How Will "Missional" Survive the Future?

I'm a total Sci-Fi fanatic. Most of the sci-fi-post-apocalyptic movies or books that come out get me all jazzed up. I'm fascinated with the concept of how humanity survives when the existing structures previously depended upon on are no longer dependable. In some ways this is how I lean into "being the church". How can the western body of Christ survive the impending collapse? How will the mission of the church survive the future? 

Missional Individualism 
Cultivating a missional perspective is one of the most important recalibrations that a church can make for the future. I am greatly encouraged by this move, but I’ve observed that when a church “goes missional” often they make a fundamental misstep that I believe fractures the longevity of missional momentum. Innocently many churches begin to preach, teach and stir up their congregants to live missionally but often it is fueled by individualism. High emphasis is placed on “me” to use “my” capacities to be missional. Churches hand out 21 helpful hints for “how to be missional” to their attendees. I love helpful hints but in many ways this mode places emphasis on an insidious drive embedded in Western culture: individual productivity. Being missional can easily become a new collection of readily accessible methods in being productive. I’m convinced a missional life cannot be sustained individually.

For those of us born and bred in the good ole U.S-of-A we approach things with a hyper individualistic orientation. We are weaned on the idea of autonomy, when it comes to our ability to climb the spiritual ladder. We naturally envision ourselves "taking on" or "collapsing under" whatever spiritual challenged is laid out before us. This is not the imagination of the New Testament family. This is not the mechanism for missional traction. This individualistic framework threatens the future of the Missional movement. It threatens the gospel's pulse in a real-time neighborhood.

The Missional Pod
The ground floor of missional mobility is in the cultivation of community. After Christendom is in ashes, our primary witness will be the spaces we create for humans to become more fully human. Sustaining community is multiplied in difficulty compared to creating missional energy and I think that's why it has become the church's Achilles Heel.  I detect that what currently is titled community are often task teams, affinity groups and sanitary programs with a cause. There is a level of gathering that happens in these groups but they often do not operate like covenant households. Mission finds its endurance in the ongoing formation of the expanse of community. Community is the "pod" that carries mission into the future.

The Garden Space
Community is the garden space where dirt gets underneath our fingernails, as we learn how to love well. It is the great exposure of those inner inclinations towards “selfish ambition and vain conceit”. In our commitment to a together-life we exercise muscles that we want to avoid using, that make us more nimble for the long haul of missional living. Community is more than “belonging” it is about “becoming” and meeting the best and worst in ourselves. It is a profound instrument that acts like a scalpel and warm cup of tea at the same time. Neutralization takes places in our missional endeavors when community is an addendum or afterthought. For the sake of God’s mission in the world, we need to engage in the physical and the particular rather than being abstract when it comes to the agronomy of community,

Getting Particular
Here are two basic but uncomfortable rhythms that we disciple in those coming out of the fog of individualism and into the light of community. The intention is always to move past the rhetoric of community and into real reorientation. 

1. Availability 

We purpose to move from our place of security and separation to overlap our lives. We make ourselves available through regular shared meals, babysitting each other’s kids, working on each other’s house projects, shopping together, reading together, enjoying holidays together, cooking together and even moving closer to one another. This takes time, time, time to massage into our DNA. This inhabiting-ethos must become intentional. Naturally when we think of "freedom" we associate it with more space for independance and more personal rights. However for the early New Testament faith communities, freedom was the fresh possibility to attach to one another beyond prescribed socio-political-ethnic identifications.

2. Vulnerability

We purpose to incrementally present ourselves as we are, “limited, afraid, insecure, angry and weak”. From my experience this is the hardest risk to encourage people to take. We are so prone to protection, posing and powering-up. I promise, at some point you will get hurt, offended and disappointed. For the sake of God's mission, we need relational glue that is sticky enough to hold us together when our expectations are not met. In the diagnostics of community, this work of vulnerability will often collides with two hidden impulses: inadequacy and cynicism.  Both inadequacy and cynicism whisper in our mind's voice to "hold back", "keep a distance", "weigh your other options", "be suspicious" and "duck out at the first sign of conflict". We cannot genuinely bind with others without the value of vulnerability between us.

These two practices assemble a bare bones communal frame for sustainable mission in our neighborhoods. Let's not succumb to the narrative of individualism even in the championing of mission.  Lets not sweep the inconvenience and labor of community under the carpet anymore.

Mutual Missional Leadership (5 Principles)

My story is that before being part of a team that planted a church in the city, I had been blessed to be a pastor for over a decade working in fairly organized churches. In the last few years I’ve had to go through a serious overhaul in my apprehension of ministry leadership. I am now  part of a “Leading Community” that is forging a network of missional-communities in a very Post-Christian city.    

The Anabaptist Influence 

Over the last decade I devoured every book and conference I could touch that taught me how to be a better personal leader. But somewhere in that leadership hunt I stumbled upon an odd little book called “Body Politics” by John Howard Yoder. I first thought it was about American politics but discovered this short-but-sweet book was on Anabaptist ecclesiology. It’s contents lodged in my mind and spun an inner conversation. I started to read both Anabaptist works and the New Testament narrative, alongside my 21st century leadership library. A growing conflict and discontent was brewing in my leadership framework.

Re-imagining New Scaffolding

Since planting this awkward missional expression, I’ve had to re-imagine and reconstruct our leadership scaffolding. I had baptized my previous leadership commitments in isolated Bible verses and Christian lingo. In my evaluation, I began to see the overly-individualized and overly-professionalized nature of a large portion of leadership paradigms. I began to ask the question how does leadership function in a land where old maps no longer work? The challenge was to pare back my leadership zealousness in order to resurrect a Missional Leadership that is fluid, communal, sustainable and equipped for the collapse of the Christian Empire. Without being exhaustive in this post for a more Mutual Missional Leadership, what follows is the basic principles that we've employed in our Leading Community. Naturally when I speak of a more inclusive and participatory leadership, pragmatic types see chaos and anarchy. My experience has been the opposite. We intentionally cultivate the following scaffolding that steers us away from becoming personality, program or power driven. It is not romantic or without it’s struggles but it is a framework that pushes to the surface the priesthood.  

1. Communal before Clergy

The Scriptures contain: Apostles, Elders, Pastors, Evangelists, Prophets, Deacons, Teachers, Paul and his Coworkers, Barnabas, Peter, James, Timothy, Junia, Phoebe, Eudia, Lydia, Priscilla and Aquila.  We do not believe there is one prescribed form of church government, though we do see contextual organization. We are convinced that the early church was in process, attempting to figure things out as we are and we notice most of the NT letters where troubleshooting problems. From the New Testament we minimally observe mutuality, diversity and character. So we establish a "Leading Community" with a mosaic of voices even if it causes us to slow down our pace. The movement of the Kingdom was not intended to revolve around one gifted personality, propped up on a stage as a magnet communicator. We'd rather the messy work of "influence by mutuality" than "authority by hierarchy." Our pursuit of an emotionally healthy life together is our greatest leadership. We call people into our shared life; the cost of following Jesus and the work of building for the Kingdom on earth. 

2. Submissional before Sergeants

Together we have the wisdom of the Holy Spirit. There is no chain of command, no louder voice amongst our Leading Community. Sure, our personal passions and strengths lean towards emphasizing certain areas. But we practice equality and mutual submission in valuing each others opinions, experiences and perspectives. Just because someone does more of the teaching or someone communicates to the body more often does not mean they hold more authority. Authentic consensus is valued over compliance. The work of agreement is exhausting at times but it cultivates ownership. We champion each other to use our strengths to bless and nourish our larger community. But trust is imperative as we decentralize. When we hear curious information about someone else we defer to trust; choosing to treat them with honor and respect as we seek out a direct conversation for understanding.

  

3. Disciplers before Deciders

Our "Leading Community" are first disciplers because we are all called to apprentice others as we apprentice under Jesus. Our team cannot make good decisions unless we are in the sacred, complicated space of being entrenched relationally with others on the journey of discipleship. This means an active calendar of sitting still with people one-on-one to navigate inner-life, family, mission and community. Leadership is not primarily about making decisions. Our first responsibility is developing people, empowering their inherent priesthood and inviting them to submit all of life to King Jesus as we seek to do the same. Our ability to influence is built on continued, transparent, relational proximity instead of church structured programs with us at the helm.

  

4. Consultive before Concrete

Be available, accessible, in direct dialogue and breaking bread together. Spend unhurried time meeting with people, discussing the movements of our community before forming a concrete position on an issue. Hold forums, dinners, coffee-talks to receive consultation from our larger communities. Let feedback weigh heavily on the Leading Community. Learn to compromise based on good insight from the community we love. Believe that the Holy Spirit is in them just as much as it is in you. Don’t treat this like a hoop to jump through. Embrace this for what it is; listening to the voice of the Spirit through others.

5. Accountability before Autonomy

We covenant together towards a rhythm of life that orients around two arenas; missionality and community.  We welcome sustainable practices that draw us into greater hospitality, generosity and presence in our neighborhoods. We commit to orienting around community by working towards vulnerability, truth-speak, pointed encouragement and regularly shared meals. Skills do not qualify leaders character does. Leadership calls us collectively to model covenant and promise keeping. This accountability to the "way we are human" requires the constant self-evaluation among the leading core. Status can become the source of the lie that says "I don't need accountability because of who I am."

Go Small, Go Missional

Recently I was at a missional conference and I found myself twitching at what surrounded me.  Sure the theme on the conference flyer said "missional" but the enterprise of “Bigness” was shouting at me from every direction; big buildings, big personalities, big movements, big stories of catalytic missional churches, big book tables with big stacks of missional how-to books.  The team I was with thought it was all a little curious.  I find myself increasingly becoming uncomfortable with the narrative being painted.  I'm not anti "mega" but I do think our unchecked passions for "big" are sometimes tangled up more with our cultural measurements than with how God authentically operates.  Going “Big” tickles us all but it has become a diversion from the diagnostics of real-time oikos as the sampling of the Kingdom here on earth.

There is No Secret Sauce
Are we looking for some leadership secret to catapult our ministries to the next level? In coaching church planters and seasoned pastors I hear this sentiment between the lines with those considering the missional movement.  As a planter forging communities on mission I’ve had to come to accept that there is no secret sauce.  Sure there are some important shifts I’ve had to make and wisdom I've gathered along the way.  Still, there is no fast track to multiplying missional people.  Remember you're working with people not mechanical parts.   It's tempting to think there is a cut and paste opportunity within our reach that will open the flood gates.

Think Small, Really Small
Because we want to “take back the city for God” we overlook the very place the church has become most bankrupt and hollow - community.  Reorienting around social and emotional rhythms is not what blows up the charts.  The work of teaching, discipleing, modeling and practicing shared life might seem so small in comparison to city wide impact.  This is where we need some recovery.  In some sense we’ve taken our cues from Hollywood and Wall Street when it comes to measuring impact and growth.  The church needs to pay attention to the tiny details of our “life together” instead of longing for high visibility.   For community to be sustainable and nourishing it needs to be detached from pressured agendas.  For far too long the evangelical church has neglected this sacred space, the living laboratory of community where there is emotional and spiritual rub.  This cannot be a hurried space.  This hub of our lives needs to become so central that we pay close attention to the way we are with one another.  Are we insecure, easily offended, passive aggressive, guarded, posturing, emotionally honest, distant or bitter?  Our healthy love is to be one of our greatest prophetic witnesses to the world. (John 13)  It takes serious, mutual, concerted energy to cultivate this.

Emotional Return on Missional Living
A horse race mentality has crept into the missional conversation.  There is a looming message I’ve heard at conferences that “missional people get missional results.”  I desperately want to see people know the all consuming love of Jesus and gather all of their life under his Kingship;  but when you move into the neighborhood and begin to incarnate with actual, living, breathing, complicated people you will start to understand the snail’s pace of the process.  Loving people is small stuff.  And small is what matters; lending my mower, sharing some fresh made brownies, enjoying a BBQ together, helping with a car repair, babysitting their kids, watching a game together, listening to the drama of their week.  This might not be the recipe for building a high capacity organization but it does build tethered relationships.  Looking around at the Christian landscape it’s obvious we do “organizations” and “events” really well but we are really poor at the nuance of relationship.  As a former event planner, I know events offer high emotional return and an immediate sense of gratification.  I believe this is one of the reasons why Christians get all jazzed up about an evangelism or worship event instead of staying home and sharing a drink with their friend who’s a disoriented God seeker.

A Mustard Seed Mentality
Recently I wanted some trees for our yard.  I could just see them in my mind as I sat in my lawn chair.  I was tempted to go and buy fully grown trees, load them in a truck and park them in my yard.  Instead why not plant them?  I think this is the tug-o-war we feel within the missional movement.  We want visible results and credibility.  But inherent to missionality is slowness, carefulness, patience with the process and a quiet footprint.  It’s OK to go small, to plant small, to treasure the incremental.  Be intentional about the small but powerful mustard-seed investment in a neighborhood and learning to share rhythms of life with other Jesus followers. (Matt. 13) Stop envying the seeming "bigness" of other's misssional traction and get on with pouring into the people God has place around you. We need more leaders to break their starry-eyed relationship with Big Christian movements and go subterranean with building for the Kingdom of God. 

Thoughts?