Missional: From Isolation to Multiplication

Missional is a big catch-word in church growth circles these days, and in the SBC.  In conversation with some friends recently, I suggested that maybe the divide between many churches was ideological in part and could be defined along a missional line, ie. missional verses non-missional churches.  The problem, as pointed out in that conversation, is that no church will admit to being non-missional, and most (if not all) Baptist churches would claim defiantly that they are missional.  Yet, the nature of our own Southern Baptist Convention screams otherwise.  As a denomination in decline, it is obvious that the majority of our churches are not reaching people for the gospel, and yet, we continue to claim to be missional.  What is needed is a clear definition of what it means to be missional.  Mark Driscoll has said “Without a clear definition of what a missional church community is and does, tragically, community will become the mission of the church” (Mark Driscoll, Confessions of a Reformission Rev. p. 32).

I think Driscoll is correct, so what does it mean to be truly missional, and can the rifts in our denomination (and even in evangelicalism) really be defined along these lines?  If so, can we right the ship of the SBC and of evangelicalism by appealing to all churches to refocus around the missional claims of the gospel?  Jurgen Moltmann is helpful here:

It is not the church that has a mission of salvation to fulfill in the world; it is the mission of the Son and the Spirit through the Father that includes the church (Jurgen Moltmann, The Church in the Power of the Spirit: A Contribution to Messianic Ecclesiology, London: SCM Press, 1977, 64).

In other words, the church exists because of the mission of God, not vice versa. To be missional, first and foremost, means to understand one’s place in the big scheme of God’s mission. Churches exist to fulfill the missio Dei (mission of God), not to fulfill the mission of the SBC or the mission of the local church. The local church and denomination are true to the call of God only in as much as they are committed to the mission of God over and above their own mission or comfort level. Unfortunately, many of our churches have transitioned from a gospel center to a community center. Rather than rallying around the Great Commission, we are rallying around fellowship and community. There is opposition, not to global missions so much, but to local missions such as church planting because “a new missional community might hurt my church.”

And, as go the churches, so goes the convention.  As referenced in my previous article, Is the SBC Another Example of Church Decline, churches (and denominations) in decline have a natural tendency to turn inward in isolation and protectionism instead of outward in missions.  As a convention, we must rally around a firm definition of what it means to be missional and encourage our churches to live out that vision.  A missional church does more than give to mission causes and go on mission trips, a missional church serves its community grounded firmly in the word of God in culturally relevant ways (See Ed Stetzer and Mike Dodson, Comeback Churches).  It is not fair to say that all missional churches are growing because some churches are truly being missional and are not seeing the blessing of God (though i would be that number is small), but it is probably fair to say that all growing churches are missional.

Ed Stetzer says that missional churches are biblically founded and culturally relevant. This is a great definition and one that gives us a great foundation, but it is not enough. Not only are they biblically based and culturally relevant, missional churches recognize their role is to be part of God’s mission, they are not God’s mission in and of themselves. This understanding will lead churches to cooperate for the sake of the gospel.

The GCR may very well be good for the SBC, but only if it engenders further cooperation for the sake of the gospel and if it helps us as Southern Baptists to remember that the SBC must play a part in fulfilling the Great Commission, but the SBC alone is not the only chosen vessel of God. We have a part to play in glocal evangelism, but only a part. The GCR must lead us to understand that multiplication trumps isolation in the local church and even in denominational life. Thus, we are better able to accomplish the Great Commission, not only if we have better churches, schools, and denominations, but if we have MORE churches, schools, and even (dare I say) denominations rallying together for the sake of the gospel.

This is a picture of the “missional” communities of the book of Acts, and I believe that multiplication is a key in understanding what it means to be missional today.

Related Post: Church Death and Decline in Real Numbers.