Wednesday, July 11, 2007

The New Word... Missional

There are a few blogs that I enjoy reading. One of them is owned by a pastor in Washington State. He had a post this morning that made me think back to the way I felt about Christianity, and Church in general. To be completely honest, I never really like the thought either one. There was just something about the way Christians carried themselves or tried to preach to you when you weren't interested. All of that just made me really uncomfortable.

Then I meet my beautiful wife, Christy. She likes to call herself a Jesus Freak. Yet, with all the love she has for Him, she never seamed to push it on me. I had the same experience with my friend Brian. When we were in high school, he ask about my belief only once. I told him how I felt about it and he let it alone.

Looking back, that was my biggest problem with religion. It seemed like everyone I had ever come in contact with, that was religious in some way, tried to shove their story at me. Always telling me that I should live this way or that way, and to stay away from how I was living.

Anyway, back to the post I had mentioned earlier. This pastor was talking about new words that we seem to come up with for religious purposes. New words that describe what we are doing. The word Missional was the one he was discussing. He also mentioned that, seeing as though it is a new word, there are a lot of definitions for Missional. In his search to trying and find a good definition, he came across this one in a blog from a twenty-three year olds' web site.

Here it is:

I have been lucky to have met some really amazing people in the past few years. I met them in a bar/ at a party/ through friends. They live their lives without excuses and without gimmicks. They build relationships not hoping to sucker you in but out of genuine interest in who you are. They are your friends because they want to be, not because they have to. And, unless you bring it up, they don't talk about being a "Christian" much. This doesn't stop you from knowing that they are, you do. You can tell by the way they lead their lives. But they never force it on you. It's refreshing and honest and exactly what "Christianity" should look like. When I think of the word "Christian" I think of them.

That is how I felt with Christy and with Brian. I knew they were both religious and yet they never really pushed anything to me. They let me start to pull. Instead of them trying to push. I just hope that I can do the same with new people I come in contact with throughout my walk with Christianity.

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