A Quarter Century of Theological Revolution?

Missional Church 25 Years Later [1]

In my conversation with John Franke a couple of weeks ago, I suggested that missional theology has entered a third phase: it began as a proposal, became a contested idea, and is now a paradigm. That is to say, missional theology has become a viable alternative among other approaches to constructive theology.

Certainly, others disagree. They feel the project was a big nothingburger to begin with. Or that "missional" is an empty vessel doomed to be filled with whatever. Or that it's just a repackaging of old colonialist mission ideas. The fact that missional theology is contested, of course, hardly means that it's not viable. You can't find a major theological paradigm without detractors. Disputation is the name of the game.

For now, I'll leave it at the mere assertion that missional theology has indeed reached critical mass. Later posts will, I hope, serve to substantiate the claim. In this series, I simply want to return to a catalytic moment for missional theology—the publication of Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America in 1998—in order to think about where we are now relative to the book's vision-casting.