missional church definition... a quick quote that i found helpful food for thought

a Gannet catches the wind over stormy seas. Muriwai New Zealand 

It's interesting the word missional has found its way into our vernacular... we are wanting to be missional. we are a missional congregation... or at least we need to become a missional church... But when someone asks for a definition of missional there is a stony long silence, the shrugging of shoulders and a sense that well we should know what we are talking about.

At present I am reading 'Canoeing the Mountains: Christian leadership in uncharted territory' by Tod Bolsinger and it was refreshing and helpful to have the term missional traced back to its origins and a helpful definition given... I leave this quote for those like me who feel drawn to the term missional but still stair off into the great unknown wondering what we are really talking about...

""During the last decade of the last century, Darrell Guder and his colleagues in the Gospel and Our Culture Network (following the work of Leslie Newbigin) used the term missional to differentiate certain congregations from those that were primarily organised around the maintenance  of Christendom Culture and faith practices. Missional churches are those that understand "the church as fundamentally and comprehensively defined by its calling and sending, it's purpose to serve God's healing purposes for all the world as God's witnessing people to all the world." ( Darrell Gruder: working worthily: Missional Leadership after Christendom" 2007). for Gruder the church is sent into the world as the rightful and faithful continuation of Jesus own sending by God (john 20:2) and so each congregation is a witnessing community to its very locale; each particular congregation has itself a unique and apostolic mission to fulfil."