grandpa/ma Morse, when to Tibet in 1921, and had all their teeth pulled and dentures made — projecting that they would not be able to get dental care where they were going….
It was an honor to be able to serve with them, even if I was just part of their “mission” and returned to the States after two years. My “missional” epic is just beginning … and has required pulling some “spiritual teeth” to make things less crowded, straighter and stronger.
….didn’t I speak about spiritual “orthodontia” back when we were doing the whole “ortho” thing a while back. LOL!
July 19, 2008 at 11:55 am
What is meant by culturology? Is it the study of culture? What method do you employ?
July 21, 2008 at 6:54 am
Hi Toby, and thanks for dropping by.
Yes, by “culturology,” I mean the study of culture, but in a different way than you’d find defined for this term on wikipedia or elsewhere. For me, it’s sort of the fusion or integration of research approaches from social sciences, arts and humanities, and studies of the future. My overall method is to analyze cultures from a paradigm perspective, like what I laid out in Paradigm Profiling in The Missional Zone (Part 1) for the Missional SynchroBlog.
By analyzing where a specific culture comes from at its deepest levels, I can (hopefully) understand why they believe what they do, organize the ways they do, and practice the lifestyles that fit with those premises. This approach also allows me to predict and investigate the specific areas of difference that lead to culture clash between groups, or cause culture shock for a member of one group when he/she enters the other culture. And, by comparing a culture’s current status with emerging long-term trends that I discover using research and projection techniques from futurist studies, I can suggest whether this culture has the potential to sustain and thrive, the probability to decline and die, or some possibilities to transform and survive.
To get an overview of what I mean by culturology, probably the best way is to check out the Reader’s Guide to Futuristguy page, the section on culturology and the cross-references there to other sections. Plus the first post on Paradigm Profiling.
Hope that helps, and thanks again for your dropping in!
January 2, 2009 at 9:07 am
[...] I’ve blogged about the differences this way: [...]