Life Communities: Missional Messiness

My friend, Steve Hambrick at University of Central Florida Wesley, told me the other day that he has been encouraging his students away from a "programmatic" model, toward a more missional mode of campus ministry. If you know me, you that's stuff I'm really passionate about. He used the phrase “missional messiness” with his student leadership to help them understand the rawness of entering into the student culture as God’s people.

I really like that phrase. It’s highly descriptive of an organic approach to “church” for which we have little control, trusting the Holy Spirit to control; an approach we're trying to embrace with our Life Communities.

Missional messiness describes those situations in which we hear stories and encounter people for which there is no playbook to program our response. Missional messiness lets us be okay with dynamic tensions, like Jesus’ redemption in the midst of human rawness.

I think we have to be comfortable with the inherent messiness of missional mode. We have to be comfortable letting go of control, embracing an attitude and lifestyle of response to the never ceasing activity of God.

We have to be comfortable with letting people tell their stories, no matter what the content. We have to be comfortable with the reality that every person’s journey, hopeful or tragic, is intersected by the grace of God.

We have to be comfortable with listening rather than telling—listening to God and to each other.

We have to be comfortable with sharing rather than taking.

With entering the struggle rather than trying to fix the problem.

With serving as the essence of leadership.

With standing under each other in hopes to understand each other.

With eyes to see God showing up in unexpected places—and within unexpected people.

With a God who does not seek our blessing before blessing the lives of others.

With a grace so generous and so untamed.

With moving one another toward Jesus rather than ourselves.

What do you think?