The Missional Path

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Reality Check

Posted by Justin Long ⋅ June 29, 2008 ⋅

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The term “missional” has become widely used especially by bloggers having to do with the emergent church. Recently (June 23rd) a number of bloggers participated in a “synchroblog” on the topic of missional. Without necessarily having read every single one of the more than 50 blog entries that participated, it seems that an online publication focused on missions and unreached peoples really ought to have something to say about it. What does missional mean?

Words have meaning based both on the words that they derive from and the way in which they are used. Some words are created when one or more words with past meaning are put together, and suffixes are added. That is essentially what has happened here.

The term “mission” is barely used in the Bible. It appears once in the New Testament, in Acts 12:25, in the New International Version; the KJV translates the same phrase as “ministry.” Going back to the original Greek, we see that the word used is “diakoniva,” which has to do with ministry to others: indeed, it is the word from which we get “deacon.” It has to do with Paul & Barnabas’ trip to Jerusalem, and nothing to do with “missions” as we think of them today.

So is “missions” not in the New Testament? Of course it is: the Great Commission, the apostolic journeys, Paul’s effort to make Christ known where He is not, etc. So where did the word “mission” come from? and what does “missional” mean today?

The root of “mission” is the Latin word missus. This is the past participle of mittere, whose uses included the ideas that in modern language we would describe as “to put, to send, to throw.” Latin, of course, was the language of the Roman Empire, and from it we have gotten a great many of our modern words. Among them are words like admit, commit, emit, dismiss, miss, mission, missive, message, promise–ironically, even “missile”. For example, a “missive” (which is a synonym of letter or message) came from the Medieval Latin form of missivae, which in turn was a feminine plural of missivus, which came from the Latin missus, which was the past participle of mittere.

The early church used the term “apostle.” The word “missionary” was a Latin parallel to this Greek word. While I have yet to find the definitive earliest use of the term, the phrase “missus dominicus” (Envoy of the Lord [Ruler]) was used as early as the 750s by the Holy Roman Emperor, referring to officials commissioned to supervise the administration of the Empire’s dominions. The term “missionary” was used of the Jesuits at least, and possibly earlier than that.

Thus the term “mission” far predates “missio dei” and has a long, rich history in the Church. It comes from a combination of the term “missus” and the suffix “ion.” This suffix is used to indicate an act or process, or a thing acted upon or a condition. So, in essence, the term “mission” is a word that means “the process of being thrown” or “the process of being sent”.

Thus “mission” is used both of religious missions, rescue missions, home missions, diplomatic missions, space missions, military missions, and more. Much positive and negative meaning has gathered around this idea of “the process of being sent, put”, even “thrown”–and its parallel, “a calling.” We all want to be called, we all want to be sent–because it means that there is some greater overarching purpose in our life, given by one who has the authority to give it. Thus an enormous amount of energy builds up in the ideas of Purpose, Calling, Sending.

By now we can see “missional” is just “mission” with a suffix. There are many such words: missionary, missions, missional, missionize, missioner, and more. Some we don’t use so much any more, and some are taking on new meaning.

The difference between “mission” and “missions,” for example, is that “mission” refers to the overall process, but “missions” has to do with individual instances of that process: for example, “God has given us a mission” or “There are a number of missions to Asia.”

The “-al” suffix creates an adjective: “of, relating to, or characterized by” the root word. Thus, a “missional” church or a “missional” individual is one who is “related to” or “characterized by” mission.

To be missional means to be characterized by the idea of being Sent to, Thrown at or Put in a specific Place by one who has authority to Send. It is a person who has a purpose of going somewhere.

In Christian terms, the common use of the word “mission” must then be taken into account. The weight of the meaning throughout history has to do with the apostolic mission of the church to take the Gospel to the whole world. To be “missional” then would mean to obey the Great Commission which was given to the church by Jesus just before His Ascension.

Here is an important point, I think, for the usage of the word “missional.” To be missional means to have the character of being sent–but sent where? sent to who? DeVries suggests that to be missional means to engage the local culture. However, he goes further to say that:

In order to fuel missional movements across America, believers in local churches need to stop viewing missions as something that happens overseas. They must align themselves with Jesus’ mission in their own neighborhoods and communities.

This, I think, leaves out a critical component. In the the balanced view of the Great Commission which seeks the evangelization of “Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the earth” — your local area, your near neighbors, and those far away — it emphasizes “those near” and leaves out “those far.”

If a community that is “missional” ceases to view missions as something that happens overseas as well as at home in our local communities, I fear it will lose the “mission” core of “missional” - characterized by the Great Commission which is a foundational part of the church. It will no longer be truly “missional” with the global implications. It will be local, evangelistical, monocultural, and will lose its obedience to the Great Commission Jesus gave us to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

To be missional, to me, means to live in such a way that we contribute to the process of bringing the Kingdom to the whole Earth - local and distant.

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