Over the next couple of months I’ve joined up with a great group of church leaders and writers to explore some of the practical applications for individuals and churches of living Inside Out. I believe you’ll be blessed and challenged by their thoughts. So check back here throughout July, August, and early September to join this Summer Blog Tour. Read other posts in this series HERE.
There is also a giveaway at the end of the Tour and the winner will receive a copy of the book and workbook, Church Inside Out by Timothy Archer. Leave a comment below and then click HERE to enter the giveaway.
Missional, from the Inside Out
by Steven Hovater
The word “missional” has been terribly abused in its first couple of decades of wide circulation. Theologically, the word simply describes God’s ongoing work in the world—and the church that intentionally participates in that work. There are multiple facets to that work and our participation in it, and perhaps this explains why the word has been stretched around so many different kinds of churches or styles of discipleship. We understand ourselves to be participating in God’s mission as we spread the news of Jesus’s redemptive work in our community and around the globe, as we encourage each other to follow Jesus, and as we pursue the conditions of justice, righteousness and peace. None of these are the full breadth of what God wants for this world, but in each of them we engage with values near to the heart of God!
Our churches pursue each facet collectively, working together for the purposes of evangelization, transformation, and justice—and churches can implement structural shifts to facilitate progress in each cause. We can create systems that create opportunities for faith sharing, venues in which transformation is more likely to occur, and initiatives that push against standing systems of injustice. Whether we’re the leaders fashioning the new programs or congregants supporting and participating in the moves, we can too easily begin to think that the structural changes mark us as “missional.”
However, those structural shifts can only move us so far! Church programming and structure may create the conditions in which we move towards mission, and poor structures can get in the way of such practices or implicitly devalue them. Structure has its place, and should be approached with intentionality. However, creating the structures should not be understood as the heart of the work itself—the work itself is a matter of flesh, blood and spirit.
Flesh, Blood, and Spirit
The missional work of evangelization occurs when flesh and blood humans filled with the spirit of God reach out to their known and loved neighbors with the good news of Jesus. The missional work of discipleship takes place when people of flesh and blood, acting by the power of God’s Spirit, encourage and teach each other about the way of Jesus, giving testimony of Jesus’s work. Justice progresses as Spirit-driven people stand in solidarity with the oppressed, whom they have come to see and love because of their transformation in Christ.
The heart of missional Christianity isn’t a matter of organization, but of embodiment. While the church’s programming might provide the sort of vehicle or venue in which these things happen, the structure itself won’t succeed until it is filled by the right kind of transformed people—the new humanity, formed from the inside out for the purposes of God’s mission in the world. That formation takes places when we, both as communities and as individuals, nurture the sorts of mentalities and habits that encourage people to align with the mission of God and to engage in it.
The inventory of those mentalities and habits is surely diverse and contains some familiar things, like the virtues of faith, hope, and love that the church has long sought to nurture, and the habits of prayer and listening to the word that have been a part of both the gatherings of God’s people and the classical understandings of their individual devotional practices. These are well and good, and contribute to our transformation into people aligned with the mission of God, but I want to suggest a further practice, one that I see both in the life of the early church and in the missional movement of our own time: the nurture of a particular obsession.
Obsessed with the Missio Dei
The Missio Dei is a fancy Latin phrase meaning “the mission of God.” It’s a bit of shorthand meant to point us towards what God is doing in the world—something we train ourselves to discover by drinking deeply of God’s story in the scriptures, and which we prayerfully seek by the spirit of God in our own time. Becoming obsessed with the Missio Dei means that at every turn in our lives, we are always asking, “What might God want to happen here?” or “How can I join in what God might be working towards by what I say and do in this moment?”
These are the sorts of questions the early church obsessed over. Missional churches have these questions embedded in their culture, whether or not they ever use the fancy Latin phrase or have super-sophisticated “missional” structures. Missional people can’t help but ask what God wants in the world, and how they can bear witness to God’s desires and God’s work towards fulfilling those intentions. Each encounter with the word, each gathering with the church, and every moment in the neighborhood is an opportunity to deepen our understanding of God’s mission in the world.
That obsession is planted deep within our hearts, and keeps gnawing at our souls. Like a deep mystery, it holds us in vigilant tension, so that every moment we are ready to perceive the clues that might shed light on what God is really at work doing. The seed of that obsession grows from the inside out, until its fruit becomes apparent in the world.
It is an internal drive that fuels every external step we take.
Steven Hovater is the preaching and outreach minister at the Church of Christ at Cedar Lane in Tullahoma, Tennessee. He loves walking slow with his wife Kelly and running fast with their four kids. Occasionally, he blogs at stevenhovater.com, and loves interacting with people on Twitter.
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Thanks for sharing these profound thoughts on God’s mission. I like the idea of stopping to ask, “What would God want to do here?” What does God want to do in the world? I’d say it starts with Genesis 12 and ends with Revelation 7.
Betsy de Cruz recently posted…When You Need More Inspiration for Your Prayer Life
I loved that idea too and need to do it more often. Thanks Betsy!
Great thoughts and ones that I have begun to explore in my own life. The timeliness of your words is perfect as I am in the process of searching for another church but as I do one of the things I am looking for is a missional community. Your explanation helps to give words to the feelings that have been in my heart.
Holly thank you for hosting and sharing this series. It has been wonderful.
Mary Geisen recently posted…Between the Shadows and the Light
It really resonated with me too, Mary, but you probably guessed that! 😉 It’s been a great series and I’m so appreciative of my sweet friends who are willing to share their words.
Holly, you have brought another wonderful post in this timely series. This gives much to think on. I have so appreciated each post in this series.
I’m glad you have enjoyed the series, Joanne, and I’m sad to see it end. Such good stuff from my fellow ministers.
Great post! “How can I join in what God might be working towards by what I say and do in this moment?” This reminds me that there is always something I can do in every moment to let my light shine. I tend to think of missional work as in overseas, but it’s right in the moment that we are a part of. We never know how God can use us in His kingdom work!
Blessings, and thank you for hosting!
Julie
So true, Julie! It’s not always overseas…God has plenty of work for us to do right here!
Steven, my church is at a cross roads right now — seeking a pastor, struggling with low attendance, etc. Our tendency has been to try to “fix” things with programs, and I’m trusting that we can move away from that mentality into a focus on bringing “flesh and blood” and the power of Christ in our committed lives into ministry instead.
Thanks for these stirring ideas — and thanks, Holly, for bringing deeply practical teaching to us through this series.
Michele Morin recently posted…Always a Surprise
I’m so glad this resonated with you, Michele. It’s hard not to turn to programs to fix things. That’s my natural inclination too…but I’m always reminded that Jesus didn’t come with a program. He just came with a message from the Father.
What a powerful post, Steve. You got me thinking. It’s so easy to sit back and feel “okay” about our “missional work” when systems and structures are in place. Hopefully reaching people. This feels like the easy way out, so to speak. To be missional, we each need to be communing with God, listening as He speaks to us individually about how we can reach out to those in our worlds. How we can love them well, like Jesus does. How we can share God truths and love with those He leads us to.
I loved this: “Missional people can’t help but ask what God wants in the world, and how they can bear witness to God’s desires and God’s work towards fulfilling those intentions.”
Thanks for making me think today, Steve.
I loved that line too Jeanne! It’s the question we should all be asking, yes?
Wow, Steven! This was meaty and powerful. You’ve given us a lot to chew on, and I love the heart of what you shared here — Stay hungry for Him and let that guide all that we do.
That’s a great point, Lyli! Glad you found something to chew on!
Really great post, Steven! Thanks so much for sharing! And thank you for hosting, Holly! GOD bless you both! 🙂