{"id":2335,"date":"2007-07-02T01:30:34","date_gmt":"2007-07-02T01:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/2007\/07\/missional-to-use-or-not-to-use.html"},"modified":"2007-07-02T01:30:34","modified_gmt":"2007-07-02T01:30:34","slug":"missional-to-use-or-not-to-use","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2007\/07\/missional-to-use-or-not-to-use.html","title":{"rendered":"“Missional”: To use or not to use?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Another letter with a very good question. I open it up to you today and I’ll weigh in later. I hope the missional leaders and emerging movement leaders will listen to this question. This pastor is suggesting that the term “missional” is perhaps as offensive as the term “evangelistic.”
\nDear Scot,
\nYour \u201cMissional Jesus\u201d series prompted me to write you an email about something I\u2019ve been thinking about for awhile.
\nI have been wondering about the wisdom of \u201cChristians\/churches\u201d attaching the title \u201cmissional\u201d to what they are doing. While in general I am a big fan of \u201cmissional\u201d principles that organizations like Allelon encourage and embrace, I can\u2019t help but think that the word \u201cmissional\u201d is a rather non-missional word.<\/em>
\nThink about it. From someone who is not a church insider, it doesn\u2019t seem the word \u201cmissional\u201d could be fully separated from the word \u201cmissionary.\u201d In fact, I believe this is intentional. At least part of the goal, it seems, of the missional church movement (if you can call it that) is for Christians to see themselves as missionaries to the surrounding non-Christian culture.
\nWhile being a missionary to another culture\/country has many positive and probably helpful connotations for the Christian subculture, it has very negative connotations amongst nearly everyone else in the western world \u2013 who happen to be the very people we so-called \u201cmissional\u201d Christians are hoping to engage.<\/em>
\nThis makes me wonder: Why don\u2019t we simply stick to the basics of the Jesus Creed? Love God. Love Others. Follow Jesus as his life-long apprentices. If we avoid labeling ourselves and our churches with the latest catch phrase\u2014be it the word \u201cmissional\u201d or something else\u2014perhaps we will also avoid making those people we\u2019re called to love feel like our mission project.<\/em>
\nI\u2019d be curious to hear your thoughts on this subject. If you want to get a broader dialogue about this going on your blog feel free to do so.
\nBlessings,
\nMatt Kronberg<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Another letter with a very good question. I open it up to you today and I’ll weigh in later. I hope the missional leaders and emerging movement leaders will listen to this question. This pastor is suggesting that the term “missional” is perhaps as offensive as the term “evangelistic.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":298,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-emerging-movement","category-missional"],"yoast_head":"\n"Missional": To use or not to use? - Jesus Creed<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2007\/07\/missional-to-use-or-not-to-use.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""Missional": To use or not to use? - Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Another letter with a very good question. 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