Whatever Happened to Missional
Exploring Mission After "Missional"
Welcome to “Global Witness, Globally Reimagined.” You get a glimpse here of the kind of work that I do both at Church Mission Society and Missio Africanus where I help students of all levels (from unaccredited courses to PhD) explore the theological (and missiological) implications of the rise of World Christianity. In the newsletter, I focus on the subject of global witness in the context of the twenty-first century. Every Thursday, I share a thought that has spoken to me in the week, one or two resources that I trust will be helpful to you, and three exciting quotes about mission to give you something to think about as you go through your day. I pray one of these will energise you.
NB: Please note that I will soon start tailoring most of my content towards paid subscribers. There will still be occasional posts open to everyone, but most will be for paid subscribers. If you appreciate the newsletter and are able to pay for a subscription, please consider doing so.
1. Thought I Can’t Shake Off
It has been 50 years since Lesslie Newbigin came back from India to England, to retire in his homeland, after serving as a missionary in India for almost forty years. During his time in India, he often engaged in conversations with people who were resistant to Christianity—of course, the 1940s, 50s, and 60s were not necessarily the easiest to be a British missionary in India. When he returned to England in 1974, he was shocked to find that the Christian Britain that had sent him to India had, to a great extent, become secular. He remarked that Britain is a harder mission field compared to India. He was further bewildered to see that most British Christians did not even realise that Britain was no longer Christian.
The shock of a post-Christian Britain forced him out of retirement and he started speaking (and writing) about “missionary congregations,” encouraging congregations in the UK to be missionaries in their own communities, to engage their host societies like foreign missionaries did overseas. This discourse would be picked up by US missiologists (Darrell Guder, Craig van Gelder, Lois Barrett and others), and the “missional church” conversation came into existence, reaching its crescendo with the publication of Darrell Guder’s book, Missional Church, in 1998 (the year when Lesslie Newbigin died).
Of course, the word “missional” quickly became an empty buzzword that was slapped onto everything and meant nothing. But that is not what has been on my mind this week. As someone who has come from that camp (having trained in Birmingham, England, and in St Paul, Minnesota), I totally understand rise and fall of “missional.” However, it is the very missiology that informed the conversation that I have been thinking about of late. I wrestle with this because, 50 years after Newbigin returned to England and 26 years after Guder’s Missional Church was published, I do not find the conversation’s impact convincing. Many who studied missional leadership (and even some who taught missional leadership) here in the UK have gone on to lead their churches with no changes at all.
As I wrestle with this, I wonder whether we focus too much on deliverable missional practices and leave the core issues related to the Spirit insufficiently explored. Essentially, I wonder whether the missiology coming out of Europe can really help evangelise Europeans.
2. Resources I am Enjoying
Book: Brian Lam: The Call to Cross-Cultural Missions Locally and Globally
With the intensifying globalisation around the world, disparate cultures and religious traditions are forced to interact with one another even more than before. The church, as an institution within society, has to grapple with how to best handle otherness within and beyond its community. Hence, this two-part book becomes critical. It emanates from Southeast Asia, one of the world’s most diverse regions, providing a rich and complex context for understanding and studying cultural diversity and the issues of otherness. It brings various critical voices together to reflect on missional challenges in a multi-religious environment. It synergises contextual theology and missional research. As such, it makes a very good contribution to missiological conversations, especially those concerned with witnessing in a religiously plural society which is fast becoming the norm for many of us.
3. Quotes I am Pondering
A holistic view of Jesus held by the church will tend to produce holistic mission engagement, while a partial picture of Jesus Christ will produce partial or non-holistic mission engagement. — Damon So
The mission of God is about life in abundance, and in cases where life is threatened in all its totality the affirmation of life is one of the goals of mission. — Esther Mombo
In social contexts where many people are living in deprivation, holistic mission is not an option. There is no line between what is termed as the gospel – the proclaimed word – and the social gospel. Such demarcations are created by Christians writing or speaking from a middle or upper class context. — Nicta Lubaale
I pray that you will be faithful to the work God has for you this week.
Hmm? I've found "missional" in my circles to largely be jargon. It was used in a trendy way that didn't ask for sacrifices of living among people humbly and pushing against the darker elements of culture. Those I knew who used it combined individualistic pietism with fun church and short-term projects.