Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Things Missional

It's been a while since I've brought up the missional thing. You may recall that I have come to the use of this term rather late, and after much hemming and hawing, but I've come to understand it as a corrective to the me-centered, therapeutic-style, commercialism of Christianity these days. Anyway, I have been a browser of certain "missional" bloggers and wanted to point out one of the very best of them: Bill Kinnon of Achievable Ends. His recent post, What is Missional? or A Little More Missional Shampoo, is a very nice overview of the current status of "missional" (the word as well as the movement).

Here's a snip I find particularly compelling:
We are so enmeshed in this consumer culture that we can no longer see it. Like fish, it is the water in which we swim. So the word "missional" just becomes one more marketing tool in our attractional toolbox to get people to the show. The consumer culture is so pervasive that I'm not sure many of us are even able to extricate ourselves from this world view. We can only attempt to understand missional through the attractional church model lens with which we view Christianity.
Hat tip: Jared Wilson.

1 comment:

brad brisco said...

Yes I too very much appreciated Bill's take with "Missional Shampoo." I do hope however that we can do better than simply attempt to view Christianity through the attractional lens.