What’s up with “missional”?

Speaking of [making up new words](http://www.neumatikos.org/theology-and-science-fiction/) to signify that you are not only talking about something important, but also that you are part of a special and definable group… what’s up with “missional”?

Who invented this word, and why? Everybody’s using it, but I get the picture that it was coined by your friendly neighborhood post-modern grammar-compromised Emergent Christian. Part of the clue is that they can’t seem to take the verb “emerge” and turn it directly into a noun or gerund: Emergence, or Emerging. No, they have to use the adjective *as if* it were a noun. What’s the name of the movement? Emergent. Hoo boy.

Ok, so what I understand happened is that the folks over at Emergent wanted to defend the position that they were still part of mainstream evangelical Christianity, and yet somehow better at the same time, so they played up the fact that, as emergent, they were outreach and evangelism oriented. Only good solid conservative evangelicals are into outreach and evangelism, right? So they coin a new word that emphasizes their focus on mission. It can’t be “missionary” because everybody already knows that word. So… missional.

My only problem is that I can’t figure out what exactly the difference between mission*al* and mission*ary* really is. The best I can tell is that one is an old word used to refer to people who study for years and then go overseas and preach at people, while the other is a newish sounding word that can give a sense of a clean break with whatever negative things might have happened in the past. Missional is hip, so cutting edge, so… emergent. And *that* is wicked cool.

The odd part is that this plays back upon the conservative Christian circle. Emergent is just evangelicalism with a new face. But they’re still good old evangelicalism, and you can tell that because all emergents are missional. And isn’t “missional” just the very definition of “evangelical?” Conservative churches *are* missional, aren’t they? Well, your best guess to what the differences are between “mission” and “evangel,” but among a lot of evangelical churches the term has taken hold, possibly for fear that word might get out that their church *isn’t* missional. So they’ve had to write it back into the tradition. “Of course! Why, our denomination has been missional since 1783, practically from the get-go!” Excepting back then, they might have said “missionary” (as in Missionary Baptist, soon to be known to as Missional Baptist) or even “evangelistic.”

Now you see “missional” everywhere. In just one day, I saw it mentioned both by [Jollyblogger](http://jollyblogger.typepad.com/jollyblogger/2006/06/are_commuter_ch.html) and [Ryan Wentzel](http://ryan.thewentzels.org/archives/2006/06/was-jonathan-edwards-missional/). I don’t know if that’s a broad spectrum of the Christian blogosphere, but the term really seems to signify you’re on the up-and-up.

I’m thinking about mentioning it on my resume.

Sandra Tayler is Amazing

My wife (whose name is *not* Sandra) is the most wonderful woman I have ever met. I suppose it’s supposed to be that way for all men. Every man is supposed to privately think that his wife is the most wonderful woman of all, and so each woman finds an equality in her husband’s adoration. Of course, this kind of superiority is only hypothetical, while *my* wife is objectively incredible. Her service to me is so beyond comparison that I’ve often had to scold her – for overachieving; for making me feel, once again that I have to compete and excel beyond all reason in my husbandly duties to her in order to achieve something remotely reciprocal.

And why does she do this? Because she loves me, she says. And because wants to be “a good wife”. And she asks me: “am I a good wife?” And further, “Will I be a good mother?” The answer to the first question is always some variant of “absolutely!” To the second, “by any any imaginable criteria beforehand, of course.” I can imagine some criteria, which she passes with flying colors, but as we are currently childless…

At any rate, Howard Tayler’s got three kids, and his wife, by all accounts is amazing. Presumably she and Valerie have a lot in common. I wouldn’t know. They’ve never met.

Howard Tayler is a comic book artist, but often I get as much from his weblogs as from his comic. His charity and his humility shine through quite often, but particularly when praising his wife. I was charmed by this post, and thought I’d mention it. Also, I’ve been putting off subscribing to Sandra’s Blog, but apparently I need to.

Theology and Science Fiction

Theolgians don’t read enough science fiction.
I’m serious. Really I am.

Properly though, I shouldn’t say *science* fiction, because I mean fantasy too, and both are subcategories of a larger genre called “speculative” fiction, which is the art of telling stories about things that *ain’t real*.

Ok. Now that I’ve (hopefully) offended the realists and literalists among us, let me explain. (No, explianing takes too much time; let me sum up.) Theology (presumably) is something we take seriously because it describes something real. As opposed to certain philosophers like PJ O’Rourke who have apparently gotten PHDs and gotten rich and famous by propounding things they don’t take seriously because they aren’t real (“Truth is whatever my colleagues let me get away with”?). But if we take it seriously ad we think it’s real, why am I suggesting that a good preparation for proper theology is a background in speculative fiction? I mean, it sould lose on two counts – first, it’s speculative, and second, it’s fiction. So why…?

Well, for starters, a little review of speculation might teach certain people to know the difference. Then, on the other hand, the “speculative” and the “fiction” might just cancel each other out and prove an antidote.

But in all earnestness, my reason is that theologians are entirely too esoteric. Continue reading “Theology and Science Fiction”

The Holy Spirit and Baptism

So… baptism.

In the ancient church, when you became a Christian, you got baptized. This was an outward sign to you and the people that you were committed to a new life under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and it was a covenant between you and God which God ratified (that is, he made it real) by sending his Holy Spirit. John said, “I baptized you with water, but he who comes after me will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

And he did. At Pentecost. 2nd chapter of Acts. Tongues of Fire. Speaking in Tongues. “We’re not drunk as you suppose.” Peter preaches. 3,000 get saved. Yea! And it happened over and over again. It was so regular and predictable that Simon the sorcerer offered Peter money so he could lay hands on people for them to receive the Holy Spirit.

But you know, not everybody gets their own personal fireworks display when they get saved. For most of us, it’s a pretty quiet experience even if we charged down the aisle during a Billy Graham Crusade. To be a Christian, you have to receive the Holy Spirit, but how do you know you have him? This got really weird when early Christians started having babies. Parents dutifully baptized their babies into the church, but how do you know they really believe?

So, when kids hit a certain age – an age of responsibility – the elders would quiz them on what they believed. Then they would lay hands on them and confirm that they really were in fact Christians. They called this whole ritual “confirmation,” and they believed that was when you actually received the Holy Spirit.

So, two questions –

  • How do you know you’ve received the Holy Spirit?

    • and

  • What difference does it make?

Cycling can be bad for you Health…

Kyle and I started biking around our neighborhood this weekend and had a really nice time. Since it’s a good way to get excercise, we decided to go out this morning for a ride before getting to work on school stuff. It was going well and we decided that we would stop at the apartment to drop off my jacket and get some water before heading over to Hammond Castle which is about a mile and a half away or so along Hesperus Ave. Just before we got to the apartment I had a slight accident. Continue reading “Cycling can be bad for you Health…”

Sci-Fi Takes a Bow to Office Life

When I have more time, I blog. Classes start on Monday, and I have lots of research-oriented things to do (Including building a new web-site for our church – the current one expires on Monday), but I had to pause for a moment and direct your attention to Howard Taylor’s Schlock Mercenary.

The last few days, Howard has been proving that he has done actual office work in his life. These two strips in particular are hilarious. The plot calls for our intrepid heroes to evacuate an office building quickly, under the guise of an emergency. Apparently, imminent doom is too foreign to the office worker to get them to run. So our soldiers-for-sale have to *make up* an emergency.

Oh yeah. That’ll get you running.

Beholden?

One of my great mistakes last semester was choosing Calvin’s *Institutes* as my theology text. The assigned reading for my theology class had merely required that I read the appropriate sections in any theology text, and then listed about fifty examples. I figured now was as good a time as any to bone up on my Calvin, since I’d heard so many good things about him.

Last semester was not the time. Three weeks after classes, I’m still slogging through it.

Understand, Calvin is good. In fact, as theologians go, he’s by far one of the most interested in the actual working out of the Christian life. I’ve even mentioned before that reading the *Institutes* was the closest thing in reading a book I’ve ever come to a direct worship experience: reading Calvin promotes a heart attitude of worship. But.

The problem with reading Calvin is that he wrote 400 years ago, and he wrote in Latin. (To his credit, he also wrote in 16th century French, but that doesn’t help me any.) And for some reason, even the best translations are horrible. They seem to think that Calvin has the best impact if they use the vocabulary and phrasing of mid-19th century Britain. So, they throw in extra commas, just for effect, and truly, the verbage choice is most astonishing, in its anachronism. Continue reading “Beholden?”

Trepidation

My wife and I have been married for just under a year. We were dating for nearly four years before that. Which is to say that she knows me pretty well. She can predict my moods. She knows that when I pour myself a glass of milk at night, I’m liable to leave the milk out. She knows that I don’t make things.

Which is why I’m nervous. Continue reading “Trepidation”