Word Games: Missional Scrabble
By Michael R. Ruhl
All of a sudden, the conversation changed dramatically.
Gone were the laughter, the kinship, and the frivolity of close friends playing
a casual game of Scrabble. Instead, there were heated innuendos exchanged
as jugular veins began to bulge and transform to deeper shades of blue. The
reason was quite predictable: One of the players had arranged several tiles to
spell out a word that was new and unfamiliar to the other three players.
Together, the trio of protestants insisted that the strange word on the
board was not found in any of the books or articles they had read (or even in
the Funk and Wagnalls Dictionary lying nearby on the coffee table).
Therefore, the word could not be authentic or legitimate.
What is your reaction when someone arranges nine tiles on
the Scrabble board to spell out the word
m-i-s-s-i-o-n-a-l? Is
the word strange, unfamiliar, and fraught with suspicion? Some see a "red flag"
at the appearance of this word because of a perception that the word implies
anthropomorphic action (human strategies and efforts) instead of
theocentric action (God working through the appointed means of grace).
On the other hand, are you among those who see the word missional
as descriptive of God's immutable will for His Church on Earth (Church
Militant)?
Though spell check refuses to recognize
"missional," it is a word with many powerful and biblical
implications that speak clearly to what Almighty God has in mind for His church
on earth.
1. Missional
means actually doing mission work right where you are (not simply having an
attitude of caring about missions).
2. Missional
means adopting the posture of a missionary. This translates to learning about
and adapting to (but not adopting) the culture around you, as you remain
biblically sound. This missionary posture happens right where you are in
community and culture, as well as in the foreign mission field.
3. Missional
means being intentional and deliberate about reaching people in the
community who do not know Jesus as Savior and Lord.
4. Missional
means being respectful, knowledgeable, and sensitive to the people of the
culture God has called us to reach with the Gospel. This is similar to the
training and practice of foreign missionaries sent out to engage in
trans-cultural mission work in other parts of the world (Acts 1:8).
5. Missional
means seeking to understand the culture God has sent you to reach. This
understanding creates new and effective pathways for communicating the Gospel
to the unevangelized
6. Missional
means knowing and understanding cultural norms, but not allowing those norms to
conflict with biblical theology and confession.
7. Missional
means adapting methods (points of connection) which align with the culture for
the sake of communicating the Gospel.
8. Missional
means that the form of 'church' being planted and nurtured in the culture is
thoroughly and continually biblical, regardless of the cultural context.
A prominent missiologist (spell check does not like this
word also), Ed Stetzer, made this comment while reflecting on the
cultural diversity of US cities and communities, "Today you can be a missionary (with 'missional posture')
without ever leaving your zip code!
