Words enter our language for a variety of reasons, and their original meanings are either forgotten or misunderstood. Few would know for example that ‘bamboozle’ originated in a Chinese word meaning to dress a man in bamboos in order to teach him to swim.

It is somewhat similar with the word ‘missional’.

"While it has now diffused itself across all forms of church life the majority of people in either leadership or the pew does still don’t understand what it means," it states in Nature and Purpose of Church: Together in Mission notes 2009.

The concept of ‘missional church’, and therefore of ‘missional leadership’ arose out of the Gospel and Our Culture Network that coalesced around the writings of Bishop Lesslie Newbigin.

Prior to his death in 1998, Newbigin had long championed the view that we live in a pagan society and that the paganism we’re faced with was born out of a rejection of Christianity and therefore far more resistant than pre-Christian paganism. Consequently we can no longer assume a knowledge of the Christian story.

As Bulgarian evangelist Charlie Hadijiev acknowledged at the recent Mission-Net Congress, “European Christians are living in one of the most difficult fields in the world. Why? It’s not because of persecution but because Europe feels that it has tried Christianity and it hasn’t worked and we should move on.”

Mission arises out of the nature and purpose of the God revealed in Jesus of Nazareth. God has “a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth. It's in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for”. (Ephesians 1, The Message)

In other words it is His mission not ours; we are invited to join Him.

Sadly, the church is often one the greatest obstacles to mission. It has a very unfortunate historical legacy and it is frequently preoccupied with its own existence. We often think that the gospel it is about how God serves and meets our needs rather than about God and what He is doing in the world. This is a distortion of the Gospel Jesus entrusted to us. He calls His church to serve rather than be served.

That’s why there is such a crying need for a new generation of missional leaders, leaders that will seek to create churches that recognise they are intended to be “a pilgrim people on its way to the ends of the earth and the end of time”. (Lesslie Newbigin, Open Secret)

Missional leaders understand the doctrine of election in terms of responsibility not privilege for in it they hear the call of God to submit their lives to Him for the sake of the world.

As Tom Wright has said: “Living with the authority of scripture means living in the world of the story which it tells. It means soaking ourselves in it, as a community and as individuals. Indeed it means that Christian leaders and teachers must themselves become part of the process, part or the way in which God is at work not only in the Bible reading community but through that community in and for the sake of the world.” (Tom Wright, Simply Christian)

Put another way the church is meant to be both a sign and a servant of the Kingdom of God. In its liturgy and in its evangelism it has the responsibility of proclaiming the truth, while in its fellowship it is called to embody the truth. In other words the church is meant to be a loving community that finds its raison d’etre in loving God and serving others.

Missional leaders then view the church as the object of mobilisation because they view the world as the object of its ministry. They allow mission to become the ‘catalytic principle’ of their church life. They seek the formation of Christ-like disciples who ‘dream dreams’, dreams that are earthed in reality as they are guided and enabled by the Spirit of God. And they recognise that the most effective way to disciple people is to get them involved in mission and not just reflecting on the theory of mission.

Above all, while ever mindful of the cost they never lose sight of the reward. "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honour the one who serves me.” (John 12:23-26)



Rob James is Executive Chair of the Evangelical Alliance Wales and Pastor of Westgate Evangelical Chapel