Missional
Missional is my new favourite Christian buzz-word. It seems like it’s all around me: on blogs, at conferences, in books and even coming out of the mouths of my friends. It means that sharing Christ [old buzz word = evangelism] is not just a program, or an event, or even a vocation, but a lifestyle for every follower. It goes like this: 1. A Christian becomes an authentic expression of Christ within his/her own culture, then, 2. People are naturally attracted to Christ and want to become followers, too.
Of course it’s not a new idea - it comes from the Bible and missionaries have been talking about it for decades using a different word: contextualization. I’m all for it but I’m a little worried that another cool sounding word is glossing over a difficult proposition.
When Jesus got missional or incarnational [another cool buzzword] it meant God was submitting Himself to pain, stress, trama, torture, and murder. Hmm, that means being Jesus to my friends is probably going to be a little more sacrificial than dressing like them and buying them coffee.