Why I Am Missional

Posted by Jonathan Brink
May 18, 2008

This post is part of a Missional Synchroblog. To participate, please see the original post. The second question is, “Why I Am Missional?”

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When I lead my Thrive group, which is a missional discipleship community, I am always surprised at how amazing God is at showing up in the most unorthodox way to restore someone, to remove them from oppression. It will always include a little bit of this, and a little bit of that that lets everyone in the room know that he’s orchestrated something divine. And on many occasions the person being restored looks at me and says, “Thank you.” And I wrestle with this. I wrestle with my response to this appreciation.

And the temptation is in every situation to want to take credit, to think it’s me that is doing all the work. From an outside perspective it can even look like I’m the one really doing the work of restoration. I’m the one who is looking good.

And the second temptation is to cower to the crowd, head dropped in appropriate humility, and say, “I had nothing to do with it. It was all God.” But something seems lacking in this response. It always feels like fake humility. It doesn’t feel true.

So much of the journey so far has been in finding an appropriate perspective to the missional life. And recently I feel like I’m beginning to find an answer.

There’s a verse in Scripture that has recently caught my attention that kind of astounded me.

Psalm 3:3 – But you are a shield around me, O LORD; you bestow glory on me and lift up my head.

God shares his glory with David. That’s a profound thought when I really think about it. God wants to share his glory with humanity, with me. He wants to reveal what he is doing in me to everyone around. But the verse begins with David’s clear recognition of the work of God in his life. He understands that God is using him and he gets to participate in that.

I love that.

The truth is I get to participate with God in what he’s doing. I get to be the one he uses to reach people. I get to be the one he works through to reveal his love. I get to see that. I get to

And this is one of the big reasons why I am missional.

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Other Participants:

Jeromy Johnson – 3 Reasons

Ben Wheatley – What Would Shepherd Book Do

Bryan Riley – Jesus Is The Way And He Was Missional

Blake Huggins – Why I Am Missional

Alan Knox – Demonstrating The Heart Of God

Camel Rider – Why Am I Missional

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  • Hey man, quick question, what do you mean by the line "I am always surprised at how amazing God is at showing up in the most unorthodox way to restore someone, to remove them from oppression."?

    As I read scripture, there is nothing unorthodox about that - God is all about showing up to restore and moving people out of oppression.

    I understand this may be an "untraditional" movement of God (in the way that most churches have defined God within their community) - but it would be sad if someone thought restoration and freedom were even slightly outside of God's character.
  • Steven, I simply meant ways that I couldn't see that just "magically" get orchestrated in the moment.
  • Good thoughts!

    Here is one of the reasons I am missional:

    When Jesus invited a motley crew of fisherman and tax collectors to follow Him, He invited them to follow Him and “become fishers of men” (Mt. 4:19).

    It seems odd that He doesn’t invite them to follow Him so they can go to heaven, so He can meet their needs, or so He can teach them great things since these “benefits of following Christ” seem to be the message most of our churches share.

    Jesus does not invite us to follow Him for what we can get, but He invites us to follow Him for what we can give! We can be a part of serving, loving, and reaching the people around us!
  • nice post. so...is missional the same as emergent? and if someone is emergent or missional, does this mean they don't go to church (in a more or less traditional sense)?

    just wondering.
  • Davida, I would offer that missional is an emerging expression. Emergent is an organization.

    Missional is a conversation that asks what does it really mean to follow Jesus. What does that look like?
  • hmm...i think it is something that starts where we are and moves us closer to Jesus. which can look differently to different people, but it is always looking more and more like Jesus (loving, humble, sacrificial, etc). i think the biggest thing is HAVING the conversation...to realize we do not have everything figured out in this life. it is also about translating (and sometimes tossing out) our theology into practical living. your previous post was a quote about how if our theology does not produce love then it is bunk. that is it exactly! and this love that it produces is not a warm-n-fuzzy feeling, but rather it is motivation for action. i would maybe change the word "love" in that quote to "compassion" - sympathetic consciousness of others' distress together with a desire to alleviate it (as per merriam-webster's online).

    those are a few of my thoughts at the moment. thanks asking the question and for letting me share my thoughts. :-)
  • Davida,

    I love compassion, but I wouldn't change it. Love and compassion are two different things. To me, compassion is seeing other people's brokenness. Love is actively working to restore them. Compassion is my story about our humanity. Love is doing something about it.
  • Wow, excellent. I amazed that God doesn't need us but he wants us.
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