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Lately I have come across some increased buzz online about how missional thinkers/practitioners are too critical of the “institutional church”.  While some of the criticism can be seen as the inevitable theological differences we’d expect, we shouldn’t be too quick to dismiss the concern.  If we identify as missional Christians, such criticisms should be addressed.

First, I want to say that some of the criticism I see of the “institutional church” from missional circles (and elsewhere) is quite valid.  We have a responsibility as Christians to address areas where we see compromise in the wider Body of Christ.  The prophetic voice of the Holy Spirit must have expression within the Church as long as we are making mistakes.

That being said, we are not to use this truth as license to bash.  Throughout Scripture we read cautionary wisdom about the prophetic.  It is not to be practiced casually.  Further, in our very fragmented church culture, we can often make such critiques as though we are somehow apart from them.  While the categories and titles that differentiate play their role, we should not let that allow us to forget that we are part of the one Church, one Body.

Little Flowers Community is a small missional church plant primarily made up of young singles.  Many of them have experienced unfortunate, but all too common wounding from their past church experiences.  As a result, it is not uncommon for us to be drawn to criticisms of the “institutional church”.  While these criticisms are most often valid, we realized early on that they could easily become a corrupting, even poisonous influence in our hearts and community.

So we made a rule.  I call it “The Rule of We”.  Essentially, it says that we must intentionally identify ourselves with any criticism we make of others in the Church- be it in the past, other churches or our own community.  After all, unless we are willing to openly deny their place in the Body of Christ, we have no choice but to say that we are part of the same Body of Christ as them.  In that way, all of “their” failures are “our” failures (and vice versa).  This rule applies even when “they” deny our place in the Body.

Acknowledging the place and need for prophetic correction, I believe that the difficult, yet more rewarding challenge we face as Christians is to address these differences while firmly standing in the truth of our unity in Christ.  For those of us who identify as missional, this should be especially important, as the community of Christ is what we are driven to pursue and welcome others into.  This is not easy and we are unlikely to be thanked for the commitment.  However, when we consider that Christ identifies with us in the face of all of our many failings, it is a small thing to obediently identify with one another.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 8th, 2010 at 11:52 am and is filed under Community, Missional, church. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.