Ed Stetzer is a leader in Acts 29 and at Lifeway Research. He has been unpacking the roots of missional verbiage. He began a new blog series on 14Aug07 called Meanings of Missional. Here is the beginning.

http://blogs.lifeway.com/blog/edstetzer/2007/08/meanings_of_missional_part_1_1.html

Missional.

Depending on your perspective, it brings warmth to your soul or a shiver down your spine. Yet, there is no question the word is gaining traction. Is this the case with the church word of the day or is it here to stay? And… oh yes… what does it mean anyway?

The answer to the last question depends on who you ask. Some words become so quickly enmeshed into our Christian subculture that the definition is an active, evolving target, that is being changed and defined on the move.

The genesis of this paper came from a week of meetings that illustrated the different meanings.

First, before the meetings, I received an email from blogger “Brother Maynard” expressing his concern about the Wikipedia definition. His concerns can be found by looking in the wikipedia history page near the bottom. Maynard has since been seeking to find a common definition of the word “missional.”

As a missiologist concerned with the history, I was surprised to see the debate proceed without any reference to the origin of the word– just to its current usage. So, I started doing some research and contacting people about their use of the term and the influences that shaped their ideas. I will reflect some on the answers I have received from Dubose, Guder, Hirsch, Keller, Van Engen, and others in the coming weeks.

(for more go to the following link)

http://blogs.lifeway.com/blog/edstetzer/2007/08/meanings_of_missional_part_1_1.html

–
David Thew
Sojourn Founding Pastor

__________________________
David Thew
Sojourn Pastor
Thewblog