Missional Literature Review - Part 7 - Common Practices of Missional Living

Common Practices of Missional Living
There are clear foundations or basic principles to the missional living or missional church being called for by so many authors, scholars, and practitioners. Though he lists a few extemporaneous foundations, Brisco (2009) correctly identifies three core truths to missional thinking: (a) God is a missionary God; (b) the Church is God’s missionary people; and (c) missional living is about actively participating in the missio dei, a Latin term meaning “the sending of God” (Waters, 2009). These same principles are echoed by the Center for Parish Development in Chicago, Illinois. A publication produced by the center to define the missional church lists three truths as well: God is a sending God, the church is a sent people, and the people discern and participate in God’s mission (Center for Parish Development, n.d.).

These three principles represent extreme claims, not in the sense that they are radical and offensive, but in the sense that they are comprehensive and seek to define fully God, Church, and Christian living. God is at his core a sending God. The church “live[s] into the imagination they are, by their very nature, God’s missionary people” (Roxburgh, 2006, xv). Speaking of the Christian life, McNeal (2009) says “missional is a way of living” (xiv). Bosch (1991) agrees, noting that “the entire Christian existence is to be characterized as a missionary existence” (p. 9).

The literature shows clear agreement on the three foundation principles of missional living. Expressions of missional living are much harder to delineate as many have tried to list the characteristics and practices of missional people. To create clarity, it is helpful to consider the three-fold focus of the Gospel and Our Culture Network (GOCN). The GOCN seeks to help Christian communities become missional by researching and writing in three areas: cultural analysis, theological reflection, and congregational mission (Hunsberger, 1996). It is important to note the order. The GOCN believes that he missional community moves from culture to Gospel (theology) to mission. Van Gelder (1996) spells the focus out more clearly by identifying the three questions the missional church asks: What kind of world do we live in? What is the good news of the Gospel in this kind of world? How can we be the body of Christ in this kind of world? These three questions will form the basis for which missional living will here be defined. Missional living, according to the broad themes found in the literature and identified by the GOCN requires cultural analysis and theological reflection in a covenanting community.