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It has always been interesting to me how limiting language can be. Similar terms are used by individuals when they are meaning completely different things. We live in a world where we constantly have to "define" what we mean by terms that we use (just call someone a "fundamentalist" and see what kind of reaction you get).
Some words also end up carrying a bunch of baggage with them that really shouldn't be there - but somehow finds its way into becoming a stumbling block. The term "missional" is one of those. Yes, I know that for many this term is tiresome and simply a fad, for others it carries all kinds of baggage, and for others it's simply what we as believers and churches are all called to be. We are comfortable with missions, but somehow skeptical of being missional.
The more I observe, read about, talk to others, and experience the significant "disconnect" between the church and the culture in which we live, the more I muse about how much more missional we must become. As Don Posterski notes, instead of being "in the world but not of the world", we have done the seemingly impossible, inverting Jesus' dictum to become "of the world but not in the world".
Bishop Lesslie Newbigin has appropriately challenged the churches of the West to look at our own contexts as missionary settings and to be as rigorous about what that must mean for our own missionary life as we have been about mission done elsewhere. We are only too painfully aware that we live in critical mission field all around us.
In my own reflections on missions, three things have emerged as starting points for transforming our missional mindsets and approaches - mutual service, listening, and confession. Much more needs to be said (and will in future), but let me at least introduce these three thoughts.
The greatest way that we can show the love of God in any culture - is to serve. Service transcends any language or cultural barrier that exists - sacrificial service is a theology that anyone can understand. But we also bridge large divides when we allow others to serve us as well - mutual service.
We are often fearful of evangelism because we don't know what to say. We have had the idea that we need all the answers, when really we need to be able to listen and truly care about what people are saying and experiencing. This is a rare skill that we need to develop.
Lastly, we would make more inroads into people's lives with less apologetics and more apology. The spiritual discipline of confession, of admitting our shortcomings, of acknowledging what we don't know and still struggle with, will do more for drawing people into the gospel story that having all the quick pat answers in the world.