Grace and Truth: A word from pastors

As I write, Pittsburgh 2011 is still pretty fresh in my memory. But by the time you read this, two months will have elapsed since the biennial gathering of Mennonite Church USA members. One of the things I took away from Pittsburgh is that we are still grappling with the term missional.

Since Pittsburgh 2011, I have begun to read my way through Alan and Eleanor Krieder’s book Worship and Mission After Christendom, a 2011 Herald Press release. I wasn’t far into the book when I read this sentence, “Christians propagating the gospel far from their home cultures were engaged in mission, but Christians advocating their faith closer to home were engaged in evangelism.” I wondered if these distinctives could help us with the term missional.

I have heard some good Mennonites voice their discomfort with the idea of being evangelistic. It seems to conjure up images of a heavy-handed winning-souls-for-Christ and filling-up- the-church-pews without a deep caring for the whole person. Besides, aren’t we to be the “quiet in the land”?

While missionaries are held in high esteem, I’ve also heard some discomfort about the effects of missionaries who go into all the world, creating new Christians while changing their cultures to mimic white, North American society.

So let’s face it, we like it that Jesus promised to always be with us, but we are not always so keen on the part about going into all the world making disciples, teaching them to obey Jesus’ commands (Matthew 28:19-20).

Certainly we take Jesus’ commands seriously, and we greatly admire those who do evangelism and mission well, but most of us are not all that comfortable with doing it ourselves. And then along comes this term missional. We’re not sure what it means, but we think it may have something to do with stuff we’re already uncomfortable with.

Maybe we’ve made it too complicated. Maybe it would help us to name what we appreciate when we’ve seen mission and evangelism done well. For me, it happens when people who love God and take Jesus’ commands seriously pay attention in a holistic way to those who have yet to know Jesus. They care about the complete person—body, mind and spirit—and take time to understand the person’s culture, respecting what is good in that culture as they introduce the person to Jesus.

There was a time when those who were involved in the close-to-home evangelism part of Jesus’ Great Commission did not need to think a whole lot about culture. We spoke of Jesus changing lives, but the predominant culture was Christian, right? Well, that’s just not true these days—if it ever really was.

Enter the term missional. An effective missionary pays attention to what God is already doing in the people, land and culture where they are and finds ways to enter in. So does a missional person. The biggest difference is that a missional person doesn’t need a passport.

My congregation had an opportunity to join in something God was already doing in Pittsburgh. We became aware of a struggling refugee church in the city that was in need of a van. God was already at work among them. We were given the opportunity to join in by raising the needed funds to purchase the van. But it wasn’t merely a financial outlay. Relationships are developing. They have worshipped with us and would like us to worship with them. The pastor said to me, “Your people don’t realize what they’ve done for us. In giving the van, you have given our church life.” My response to him was that we, too, have been enlivened with a sense of purpose. God knew we needed to join in God’s activity just as much as the other church needed a van.

Isn’t that the way God so often works—far beyond what we could dream or imagine. Bring on the missional activity.

Donna Mast served half-time as a pastor at Scottdale (Pa.) Mennonite Church and has now been called as conference minister for Allegheny Mennonite Conference.