Missional? Hijacked and Prostituted.

A new book is coming out. "Missional Sprituality" InterVarsity Press is publishing it. A good word has been hijacked and prostituted.

I gotta say, 'missional' is a word I think is meaningless, and has become the most recent evangelical buzzword. Good intentions, maybe, but as it tries to steer people away from overstructured institutions, it is a brand word. Authors like Hirsch get their names on the front cover, and, in doing so, have become part of a new structure and institution.
It was no accident to include the word in the title. Why? Marketing. Since 'missional' in its truest sense, merely means living out the life Christ would have us live, it forms a sorted of branded redundancy to include it in a book title.

While a book title is always a marketing device, that Hirsch's name is included, there is a double emphasis on the demographic which knows who he is. 'Missional' is now not just what Hartenstein used it as, but a persona, an image, and a distinct cultural perspective both for and against certain contexts.

For some, (and I'm not suggesting this is true of your book -- I've not read it), it can be a lambasting of the church institution. "Look how bad the evangelical church is." Or, a more positivist approach, "Look how good our new thing is." Or a matter-of-fact approach, "Here's how Christ wants his followers to live." However, once a series of books, seminars, known-by-their-name authors, conferences, an entire infrastructure has been created that, from my eyes, looks kind of like the the old structure, sans steeple.

I cannot help but think of the Who's classic song.

"Won't Get Fooled Again"

We'll be fighting in the streets
 With our children at our feet
 And the morals that they worship will be gone
 And the men who spurred us on
 Sit in judgment of all wrong
 They decide and the shotgun sings the song

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
 Take a bow for the new revolution
 Smile and grin at the change all around me
 Pick up my guitar and play
 Just like yesterday
 And I'll get on my knees and pray
 We don't get fooled again
 Don't get fooled again

Change it had to come
 We knew it all along
 We were liberated from the fall that's all
 But the world looks just the same
 And history ain't changed
 'Cause the banners, they all flown in the last war

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
 Take a bow for the new revolution
 Smile and grin at the change all around me
 Pick up my guitar and play
 Just like yesterday
 And I'll get on my knees and pray
 We don't get fooled again
 Don't get fooled again
 No, no!
I'll move myself and my family aside
 If we happen to be left half alive
 I'll get all my papers and smile at the sky
 For I know that the hypnotized never lie

Do ya?

There's nothing in the street
 Looks any different to me
 And the slogans are replaced, by-the-bye
 And the parting on the left
 Is now the parting on the right
 And the beards have all grown longer overnight

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
 Take a bow for the new revolution
 Smile and grin at the change all around me
 Pick up my guitar and play
 Just like yesterday
 Then I'll get on my knees and pray
 We don't get fooled again
 Don't get fooled again
 No, no!

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

Meet the new boss
 Same as the old boss