Religion Essay Example: Missional Leadership

The understanding of the term emerging missional mode starts with the recovering a missionary comprehension of God. God is a sent one by his very nature and takes the initiative to redeem his creation. The mission Dei-the GOD sending is making people reevaluate their comprehension of the leadership in the church. Being people that have been sent by God, makes us Gods missional instrument to the world. However, some view the mission as a churchs instrument; a means through which the church is grown. The conversation on missional mode is a reflection of a unique understanding of church leadership, development and renewal. In essence, the missional mode is not a method or an approach but rather a philosophical and theological orientation that informs all the actions of an individual.

Many Christian leaders are aware of the importance of missional gospel, but many leaders differ on the posture towards the world. A community that is missional views the mission as both its organizing principle, as well as its originating impulse. What God has done through Jesus Christ ought to reflect in a missional community. God sent his Son in the incarnation This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him (New International Version, 1 John 4:9). The meaning of the scripture is that a Christian leader just like Jesus should be going towards the world and not the people going towards the leader. The mission of going to the people is what differentiates attractional leadership from missional leadership. The attractional leadership, which has today dominated the church, aims at reaching out to the culture and drawing people to the churches, a situation that can be described as outreach and in-grab. This model of drawing the world from the cultures and integrating them into the church kills the leaders capability to preach to individuals still outside. The process makes many to neglect the missional ways leaving the work to the clergy.

Missional theology ought not to be a church-based effort. The work ought to reflect on the whole life of a church leader. All leaders ought to be agents of Gods kingdom, and each is to uphold the Gods mission into all spheres of their livelihood. All leaders are missionaries referred into cultures that are largely non-Christian; as such, their action and strategies should be to reach more people around the world and not just to sit and try to attract them to the churches. The idea of the missional model is a representation of a significant change in the manner in which we view the church. As a Christian leader, one should engage the world in a similar way he does through going out to the world and not just trying to reach out. Obstructing this missional undertaking is similar to blocking the purpose of God through and in his church. It is only when the church and its leaders are on a mission that it can be referred to as a true church.

The emerging missional mode presents a situation where God wants his people to move out of the temple. Stephen was stoned to earth for blasphemy after Jesus died and resurrected (New International Version, Acts, 6:8-8:1). Stephen viewed the tabernacle as Israels experience pinnacle and not the temple. When defending himself, Stephen noted that the presence of God is not confined to a single sacred sport or holy land. He was aware that God forbade the temple together with the cultic rituals and centralized priesthood and identified the world as his sacred place. The Bishop of Durham, Tom Wright in his book, notes that the main reason for the crucifixion Jesus was because he posed a threat to the temple and not because he educated about Gods kingdom (Wright, 2012). Jesus even went ahead and forgave sins outside the temple area. As such, church leaders ought to emulate what Jesus was to Israel, priestly servants.

Many Christian leaders, of course, would prefer the safe environment provided for by the temple. The discomfort of the world makes many not to observe the missional ways. The discomforts are in conformation with the promise made by Jesus that we will experience trouble. He, however, said he overcame the world and as such as a leader ought to be encouraged. Going out to the world is a path that many Christian leaders have not traveled before. As such it seems very scary unlike in the temple where one knew what was expected. However, God is calling upon the Christian leadership to live without a map. A leader ought to be courageous and strong and at the same time very careful to obey.

Everyone one today wants to be missional, however many leaders do not understand the true meaning of the word. According to Alan Hirsch, the word missional is simply an updated nomenclature for being seeker sensitive or purpose driven (Hirsch, 2008). The question that then arises is whether missional is a different and more established strain of the emergent church movement. When the meaning of this all-important word becomes confused, there are some consequences. The consequences are especially real within a scriptural worldview. For instance, the Hebrews carefully guarded words and their meaning very after they became suspicious of images as truth conveyors. As such, part of missional theology entails guarding the meaning of words to maintain truth within the community of faith. Maintaining the integrity of the word missional is important especially to leaders in their efforts to advance their mission and for the survival of Christianity in the world.

Christian leaders ought to understand that missional does not mean emerging. The emergent church is basically a renewal undertaking trying to contextualize the religion on behalf of the postmodern generation. The word missional isnt a description of the growth of the church. Despite the fact that God wants the church to grow numerically, this aspect of the church only represents a section of the larger missional agenda (Hirsch, 2006). The terms evangelistic or seeker sensitive is also not the same as missional. The terms are applied to explain the attractional church model that has for long dominated our understanding of a church and Christian leadership. The emerging missional mode is much more than just social justice. Correcting inequalities and engaging the poor is part of being a Christian leader. As such, being a leader is about emulating Jesus, being a servant of the people. It is not about trying to look attractive to the people rather it is about taking the scripture to them wherever they are. Christian leaders should not expect people to come to them; they ought to differentiate an attractional church from a missional church. It means that a church leader is mandated to spread the gospel and not necessary just numerically growing the church.

References

Hirsch, A. (2006). The forgotten ways: Reactivating the missional church. Brazos Press. https://books.google.co.ke/books?hl=en&lr=&id=vrk-mFCRnV4C&oi=fnd&pg=PA11&dq=The+Forgotten+Ways+%2Breactivating+the+missional+church+Alan+Hirsch&ots=JaMPWY33yq&sig=bLCZXqz547oJ1tzJGut7U0KMshc&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=The%20Forgotten%20Ways%20%2Breactivating%20the%20missional%20church%20Alan%20Hirsch&f=false

Hirsch, A. (2008). Defining missional. Leadership Journal, 29(4). https://static1.squarespace.com/static/533244f1e4b0528862e2b7d0/t/540a1c6ee4b02af565ff4318/1409948782443/Defining+Missional+_+Leadership+Journal_Alan+Hirsch.pdf

The Bible, New International Version, 4th ed., NIV, 2011.

Wright, T. (2012). Jesus and the Victory of God (Vol. 2). SPCK. https://books.google.co.ke/books?hl=en&lr=&id=_VOpAwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT12&dq=Tom+Wright,+Bishop+of+Durham,+has+pointed+out,+Jesus+was+crucified+not+because+he+taught+about+the+kingdom+of+God,+but+because+he+was+a+threat+to+the+temple&ots=WTfhuriFlC&sig=kUjl6pmZGkTt2RAmAHls5jLY758&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false