{"id":4116,"date":"2013-08-20T22:54:05","date_gmt":"2013-08-21T02:54:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\/blog\/?p=4116"},"modified":"2026-07-28T12:17:01","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T19:17:01","slug":"missionary-or-missional-the-emerging-church-on-a-mission-from-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\/blog\/missionary-or-missional-the-emerging-church-on-a-mission-from-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Missionary or Missional &#8211; The Emerging Church \u201cOn a Mission from God\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>by Bob DeWaay<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Missionary or Missional?<\/strong><br \/>\nFor hundreds, if not thousands, of years Christians have used the term \u201cmissionary\u201d to describe one who goes out to preach the gospel to an unsaved world headed toward judgment\u2014repentance for the forgiveness of sin found in the death and resurrection of Christ. The mission of the missionary was to proclaim the absolute truth of the gospel\u2014a fact proven by Jesus\u2019 resurrection from the dead. The gospel is \u201cgood news\u201d because it provides condemned sinners with a certain escape from God\u2019s wrath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Missional means zealous\u2014about what ?<\/strong><br \/>\nEmergent\u2019s word \u201cmissional\u201d does not convey this meaning. \u201cMissional\u201d sounds like \u201cmissionary\u201d except that the \u201cmission\u201d is undefined. Emergent leaders disagree among themselves concerning the definition of their \u201cmission,\u201d but the mission they tend to embrace is to improve society now. They borrow much from Catholic liberation theologians and liberalism itself\u2014that Christianity\u2019s mission is to make the world a tangible paradise immediately. Outside of bettering society, the missional concept has no content; it specifically denies a mission of proclaiming an escape from God\u2019s coming wrath. For Emergent, \u201cThe journey is the reward,\u201d and the journey will certainly end well for all\u2014without exception.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to Emergent thinking, being missional means following the journey wherever it leads as long as it corrects society\u2019s evils. In their view, missional is more like the opposite of apathy; it is zeal to right the wrongs of society. Because the eschatological end of the journey is assured for everyone, the path the journey takes doesn\u2019t matter much. One mission to fight social evil is as good as another; what matters most is that we are missional together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>\u201cEscape from Coming Wrath\u201d or a \u201cCertain Future of Hope\u201d<\/strong><br \/>\nThe content of the gospel (that God has offered a path to escape His coming wrath) is the core issue to a missionary but irrelevant to one who is missional. To the missionary, those who repent and believe the gospel are reconciled to God and enter His kingdom. That message is unimportant, or at least not central, to one who is missional. Why? Because to the Emergent there is no impending judgment and if we do something nice on our journey nothing more is needed. To them, a focus on the content of the message is a distraction at best and harmful at worst.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Bob DeWaay Missionary or&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":17558,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[105,1,25],"tags":[26,2915,264,265,773,1362],"class_list":["post-4116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-new-missiology-the-emerging-church","category-spiritualformation","category-progressive-emerging-church","tag-emerging-church","tag-the-emerging-church","tag-new-missiology","tag-emerging-spirituality","tag-bob-dewaay","tag-missional","wpcat-105-id","wpcat-1-id","wpcat-25-id"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.4 (Yoast SEO v28.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Missionary or Missional - The Emerging Church \u201cOn a Mission from God\u201d - From the Lighthouse<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\/blog\/missionary-or-missional-the-emerging-church-on-a-mission-from-god\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Missionary or Missional - The Emerging Church \u201cOn a Mission from God\u201d\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"by Bob DeWaay Missionary or...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\/blog\/missionary-or-missional-the-emerging-church-on-a-mission-from-god\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"From the Lighthouse\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/LighthouseTrailsResearch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-08-21T02:54:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-07-28T19:17:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/bigstock-Earth-Globe-574854-e1785266210257.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1450\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"906\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Bob DeWaay\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@LTrails\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@LTrails\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Bob DeWaay\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\\\/blog\\\/missionary-or-missional-the-emerging-church-on-a-mission-from-god\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\\\/blog\\\/missionary-or-missional-the-emerging-church-on-a-mission-from-god\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Bob DeWaay\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6b7d1da55d62df643797a1b7ecc8f998\"},\"headline\":\"Missionary or Missional &#8211; 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