Why the missional movement will fail
Just wanted to pass this along for your reading and something to think about: http://mikebreen.wordpress.com/2011/09/12/why-the-missional-movement-will-fail/.
posted by dan at 7:17 AM
CGGC in an Emerging World
The world is changing rapidly. Postmodern thinking is increasing in the west and the East is becoming part of the Global community. Many in the Churches of God General Conference are interested in what church will look like as fresh expressions in the 21st century. This blog has been encouraged by the CGGC but in no way reflects the official thinking of the denomination. It is a place for free flow of thought and conversation.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
3 Comments:
"The missional movement will fail because, by-and-large, we are having a discussion about mission devoid of discipleship. Unless we start having more discussion about discipleship and how we make missionaries out of disciples, this movement will stall and fade. Any discussion about mission must begin with discipleship. If your church community is not yet competent at making disciples who can make disciples, please don’t send your members out on mission until you have a growing sense of confidence in your ability to train, equip and disciple them."
For the gazillionth time:
We have a Mission Statement. Crucial to our mission is making disciples.
"...we commit ourselves to make more a better disciples..."
Yet, we don't have a definition of what a disciple is and we don't have an intentional process devoted to the making of disciples.
What we do have is a deeply rooted tradition of grabbing on to the latest fad.
This article is right on as far as the CGGC is concerned. We are not competent in making disciples. We are not even engaged in making disciples.
In the new NIV, the some form of the word disciple appears 296 times.
Some form of the word mission appears 1 time.
We will become missional organically if we are a community of disciples.
It's past time that our conversation follows that pattern.
In one of my top five movies of all time, What About Bob? Bob Wiley shows up and asks Dr. Leo Marvin to set aside his vacation to help Bob. Bob argues, "I'm doin the work."
We're not doing the work. Even though we pay lip service to making disciples, we're not doing anything to make disciples.
We want to jump on the missional bandwagon but we are not doin the work. Why do we think we won't fail?
Dan, I have to say I think he trying to be provocative here with this post and I really don't think his car analogy works. Part of the problem is that he is putting mission and discipleship on the same level (car parts) but they are not. To me discipleship (being a follower of Jesus) is the whole car, mission is just a car part.
I also think that we need to add the word "correction" to a lot of the movements we see today. Many of these movements are really a correction to something that has gone off track or left behind. I think that's the case with missional. People started thinking, "Hey, wait a second. We've forgotten something here in our North American Christianity and we better get it back."
Granted, there are probably those who hear about these movements and jump on the bandwagon without really being a follower of Jesus but I think that is painting too broad a stroke. There are a lot of people that will recognize that missing element and begin incorporating it into their life and faith.
So I don't think it is a question of will the missional movement fail. How does it fail? Its job is to alert people to the possibility that they may be missing something as they attempt to follow Jesus. If it delivers that message it hasn't failed. It isn't responsible for how people respond to the message.
His call is really to remember that it is all about being a follower of Jesus and that it is deadly to lift up a single outworking of that as the ultimate goal.
I think Mike Breen is saying that the missional movement will fail in the sense that it will fail to reinvigorate an anemic western church. We have a terrible habit of pinning our hopes for finally getting the church really going on the latest and greatest thing. Being concerned about mission is great, but neither it nor anything else can replace having our lives deeply rooted in God Himself.
I think "discipleship" connotes different things to different people (classes? knowing the Bible? mentoring? small groups?). For that reason, I try to keep my mind focused on the goal of being in love with Jesus and walking with Him (we must have a picture of being his, then we talk about how we help people go there). What the church needs to be is not merely people excited about mission (or anything else), but people who are captivated by, surrendered to, centered in, and listening for the Living God.
When I think back over the church in my lifetime, I see periods of obsession with doctrine, evangelism methods, eschatology, reaching seekers, and now mission. It's as if we are going through phases of obsession with the various aspects of married life, oblivious to lover around whom all of these things revolve.
I feel like I spent twenty years emphasizing things ABOUT Him to others, and only in the last few 3-4 years have returned to simple love, centeredness, and obedience. I guess I'm confessing that my own journey has sadly paralleled the wandering of the western church.
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