Why the Missional Church isn't it

Journey to the Ancient Ways

About 10 years ago I set out on a journey to become missional. The word missional was a buzz word at the time in the evangelical church. The heart behind the term was pure. It came from a desire to incarnate Jesus into the world and through that see people enter into his Kingdom. 

At the time being a missional church was a response to the megachurch movement. The megachurch movement is built around the three “B’s”: Butts, Buildings, Budgets. It was the pursuit of more butts in seats, bigger buildings, and growing budgets through excellent worship and an amazing self-help sermon. The missional churches response to the megachurch was a pure one. The scriptures never talk about bigger being better. The phrase “Bigger is Better” is an American value not a Christian one. American values have infiltrated the American Church. We have replaced the truth of God for a lie. Denominations parade the leaders of these megachurches as people to be emulated. The thought is these people must be closer to Jesus’ way because they are so big.

The missional movement responded to that idea from a study of scripture where the church wasn’t built around the goal of being big but of being faithful. It was a call to incarnate Jesus to the world. So we dug in to meet and befriend our neighbors not just give them a flyer to attend a service. Because of this missional leaders met in bars, threw parties, and actually went places the megachurch evangelicals would only market to. This seemed right. 

The problem with the missional movement is that we were still evangelical and deep down we still evaluated ourselves based on the three B’s. The only people we put up to be emulated in the missional church were ones who grew the three B’s. Denominational leaders saw this as a movement simply as the next way to grow a megachurch from scratch. Some did. Many didn’t. It was like evaluating golf with football rules.

One key thing that the missional and megachurch movement was missing was Jesus. Don’t get me wrong not everyone in each movement compromised Jesus. Many did hold Jesus up. But the culture of both was not to put Jesus at the center. Megachurches would go months without meeting around Lord’s table or even preaching about Jesus. There’s one African pastor who came to investigate the American megachurch movement over the course of a few months and noted that no one ever talked about Jesus. Missional churches would go weeks without gathering as a community in the name of being out in the community. Not gathering was an unhealthy reaction to the megachurch self help gathering. Many missional churches copied the megachurch by not regularly gathering around the Lord’s table. 

Though the missional church came out of a desire to bring Jesus to the world in the way he did the missional church still desired to be American. In reality we were just incarnating the American church to our neighbors rather than incarnating Jesus. Nothing had really changed except we got to know our neighbors. I began finding that our presuppositions and culture had so much influence on what we believed and how we lived out the church. 

Questions I began asking: What if Jesus wasn’t American? What if I read theologians who weren’t white? What if I read theologians who lived right after the apostles? What if I looked at the church from the first 15-1700 years? 

As I began to seek the answers to those questions there was a lot to unlearn and learn. Not everything about the American church is awful. I’m grateful for many things I was taught. The high value of Scriptures is important. (Though Scripture is the not the 4th person of the trinity) The value of music in worship is important as well. What I began to learn is there is a great tradition of the church celebrated through the ages centered around Jesus. A common theme throughout other traditions was Jesus and his sacraments specifically the table. Even as you study the traditions of the tribes that became the modern American church you will find a strong emphasis on the great tradition of the sacraments. But the American church had completely replaced the great tradition of the sacraments for a concert and the self-help aisle at Barnes and Noble. 

My response to this has been to learn about the great tradition and the sacraments. I began to clumsily apply them to my ministry contexts and seeking out others on the same journey. Through that journey I found a community of pastors and church leaders on the same path as me. It’s been a joy to learn and grow together. It is my prayer that others will join on that journey to the ancient way of Jesus. 

Stay tuned for more on this is coming days and weeks…