Missional as the New Legalism, Part One
Over the last few decades a word has crept into the Church that technically, is not even a word. Even so, the word “missional” has found itself used nearly as much as the name Jesus. Some churches even choose to use it to describe what kind of church they are (for an example, click here).
This renewed emphasis on “being missional” has been much needed for the Church. For far too long the Church has attempted to act as the moral police for culture, rather than existing as a healing agent to our hurting and broken world. The idea of a “missional” Church calls the people of God to rightly serve, give, care, and love like Jesus did.
As you can imagine much good has come from this. There has been a reawakening of God’s concern for the poor and vulnerable, a greater understanding of social and systemic evil, and a deepened expression of the gospel being more than just getting to heaven when you die. No doubt this expression is desperately needed in the Church today, but for some missional is becoming the new legalism.
Legalism is a way of viewing life and religion that insists on doing (and mostly not doing) any certain number of "things" (these "things" are any number of arbitrary rules that are legislated by a group or organization). Legalism is a checklist, a rulebook, a bullet point outline as to how one can live a God-pleasing (not to mention incredibly boring) life. Living this way is quite easy. It allows one to know where they are in their spiritual journey. It is this mindset that is subtly being thrown into the missional talk.
Several weeks ago I was with a pastor who was telling me about how his church is making a shift to be more missional. He had plans, classes, illustrations, and a clever series of sermons that were bound to get people out of the pew on Sunday and into their world. While this is good, it boiled down to telling people what they had to do. This conversation is like many that I have had with other pastors, and similar to scores of articles and books that I have read. Simply put, the message is: BE MORE MISSIONAL.
At first glance I would not argue with this. The problem lies with the culture that has largely existed in the American Evangelical Church over the last one hundred years. That being legalism. Many want their pastor to tell them what to do. Many want something to check off the list. All so that they can have safety and security in knowing they are doing the right thing. For an increasing number of people “being missional” is just one more thing on the list.
A friend of mine shared an article with me last week drafted by a group of national thought leaders, pastors, and theologians. The article had to do with the tenants of what it is to be missional. It was indeed a thorough explanation of God, who has a missional heart. They were clear and compelling on why we, the people of God, should also be missional. Even still, at the end of the article I was disappointed. It was a treatise on what we need to do.
All of this talk will only be more legalism as long as we ignore the central component in being truly missional – a transformed heart. Living in a missional way will forever be impotent as long as the Church is doing out of obligation. Being missional will always be empty if people are engaging because of a rousing sermon that has induced excitement for an event or guilt about not doing enough. Mission must happen out of a transformed life that enables us to exist as the transforming presence of Jesus in our world.
The real tragedy would be for many to be more missional and ignore their own heart. In the end missional will just be the new religion and, as one poet has said, religion is what happens when God has left the building. Mission must always happen out of a transformed heart, and as we will explore further, a transformed heart will happen out of mission. But if we only speak of “being missional” we will lose the transformation, and it will only be the new legalism.