Missional Life, Missional Church

I have tried to live a missional life as long as I can remember. I think that I've tried to live a missional life longer than I've known what it means to live a missional life. Some might say that I live an alternative lifestyle. Others might say that I've made some poor decisions when choosing the direction of my life: "Don't go into the helping professions -- you'll never make any money." And one of my favorite comments: "If you got paid for half the volunteer work you've done, you'd be rich!" I see these observations as a sure sign that I'm living missionally.


When I say that I live a missional life, it means that I live as though I've been sent to proclaim the Word not only through traditional means (i.e. leading a faith community), but rather living the Gospel in my life's work by modeling Christian living in my day-to-day activities, living the Great Commission -- Missio Dei, everyday! To me, missional is not a technique or a theology or a activity; it's simply a way of life. I don't proselytize and evangelize in a traditional sense, instead I try to live a Christian life as best as I can by helping others, hoping to spread the Word through my life example. "And they'll know we are Christians by our love..." is my mantra. And by no means have I done it perfectly. Quite frankly, I am far from perfect. But again, I do the best I can.

Currently, I am struggling with how to translate missional living into missional church. In the last few weeks some 5o bloggers addressed the question, "What is missional?" in a SynchroBlog that was organized by Rick Meigs of Blind Beggar. Rick called for a SynchroBlog hoping to reclaim the word 'missional' after some discussion about the fact the this buzz word has been overused, watered-down and has lost it's meaning. I was two busy to add my two cents, but I still wanted to write about missional community as I discern my calling in community building. I encourage folks to check out the discussion through the SynchroBlog as I have found it to be quite valuable in weighing what it means to build a missional church.

As new clergy in a small but growing denomination, I am excited about the prospect of building a new community. And I find it a real challenge to visualize what a truly missional catholic community will look like. My experience is that most people only look at church as a place to go on Sunday to receive the Eucharist rather than a vessel of the Great Commission. When I speak with people about building a community, they want to know where the church will be located ("...near where I live?") or how many people am I hoping will attend, or what kind of activities and services will be offered. These are all valid questions. However when we start to think that we should go to church to have something "done to us" or that we should be serviced while we sit in the pews, it is a sure sign that we've lost track of what is church. Although I too have been a victim of that sort of thinking, I find it quite disappointing that folks seem to have lost the point that Jesus sends us to make disciples of everyone. The problem is that the idea of "church as a building" has been ingrained in us for what seems forever. Even when our pastors remind us that true church is the people not the building, it seems that they undermine that very point when they say, "keep coming to church." Really what they mean is "keep coming to the building."

Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit."

Jesus sends us. I'm not sure when He said this He meant, "Y'all wait here and put a welcome sign on the door. When the people arrive, tell them about me." And I'm also not sure that He meant for us to visit our friends and neighbors and say, "Hey, I'm building a church in town. Come on down -- we're going to praise God, learn about Jesus, share in the Eucharist, and have a fund-raiser for the homeless shelter," and if our neighbors refuse our invitation we move-on to the next one without much more thought. I also don't think He meant that we should only 'do mission' on Sundays or to use it as a technique, i.e. servant evangelism. Being missional goes beyond servant evangelism. Mission is a way of being -- just as in life, it also must be in church.

So what does that mean? As I pray over this question, I realize that I complicate the answer. I think that most of us do. For the answer is simple: it means that the primary purpose of a church is to live and act as Jesus would. It means that we become missionaries in our own community; that we leave the confines of the four walls or our church, and the comfortability of our living rooms and go to where the people-in-need are and help them the best way that we can in the name of Christ Jesus. It's as simple as that. The word "mission" should fall from the preacher's mouth as much as the words, "prayer," "worship," "sin," "forgiveness," "love," "redemption," etc. A truly missional church is one in which its focus is on community, social justice, helping the poor, freeing those who are oppressed, and living the Word. A missional church is less concerned with what happens at church on Sunday, and more concerned with what is going on outside its walls and in its community everyday of the week. And a missional church is one of action. It should be a church of doing.

The challenge will be to re-frame the traditional view of church. How do we get our parishoners to think beyond the church service and more on service in the community? How do we teach the Word through faith in action?

What do you think it means to be a missional church? How do we make it happen? I'd like to hear what you have to say.

Peace.