The Blind Beggar

17 Responses to “Missional Conversation Disappearing?”

1. Chuck Warnock
   May 27th, 2010 at 4:57 pm

   This is something I noticed, too. Perhaps it tracks with the decline in the “emerging” church conversation as the buzz there is diminishing as well. But I think the missional movement has some problems. 1) the word missional is still unclear and misunderstood. People knew what church growth meant, but everyone has co-opted “missional” for their own pet project, book title, or promotion. 2) The missional movement (if there is one) originated in academic circles and has yet to find a popular, accessible presenter. Peter Wagner wrote a couple of dozen church growth books that lay people could read and study. Missional has remained an “inside baseball” conversation among the seminary crowd. What’s your take?

2. Jeff
   May 27th, 2010 at 5:33 pm

   I find myself using the word “missional” less and less because more and more I find people are defending the existing models of church they love with arguements that I don’t want to wade into. For example, the “at my attractional church lives are changed” or the “I can put on the show as a pastor and live a completely incarnational life.” I can’t debate/discuss their personal experience with them. What am I supposed to say? “No, you can’t…you think you can…but you can’t. No.” I’ve found the word “missional” is the lightening rod for this kind of discussion, so I’m moving to write more about what the life looks like and the varrious components of it without using the word. I don’t know if others are doing that as well? I’m done with the word for a while…but I will continue to live and write about the life.

3. Adam Lehman
   May 27th, 2010 at 6:47 pm

   I’ve found that - while “pastors” might be a bit more likely to defend their paradigm, average joe in the congregation might not be.

   Seth Godin - marketing dude - talked about two different ways to spread an idea: sneezing & dripping. Sneezing is when you push a ton of stuff and bulldoze your way through change. Dripping is the way water can slowly change the face of a mountain or a cavern.

   I’ve moved my hopes at influencing others towards missional paradigm from me being a sneezer to me being a dripper. (aka. I’ve moved from overthrowing an existing paradigm to simply overthrowing the hearts and attitudes of those living within the paradigm.

4. Rick Meigs
   May 27th, 2010 at 9:08 pm

   Chuck… good observations. Confusion around the word is an issue and often the result of the term being co-opted. I tend to agree also that the conversation is often an “inside baseball” one, but I don’t see it limited to the seminary crowd. I know lots of pastors and others, like myself, who are not pastors involved deeply in the conversation. But most of us would now rather be out living the life than talking about it.

5. Jamie Arpin-Ricci
   May 28th, 2010 at 5:47 am

   I think it is more indicative of being post-buzz-word than post-missional. In that sense, I think it might be a hopeful trend.

6. Matt Stone
   May 28th, 2010 at 6:45 am

   I agree with much that’s been said already but would add another factor. A tend to more trivial web conversation courtesy of facebook and twitter. I’m finding it harder and harder to find anyone talking about anything deep, missional or otherwise.

   I wouldn’t say its due to more people “doing the stuff” instead of thinking and writing about it (btw, I’ve never experienced action and reflection as mutually exclusive myself, I have the gift of insomnia). I’d say its more that many people have burnt out. The question it raises for me is one of sustainability.

7. Rick Meigs
   May 28th, 2010 at 12:34 pm

   Jeff and Adam, thanks for your good comments.

8. Rick Meigs
   May 28th, 2010 at 12:37 pm

   Jamie, I agree that we are not post-missional. Could be a hopeful trend depending on what the underlying reason is. If there is more doing and less talking, that is good.

9. Phil Peters
   May 29th, 2010 at 1:00 pm

   I have observed that the word has been greatly misused and over used. I like the observation that we are more post-buzz than post-missional. I think that change in existing Christian communities will come in shifts, not by major change. Our challenge is to accelerate the shifts while living the life.

10. Rick Meigs
    May 30th, 2010 at 7:58 pm

    Phil, great to see you at my humble little blog, and thanks commenting.

11. B.D.
    May 31st, 2010 at 9:30 pm

    Interesting observation Rick, I’d noted it but it had never quite clicked how much it’s slowed down. I know for myself it’s slowed down for similar reasons that you noted. Spending a lot more energy trying to do it and less writing about it as process. I am guessing it will re-pick up some steam at some point, but it’s certainly a good thing to note.

12. Bryan Riley
    June 3rd, 2010 at 9:12 am

    For me it has been that I haven’t been blogging in ages. Perhaps many others are in the same place. This is the first time I’ve been out and about in a while in the e-world.

13. Patrick Oden
    June 24th, 2010 at 7:23 pm

    I’ve definitely noticed this, with a lot of bloggers simply not blogging as much in the past either.

    A couple of thoughts. One, I agree with Jamie. I think the word itself isn’t used as much, though the concepts are still interesting to people.

    Indeed, that leads to my second thought. I think one reason why there has been less blogging is that the “conversation” has accomplished a lot. In my perch, studying and TAing here at Fuller Seminary I grade a lot of papers. And there’s simply an almost universal embrace of missional approaches and concepts. Indeed, a lot of churches I’ve encountered are all open to missional ideas, moving congregations towards that, even as this is not always, or even often, accomplished or easy to do. This doesn’t mean there’s not a lot of progress and discussion still to be had, but it does suggest, I think, that a lot of the angst that drives blog posts is gone. When people are open and listening, this leads to less steam release on a blog and more conversations with others offline.

14. Steve Hayes
    August 6th, 2010 at 6:16 pm

    Someone mentioned “emerging church” as well. I was first alerted to the “emerging church” conversation by searching for “missiology” in Blogspot interests, and seeing how many people interested in missiology were also interested in something called “emerging church”. Yesterday I did the same search, and there now seem to be far fewer.

15. Richard Fairhead
    August 7th, 2010 at 8:05 am

    I don’t regularly read loads of blogs. Simply because I don’t have time. For me I tend to read when I feel the need to write. Other times I prefer to talk.

    I am, however, just starting to write a significant article about it, since my perception is the ‘emerging church’ and the whole concept of ‘missional’ is being confused/muddled and denigrated in a way that is causing a lot of stress within the worldwide church…

    http://relationaljourney.blogspot.com/ … watch this space

    Richard

16. Eric Rutgrink
    August 7th, 2010 at 11:24 am

    I feel it’s a natural, and not necessarily negative development to see a decline in the blog discussions around Missional Church. When a topic has been unpacked rigorously and supported experientially, surely the idea develops into a legitimate truth. I find the content currently available online enough for me as a faith community leader to whole heartedly pursue and communicate the ideas in our context.
    In a rather brash sense, what more needs to be said - now lets do the stuff. I do recognise the need for continued discussion but possibly it needs to get out of the blogosphere and into other forms of communication and media to be further propagated.

17. Rick Meigs
    August 7th, 2010 at 12:49 pm

    Thanks all for the recent comments. I would hope that this reduced conversation is the result of more people putting it into practice. That being said, there is still a great need for more story telling.

Join the Conversation

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website