Psalm 9: The Refuge of the Ruling God
Psalm 9, part of today’s group of psalms in my prayer cycle, contains plenty of difficult images of the Lord. There, the Lord erases the names of the wicked for all time (vs 5). Verse 6 contains an absolute version of vengeance:
”Every enemy is wiped out,
like something ruined forever.
You’ve torn down their cities—
even the memory of them is dead.”
(Psalms 9:6 CEB)
But it’s important to note that this vengeance isn’t capricious or random. It is in service of justice, particularly God’s desire to take up for the oppressed:
“But the Lord rules forever!
He assumes his throne for the sake of justice.
He will establish justice in the world rightly;
he will judge all people fairly.
The Lord is a safe place for the oppressed— a safe place in difficult times. Those who know your name trust you
because you have not abandoned
any who seek you, Lord.”
(Psalms 9:7–10 CEB)
My squeamishness (and that of many of us in the wealthy west) for the vengeance described in the text ignores the very real nature of God’s desire for justice in the world. Injustice cannot be tolerated, and God’s action is not just action against, but action for…specifically, for the poor and oppressed people who suffer at the hands of unjust power. Despite the sensitivities of comfortable, wealthy people, God will not simply turn a blind eye to those who have suffered, nor those who have caused it.
Who knows, maybe God will indeed have some sort of way of dealing with those who acutely perpetuate violence and oppression so that they too may repent and be reformed. But my hope for them can’t be allowed to trump the cries of those who really have suffered and cry out for vindication. Today, my prayers are for them…even if they are against myself, and this psalm calls out for me to align myself with those who suffer, and thus with the Lord,
“Because the poor won’t be forgotten forever,the hope of those who suffer won’t be lost for all time.”
(Psalms 9:18 CEB)
Amen!
Ask Yourself...
One of the simplest and most effective tools for improvement in virtually anything is attentive reflection. If you want to improve in almost any facet of your life, give yourself just ten minutes a day and do the following:Reflect on your actions over the past day.I've used that method for a variety of things over the last twenty years, and its the tool I keep coming back to. I've used it to become more intentional about practicing the fruits of the spirit, about practicing and developing leadership, preaching processes and skills, parenting, etc. I take a period of time, say thirty days or so, and simply take some part of my day and reflect on exactly what I've done and how in that particular area. Often I'll have a focus question, such as "How have I cultivated peace?", "What did I do to practice leadership?" or "Did I practice self-control with my voice in speaking to my children?".There is substantial evidence that daily self-measurement can be an effective strategy for long-term behavior changes, even in elusive behavioral areas like diet, or classroom behavior.Do you have something you want to grow in? Create some system for consciously reflecting on it for the next month. Create a sheet with a couple of lines to jot a note on each day, or formulate a question that captures the kind of behavior you want to become more intentional about.The specific system that you use isn't necessarily the most important part. That you have a system is important! Be intentional, and find some way of daily reflecting over the next few weeks. You'll be glad you did.
Psalm 33—An Invitation
Psalm 33 sounds the call to worship, inviting righteous people to praise the Lord, busting out the lyres and harps, creating new songs and shouting of the Lord’s character. And then the psalmist offers the warrant for such a praise summons:
For the Word of the Yahweh is upright,all his work is in faithfulness;loving justice and righteousness,the love of Yahweh fills the whole earth.Psalm 33:4-5
That last line filled my imagination this morning—what does it mean to say that creation is full of the love of God? Everything God does evidences God’s faithfulness to the love-soaked creation. The love is everywhere, laid open. Mary Oliver’s poem, “I Wake Close to Morning”, captures the sentiment:
Why do people keep asking to seeGod’s identity paperswhen the darkness opening into morningis more than enough.1
The psalm adds some color by invoking images of creation, and then invites humanity to stand in awe of a God who “spoke, and it came to be; he commanded and it stood firm.” When God speaks the word, creation comes into order, obeying the Lord’s voice.Then the contrast: this isn’t like the people in charge of the nations. rather, their plans end up being frustrated, and their armies don’t have the power to save them. Their war horses [read: technological innovations] are “vain hopes for victory”, unable to save them [read: sustain their dominance].And yet, those who are attentive to the Lord, who fear Yahweh and who hope in God’s love, are delivered from death, and rescued from famine. They can survive scarcity and violence, in other words.The whole Psalm plays on the contrast of world leaders who seek their own good and scheme to sustain their own power, but ultimately fail to do so, and the Lord who fills the earth with gifts, signs of love, and whose rule is marked by righteousness and justice: those great Biblical words signaling care for vulnerable, marginalized people.Ultimately, this is what the Psalm calls us towards. Not simply praise for God’s righteousness, but for imitation of it. It calls us to recognize the difference of God, who has true power but uses it generously, and enthroned people who use their incomplete power to inflict harm on others. The psalmist invites us to see such fools from the divine perspective—to watch God watch them—and to see what God sees. Those powers may inflict real harm, but ultimately they turn out to be pretenders, unable to master even their own inner lives, much less order the world.God sees it all, and invites us to wipe the sleep from our eyes, and see too. Seeing is believing, after all. And all good and true believing becomes doing—in this case, the humble doing of just and righteous people, attentive to the way of God.
- This is the opening poem in Oliver’s collection Devotions which is almost cover to cover a meditation on this theme. ↩
Steven’s Reading List from 2017
Finally released from my doctoral studies, and the required reading, this year allowed me the opportunity to read more freely and broadly, and I’m appreciative of that. I’ve been pleased with much of what has come my way this year, and want to share some of the texts that have played their part in my intellectual life over the past year. I don’t think this is quite a complete list, but it’s close to the sorts of things that caught my attention over the past year.
Poetry
Counting Descent by Clint SmithApplication for Release from the Dream: Poems by Tony HoaglandThe Works of George HerbertI really enjoy reading poetry, when I can get my mind in the right frame for reading it. Tony Hoagland has been a favorite for a few years, and this little time didn’t disappoint, though its a shade darker than his earlier work. The poems by Clint Smith are often fantastic, and I look forward to seeing what comes from him later. Herbert’s verses take a little more work for me, but I was daily struck by the way he used poetry as a pastoral tool. In 2018, I’m starting off with some work by Mary Oliver, but hope to greatly increase my intake of good poetry this year. Suggestions are solicited!
Biblical Studies and Theology
Psalms Old and New: Exegesis, Intertextuality, and Hermeneutics by Ben Witherington IIIBinding the Strong Man: A Political Reading of Mark’s Story of Jesus by Ched MyersChrist Plays in Ten Thousand Places by Eugene PetersonDesiring the Kingdom by James K.A. SmithFaithful Presence: Seven Disciplines that Shape the Church for Mission by David FitchReaching Out by Henri NouwenAmong these, the book by Nouwen was a reread—it’s a top 3 book for me, ever, and I could read it annually. The books by Peterson, Fitch, and Smith are each striking and useful, and I think many people would benefit from hearing each author. The Peterson book is a particular masterpiece, and I hope will someday be seen as a true classic.
Non-Fiction
Just Mercy by Bryan StevensonWriting Tools by Roy Peter ClarkThinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel KahnemanH3 Leadership by Brad LomenickMastering Leadership: An Integrated Framework for Breakthrough Performance and Extraordinary Business Results by Robert Anderson and William AdamsPeak Erik Anders and Robert PoolGood to Great by Jim CollinsThe Ideal Team Player: How to recognize and Cultivate the Three Essential Virtues by Patrick LencioniStart with Why Simon SinekDrive by Daniel PinkThe Leadership Challenge by James Kouzes and Barry PosnerA stack of leadership books was in the cards for this year, too. Of those, the Sinek book and Mastering Leadership were probably the most useful. However, Just Mercy might have been the best book I read in 2017, period. It’s just an amazing piece, full of story and meaning and mission. Can’t recommend it highly enough. I also found the Kinnamen book eye-opening, as a reflection of the way we humans think and the kinds of biases we are prone to in our decision-making.
Fiction
Ready Player One by Ernest ClineA Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’EngleI need to read more fiction, too. Here I come, 2018!
Youth Outreach and Missional Ecclesiology
This last week, the Missio Dei journal published a conference paper I presented last summer reflecting a piece of my doctoral research, which was mostly written in 2016 ahead of finishing off my program and graduating in May of 2017. Cleaning up that article represents the last bit of publishing (at least in this direct form) I intend to do for this particular research project, but I intend to leave it in digital form here on my site, in case somebody might find it useful. Really, the value of a DMin project like this is mostly in the learning process of for the researcher, something which was of great value to me, and I hope will continue to yield fruit as I work in the church.The finished versions are available here.I really appreciate all the people that helped me work through that process. I had a great village.
The Last Jedi, the Prophet Joel, and Pentecost
Nota Bene: The following contains mild spoilers for Star Wars Episode VIII, The Last Jedi. Read at your own peril.
My fellow fans of Star Wars and all that its universe has offered us over the past forty years have been a bit divided over the latest offering, Episode VIII: The Last Jedi. Director Rian Johnson carved out his own path for the series here, to the delight and/or scorn of many. For the record, I liked the film, mostly because of the wonder it set alight in my oldest daughters. This was the first live-action film I’ve ever taken them to see in the theater, and they were delighted and swept away into this universe which has delighted me throughout my life. My most significant feeling for the movie was the profound gratitude of a Dad who got to sit and share something fun and moving with his kids.There is an aspect of the film I thought deserved a little bit of extra thought. We’ll see if it persists in the last film, but Johnson’s contribution to the canon has a distinct effect on how we think of the force—something Spencer Kornhaber’s article on the film in the Atlantic noticed, too. Kornhaber writes:
And the long-troubling notion that a person’s significance is simply a product of heredity is vaporized with the reveal about Rey’s junktrading parents, cemented by a coda that sees a force-wielding slave-kid dreaming of a rebellion.
Of course, the child Anakin Skywalker’s journey to becoming Darth Vader began with him born into slavery as well. However, the difference here is that the Anakin was discovered as someone special, as a one-in-a-universe boy whose connection to the force was a part of his unique destiny. The short clip witht he slave child at the end of The Last Jedi feels different to me—as though maybe, just maybe we are entering an era when the force works through anybody open to its power.There are other pieces to this egalitarian vision of the force in the film as well. For instance, Luke rebukes Rey’s imagination of him as a lone hero who would swoop in to save the galaxy. It also seemed like a moment of Force action/intervention when Paige Tico (Rose’s sister), has her moment of sacrificial heroism in the film’s opening battle. (I’m going to have to see that scene again.) See, part of the film’s vision of “heroism” is that the hero’s journey is now open to everybody, from once upon a time storm troopers to mechanics. The resistance is open to everyone, and any who wish may play a part, and find the force helping their journey.In our own universe, the prophet Joel has a vision like this
“Then afterward I will pour out my spirit on all flesh;your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,your old men shall dream dreams,and your young men shall see visions.Even on the male and female slaves,in those days, I will pour out my spirit.”(Joel 2:28–29 NRSV)
This is the text Peter cites on the day of Pentecost, a moment in which God’s spirit would be active not simply in a few special people, but on the whole community of God’s people. For what it’s worth, if your vision of Penetecost was that only the twelve apostles were gifted by the spirit, note that Acts 1:15 speaks about the whole company of disciples being about 120 people, and 2:1-4 certainly reads as though the fire event rested on each of that whole company. Verse 4 reads “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. “Pentecost was an inclusive event—the spirit given wasn’t just for a few, but for all the disciples of Jesus.Christianity isn’t a way simply for a few spiritual heroes—the spirit is given to all, and each is given the grace of participating in God’s work. As much as we have masked that fact, it remains true—God’s spirit will not be contained to only a precious few, but is always broadening God’s reach, and draws the most unlikely characters—indeed, wishes to call everyone—in to join God’s mission and community.
A Missional Reading of Nahum
An Angry Poet
Nahum is a vicious book.It begins with a quote from Exodus 34, which includes the divine self-revelation:
“The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, yet by no means clearing the guilty, but visiting the iniquity of the parents upon the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:6–7 NRSV)
In contrast to Jonah’s citation of this text, Nahum attends to the more wrathful bits1:
A jealous and avenging God is the Lord,the Lord is avenging and wrathful;the Lord takes vengeance on his adversariesand rages against his enemies.The Lord is slow to anger but great in power,and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty.(Nahum 1:2–3 NRSV)
The wrath of the Lord is focused in this text on Judah’s imperial enemy Assyria. the burning poetry flows from the trauma of the Assyrian destruction of the northern tribes and near destruction of Jerusalem. The prophet’s message is that though the Empire is still “at full strength and many”, their reign is coming to an end.2However, the good news Nahum envisions being proclaimed is the destruction of Nineveh—a destruction which is imagined in vivid detail.
Because of the countless debaucheries of the prostitute,gracefully alluring, mistress of sorcery,who enslaves nations through her debaucheries,and peoples through her sorcery,I am against you, says the Lord of hosts,and will lift up your skirts over your face;and I will let nations look on your nakednessand kingdoms on your shame.I will throw filth at youand treat you with contempt,and make you a spectacle.(Nahum 3:4–6 NRSV)
Nahum is a challenging book for missional readers, providing no easy forgiveness or reconciliation for Assyria, no word of hope for the poet’s enemy. It is revenge poetry, much like Obadiah, written in solidarity with a victimized people.One way of reading it is to enter into that solidarity. Reading Nahum alongside those who have received trauma and exploitation prepares us to be allies of the oppressed in our own age.
When Bad News is Good News
Readers might be surprised to read the familiar text of Nahum 1:15 in its context. In Romans 10:15, Paul alludes to this text, which is a parallel of sorts to Isaiah 52:7. Nahum’s version reads:
Look! On the mountains the feet of onewho brings good tidings,who proclaims peace!
However, here there is no real word of a full, Messianic peace. The only peace Nahum can envision comes from the impending destruction of Assyria. The utter flattening of this imperial power is Good news for her victims.Let’s not scoff at this vengeful spirit too quickly—it needs to be heard. The corrupted, devastating power of Assyria had to be stopped, and the word of Nineveh’s collapse could only be received as good news by those victims who had struggled under her power and longed for relief. To read this text in solidarity with the victimized means celebrating the end of terror. Is there any other way to enter into communion with those who have been broken by others than to stand with them as they ask for justice?
Is There Any Room For Mercy Towards Assyria?
But what about the other side? Is there any place for solidarity with Nineveh? Nahum (justifiably) cannot imagine it. God will have a hard time lining up mourners at the funeral:
Then all who see you will shrink from you and say,“Nineveh is devastated; who will bemoan her?”Where shall I seek comforters for you?(Nahum 3:7 NRSV)
Nobody sheds a tear for the oppressor. Indeed, Nahum recognizes that Assyria’s cruel reach has been universal—and celebration over her downfall will surely be so as well.
All who hear the news about you clap their hands over you.For who has ever escaped your endless cruelty?(Nahum 3:18–19 NRSV)
Only after we have read this text in solidarity with the victims, wept for them and stood with them while they have we lashed out can we understand what it means to reach toward the oppressor. It’s hard to find a leverage point for mercy, a place where we can begin to see that they have been broken, too. Though they have exercised agency in the process, they have also been acting out a role, been victims of the corrupted structures of the world, the game laid out for them. Did they truly understand their own evil? What forces were they swept up in?Eventually we might find a way to ask, “Is there any hope for their redemption?” We may struggle towards an imagination of what repentance might look like for them. The struggle is a good sign, an indication that we are reading Nahum on its own terms. But ultimately, Nahum needs a conversation partner, and the Minor Prophets oblige us, bringing Jonah to the table.3Nahum’s Conversation Partner: JonahAlthough Jonah is the more familiar book, it makes sense to me to read NAhum first, absorbing its pathos before turning to Jonah. The dissonance of Jonah emerges more clearly when we read Nahum, absorbing the trauma and finding solidarity with the victims. Then, all of a sudden, Jonah doesn’t seem like simply a foolish, begrudging simpleton. His response, even if comically tragic, makes sense coming from the perspective of Nahum. The big differences between the prophet Nahum and Jonah?
- Nahum received a word for Judah, Jonah was sent to Nineveh.
- Jonah gets eaten by a fish and vomited.
The perspective of the two prophets towards Nineveh are likely in alignment with each other. Jonah shouts Amen all through Nahum’s sermon, and Nahum screams in protest when God sends Jonah to the Assyrians.On the other hand, the books Nahum and Jonah are pointed in different directions. Jonah is an astonishing, dumbfounding, stupefying answer to Nahum’s rhetorical question, “Nineveh is devastated; who will bemoan her?”. The whole book points towards a final question: “And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?”Who mourns over Nineveh’s destruction? God does.Is Judah’s pain real? Yes.Does Nineveh need to be stopped? Yes.Is retribution in order? Yes.Does God care? Yes.God cares for the Jew and the Assyrian.
Reading Like an Assyrian
One last thing. Nahum expresses Judah’s anguish over Nineveh’s oppression and to provide hope for relief from that oppression. As readers from afar, I think that reading in solidarity with the oppressed Jews is the primary mode of reading the text, we should also consider another perspective: reading as Assyrians. It’s worth considering whether our position is most naturally that of the underdogs in the story. We might, rather, be the empowered empire that inflicts suffering on others and exploits them for our own ends. There are certainly those in the world that see the tribes that I belong to (American, White, Christian) in that light. This angle too can be over simplified, but it’s worth considering.It may be that, as I learn to read in solidarity with the oppressed who cry out for justice, I have to own my role in the empire. It may be that such a reading provokes me to really see my own complicity with violence and runaway power, and calls me to repent.The missional way stretches towards justice in the whole world, longing with God for all of creation to flourish, with each human freely obeying God, receiving God’s grace and mercy. We long for each person and every nation to experience the abundance of creation, God’s love, and the community of loving, just humanity. Following such a way demands that I continually repent, gaining new self-understanding and turning again to follow God.When I read with the possibility that I am more likely Potiphar than Joseph, Pharaoh than Moses, Nebuchadnezzar than Daniel, it opens up my heart to repent of corruption and the exploitation of the less powerful. Nahum stands in that space, and I can either cry out with him, or I can hear the prophet call out against me from a distance, and seek change. It may be that a different moments of my life, I need to do both.
- The first part of that language also points us towards the decalogue itself. The second command reads: “You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.” (Exodus 20:4–6 NRSV) ↩
- Nahum 1:12 ↩
- This is a great example of the kinds of conversations bouncing between the prophets. If we read them like something of a symposium, rich connections emerge. Obadiah, and Habakkuk, come to mind as equally rich conversation partners for Nahum. ↩
Virtues for Advent
It is now advent, the season in which the Church waits for the coming of Christ—both the celebration of his coming in the past (Christmas) as well as the promise of his future coming. We reflect on what we received in his incarnation, and on what it means to prepare for his return. Anticipation fills the air and we cultivate a sense of anticipation and longing in our hearts. Over time, the church has curated a series of texts that speak to the longing of the season, which reflect on Israel’s hopes for the Messiah, and narratives of the preparatory work of John the baptist, and Jesus’s birth.I was reading something about hospitality earlier today, and it struck me that the virtue of being hospitable fits well with the spirit of the advent season. I began to think of other “advent” virtues, traits of character highlighted and commended by the season. Here’s what I came up with, though I’d welcome your thoughts on others.
Patience
Essential to the advent spirit, patience calls us to wait without frustration. It cultivates longing for God’s work not-yet-accomplished, and makes us eager for the shalom of the reconciled world. And yet, that eagerness and longing has to be held with patience, with a resistance to responses like wrath or despair over the sin and brokenness we still experience. Advent, the spirit of conscious waiting, cultivates our desire for Christ’s coming and a patience for the meanwhile.
Hospitality
Hospitality caught my eye as an advent virtue. The narratives of Jesus’s birth point toward this virtue, with the familiar language of “no room at the inn” and Mary’s willingness to welcome the child into her own being, and thus into the world. At the core of advent is the practice of preparing ourselves to receive Christ, which also prepares us to receive the stranger in whom Christ may be alive.
Justice
Advent primes us for justice, turning our eyes to places where the broken world cries out for redemption and vindication by God. We hear the cries of those who say, “How long, O Lord?”. We move to solidarity with them. We look for ways to work towards just relief in the present, while we wait for the world to receive the fully restorative justice of God’s kingdom in Christ’s appearing.
Generosity
Advent reminds us that what we seem to possess now is simply stewarded for the king who is coming. It loosens our grip on the things we have, and calls us to become more generous givers, like the ancient magi who traveled far not to receive from Christ the king, but to lay their gifts before him.
Humility
Advent forces us to reckon with our own weaknesses and the limits of our own capacities. We become aware of the big problems beyond our reach, and confess our need for Christ. We also recognize that in Christ’s return there is a reversal coming, whereby the great and powerful are laid low, and the lowly and humble are lifted up, (as in the Magnificat (Luke 1:52-53):
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,and lifted up the lowly;he has filled the hungry with good things,and sent the rich away empty.
Perseverance
Perseverance and patience are twin virtues, though there is enough distinction between the two to warrant listing them separately. To me, patience is more about the continued passive endurance of something difficult, while perseverance more actively pushes through the difficulty. Patience is about not giving up, perseverance is about keeping going. Advent encourages both, I think, and on the Perseverance side we are encouraged to continue joining Christ in the work he is doing—the work that he began in the era of the gospels, and which he will bring to completion in his return.
Practicing the Advent Virtues
These virtues blow through the air in advent, calling for our attention and intention. Let me offer a few simple steps towards practicing them with greater deliberateness.
Take a few days meditating through these virtues, one for each day. Or, perhaps just select one and meditate on it throughout the season, take just five or fifteen minutes a day to consider what it means to be more just or hospitable in the season.
One form of such meditation might be journaling, which you could easily prime by taking the virtues above and jotting them at the top or bottom of the next several pages of your journal, as a prompt to think about when you get to that page.
Challenge the people you live with to lean into these virtues for a week or so.
Connect these virtues to texts that remind you of what they mean. (If you’re doing number 3, this would be a great thing to share with your friends and family via quick texts. Bonus for gifs!)
Take a day to take stock of where you are with one of these virtues. Where are you in developing patience, or generosity? How do you know?
Consider other “Advent Virtues”? In what other ways does this season provoke us to cultivate the character of Christ?
I’d love to hear your answers on this last one. Feel free to either comment here or on facebook, or send a reply to @stevenhovater on twitter!
Is Missional a Word?
Skeptics of the missional church movement often begin with an easy jab: Is “missional” even a word?
Short Answer: Yes
“Missional” is simply an adjective constructed with the word “mission” (purpose, intended task) and the suffix “-al” (related to).It’s a similar construction to words like “pastoral”, which describes something done that’s related to the work of a pastor or shepherd. Fictional, fraternal, magical, formal, cynical, and scriptural are other examples of this type of form, and there are many others, often formed with latin or greek roots.This is a fairly young word, but it follows a very established pattern of word formation. Furthermore, it easily meets the criteria of having found a niche of usage that has been accepted in both the academy and in popular usage. Publishers are churning out relevant works at a brisk pace, and it has simply become a part of the working vocabulary of theologians.If your computer still attempts to deny you usage of the word by underlining it with the dreaded red squiggles of spellchecking shame, you should absolutely feel free to instruct your machine to “learn spelling” and move forward with the confidence that missional is, in fact, a perfectly legitimate word.
“Missional” Ambiguity
However, just because we can feel comfortable proclaiming “missional” a legimate word does not mean that it easily provides clarity. There are two major reasons that this young word remains ambiguous. The first is the flexibility of the word “mission”, which reflects variety of tones in different contexts. For instance, it can mean a purpose that is assigned to a person by another, or one that is self-imposed. It can denote the collective purpose of a large corporate entity, thus reflecting an aspirational unity, or it can be used to emphasize an individual’s drive to accomplish a purpose—a person can pursue a task in a ho-hum manner, but pursuing a mission reflects more passion and zeal.But specifically, in the Christian church there is a multiplicity of understandings of mission. Some take the word to reflect the effort to make converts of other religions or the non-religious, while others view mission more holistically. In these conditions, “missional” refers to different things to different people. How could it be otherwise? Who is to provide the exhaustive definition of mission?While the term may have usefulness as a language construct referring simply to anything pertaining to any understanding of mission, it is most useful as a shorthand for the fruits of that particular stream of conversation growing from the works of the Gospel and Our Culture Network, most particularly Missional Church: A Vision For the Sending of the Church in North America by Darrell Guder and others.1 That work is itself an outworking of several ideas in the work of Leslie Newbigin, David Bosch, and other missiologists.2 It has been a springboard for many other voices to join the conversation, while the conversation has forked many times in the last twenty years, it is a seminal text with enough clout to be a common reference point.In other words, missional is a significant term because it can situate a thought or idea in the context of the particular conversation begun with Guder and friends, with its array of accumulated questions, assumptions, and focal points. In my view, this conversation includes:
- a focus on the nature of God as being related to a mission,
- exploration of the life-giving reign of God as a category for understanding Gods mission,
- a sociological observation about the decline of Christendom in North America, and
- a creative exploration of what kinds of practices lead the church to engage Gods mission given the current cultural moment.
However, though I think referring to this particular conversation is the most useful way to employ “missional”, the conversation has other branches as well, and while some of these are testing the boundaries of what we might consider “missional”, the word still needs a few decades of usage before any kind of consensus will have time to organically take hold.Thus, it is useful for now for writers and speakers using the word to provide at least enough contextual clues for those receiving the language to locate the thoughts and practices they are describing in the particular stream of conversation they intend to join and extend. Make it clear how you understand mission. Make it clear why what you’re talking about is in the world of missional. Don’t assume.On the other hand, readers and hearers should vigilantly discern the way “missional” is being used in the particular contexts they are receiving the word in as well. Is it being used in an academic sense, being tied to the conversation flowing from Guder and friends? Is it meant as a part of a particular understanding of the mission of God, or is it simply denoting an outwardly focused set of church practices?Bottom line: yes, missional is a real word, and you should go ahead and feel free to use it in your writings, sermons, conversations, and social media posts. Be aware of the possible ambiguities that exist, and do your part to help provide clarity by providing the appropriate context whenever you can. Extend the conversation—and try not to muddle it.
- Darrell Guder et al, 1998. ↩
- The outlining of this pedigree in The Missional Church in Perspective: Mapping Trends and Shaping the Conversation by Craig Van Gelder and Dwight Zscheile (2011) has been a great help to me. ↩
Thirst
I don’t know why the grocery was crowded,
densely packed with bodies,
jammed together like the potatoes in their bin.There were too many carts to move through,
so I stood still in the traffic like a commuter
trying to make it back to the suburbs
like everybody else.It gave me time to look down the aisles
that I didn’t want to travel,
to wonder at the magnificent array
A hundred soups. A thousand cereals.
A million choices.The flood of drinks overwhelmed me most,
a whole aisle to themselves,
without counting the booze.
Ninety feet of alternatives
for people thirsting for more than water.People thirst for more and more,
sweet, bitter, sour, savory,
flavors by the dozens,
berry, leaf and root,
bottled in the by-products of oil,
which was a by-product of life long ago
and time,
which separates us now from
the age when what we craved most
was water.Water,
piped to our homes,
chilled or iced or heated like magic,
evoking envy in all the lifeless planets,
its plenty essential to the flourishing of our age,
a marvel our ancestors could not imagine,Yet still not good enough for us.