Missional has become a buzzword in Christianity. It often times is a "junk drawer word" used to describe whatever way, you think the church is sucking and needs to be better. But no one seems to know what it actually means to be "missional". The following are three interpretations of the word "missional" that people tend to exit off the "missional highway".
Exit 1= It means missionary, which means contextualization. In other words, we just need to learn the culture and communicate well in the culture--this means "missional".
Exit 2= Mission. We need to be focused on the mission of conversion and transformation. What good is it to give some one a cup of cold water without the message of reconciliation. This means "missional".
Exit 3=Missio Dei, Kingdom. Social justice is what "missional" means. We need to take care of the poor and needy.
What i find interesting is that every book I read on the church exits the highway off one of these exits based on their eschatology (view of the end times). It seems to me that all three of these aspects are in fact what it looks like for the church to hold the keys of the kingdom. The church is not the kingdom, but is God's instrument to live in the now and not yet kingdom. Jesus is coming back, but he has also already been here. He inaugurated his kingdom, but it is now, and not yet. I have been convicted in realizing I love the idea of being a missionary about the mission, but have had a reserved heart towards the kingdom. I do not believe we will create a utopia, and then Jesus will say, "great job, now I will come rule my kingdom". Psalm 2 is clear in that Jesus will come back with a "can of stomp" before perfect peace is ushered in. Peter also tells us that the times are going to get worse, not better. I think because of this understanding of the kingdom being now, and not yet, we fail to care about the now.
I think we need to repent of our throwing around a word that often times has no meaning to us whatsoever.
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