What does “missional” mean?

The other day my oldest son was getting ready for a soccer game when a friend of the family came over.  He asked my son if he liked soccer, and our seven-year-old replied, “Yes.  I’m the best at it.”  It really caught me off guard, because he’s usually quite humble.  A couple of seconds later, it became clear that what my son had said wasn’t what he meant.  What he was trying to say was that soccer was his best sport personally.  Rather than comparing himself to all the other soccer players, he was comparing his ability at soccer to his ability at other sports.  We had a laugh and talked about the difference between the two statements.   I have to admit, though, I’ve done the same sort of thing.  Maybe I’ve said something inappropriately, or sometimes I’ve used a word when I thought I knew the meaning, but I really didn’t.

I recently learned that was true for a word I use a lot in the church:  missional.   In the on-line article Defining Missional written by Alan Hirsch a couple of years ago, Hirsch defines the word missional in a new way for me.  Often, when I’ve used the word “missional,” I’ve used it to mean being on a mission, or “doing God’s work in the world.”  But in this article, Hirsch clarifies that the word means “being sent.”  It comes from a Latin term mission Dei, which I always took to mean “mission of God.”  What it really means is the sending of God.  Missional belief, then, is the understanding that God is self-sent into the world in the person of Jesus and continually through the Holy Spirit.

So then, missional living is to live as one “sent out” into the world to embody the God-life, the way of Jesus.  This is radically different from how church has behaved over the last few hundred years.  Often the church has said (in action more often than word), “Come and see.”  Come and see that Jesus loves you.  Come and see that Jesus died for you.  Come and see that the church will meet all of your wants and needs.  The problem is, what happens to those who do not “Come and see”?  Are they stuck until they get the courage to come in the doors?  Or does the church have a responsibility to go, to be sent?

I know the answer may seem evident, but the truth is, it’s easier to wait for people to come.  We can even blame them (“They know we’re here every morning.”).  If I believe that I am to be an imitator of Jesus (a “little Christ”, as Christian literally means), then shouldn’t I live my life as one “sent out”?  What does that even mean?

I saw what that means personally, when I asked an older woman from our group if she’d be willing to help us out.  We’ve been given a great opportunity to serve a local elementary school, and I needed someone to help me coordinate the volunteers and connect them with the needs of the faculty.  When I asked this woman to be the coordinator, she jumped on board wholeheartedly.  Here’s where it gets interesting.  This woman is not originally from this area, and she had been trying and trying to sell her home because she did not feel like she had a purpose here.  When I asked her to take this role on, I told her that we wanted a year commitment, but that I understood if her house sold quicker she’d need to leave.  She told me, “I’ve been trying to figure out why God wants me here.  I really think this is it, and if it is, then I’m not going anywhere.”  Sure enough, she got a call from a contractor wanting to buy her house, and she told him it would have to wait.  WOW!  That’s what it means to know you are sent out!

So I have to ask myself, how would my life change if I started living as a “sent one”?  I think it would mean I’d stop expecting people to “come and see”, and instead I’d find where God is at work (a school, a shelter, my neighbor’s house) and get involved.  What’s stopping me from those changes?  Fear.  Fear of rejection.  Fear of making a mistake.  Fear of living a new way.  What about you?  Where in your world is God wanting to send you?  What’s keeping you from going?  I hope to hear from you.

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