Defining Missional

I still haven't gotten my head around this topic so here it is again. If I wanted to get in touch with a group of people around a common interest I would need to define that interest so that people would know if they fit in the group or not. We see this on the web all the time. Some people start groups based on a particular sport. Others refine that even more and create groups around a specific team. And still others start groups that revolve around a specific cause regarding their specific team. (Fire The Coach!)But it gets a lot more difficult when the group is based on a word that has several meanings. This problem is not new.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/march/16.56.html

http://www.friendofmissional.org/

http://futuristguy.wordpress.com/2008/10/31/frank-violas-three-questions-on-the-meaning-of-missional/

http://subversiveinfluence.com/2008/07/50-ways-to-define-%E2%80%9Cmissional%E2%80%9D-ix/

So how would I define "missional" if I wanted to create a group of leaders who wanted to encourage each other along that path? What would I throw out that would help people know what I was talking about and what kind of a group I was looking for?

As I look through the notes I have from listening to Reggie McNeil I come up with a lot of ideas.

"The People of God...partnering with Him...in His redemptive mission in the world."

"Moving from church as a "what" to church as a "who"."

"Moving from a noun to a verb. i.e. 'I church at work.'"

"Inward focused to outward focused."

"From program development to people development."

"From church centric to Kingdom focused."

All are good thoughts but how do you put them together in a definition that makes sense? I was at our denominations national conference recently and I heard a guy talking about establishing missional communities. I had a conversation with him afterwards to try to determine exactly what he was talking about. I think he is on a similar path but who knows.

Maybe it is best not to worry about it. My guess it wouldn't take long for people to discover if they were thinking along the same lines or not. Then they could decide if they were in or out. Maybe it should be a word that covers a lot of ground and can't be defined in a sentence or two.