Back on June 23 Alan Hirsch, author of The Forgotten Ways, wrote a post about the term missional facing the same fate as the term emergent. In that he meant that missional is being over used, misused, and less understood. It seems to be one of the big buzz word in Christian circles. Unfortunately, many have used the word thinking it to be the next rallying cry to reaching the younger, post-modern generation. I won’t repeat what Alan states in his post, he does a much better job than I ever could…I would encourage you to take a few minutes and read it for yourself.
I noticed this trend (of the mis-use of ‘missional’) a few months ago. I got to the point where I didn’t like using the word, because everyone had assumptions about what it meant, and in many cases those assumptions were and are wrong. I found myself using the word ‘incarnational’ to describe my life and how I chose to live it out daily. I’ve told others that I’m simply trying to be Jesus in my culture…i.e. living a incarnational life. Hirsch points out that he prefers the term ‘missional-incarnational’. It’s a bit of a mouthful, but it does a good job of explaining both the sentness (missional) and the practice (incarnational) our lives should be shaped by.
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