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If Ugly Betty were a church planter, she’d definitely be an incarnational one. I mean lets be honest, she doesn’t exactly put a whole lot of time or effort into making herself…well…lets leave it at attractional. In other words, she doesn’t draw very much attention to herself because of her looks, her coffee bar, her cute new children’s ministry program, or her amazing worship coordinator. Without knowing it, Ugly Betty’s missiology clearly precedes her ecclesiology. She realizes that she has to go to people, because people sure as heck aren’t coming to her.
If there is one thing thus far that I’ve really learned from this Missional Church class it’s this; missiology MUST come before ecclesiology. Alan Hirsch takes it further and argues that our missiology must be rooted in a high Christology; that’s a lot of ology’s. Essentially, we are a “sent” people, charged to go and befriend sinners and challenge the beliefs of the already religious.
For me, I tend to naturally have a “stick it to the man” or “fight the power” frame of mind, so I’ve always really like Jesus’ approach. But for the past six or seven years, I’ve faithfully attended a somewhat traditional Presbyterian church who definitely are stuck in the attractional mold, and probably will always feel at home there. In more recent years, my cynicism towards my church and really American Christianity seemed to skyrocket at an alarming rate. My cynical critical approach came first; hope came second. Now, in the midst of studying what it means to be missional, my hope and excitement for the future of the Church easily trumps my cynical nature. But I still have many thoughts and ideas to wrestle with, number one being, is there any hope for a very stubborn traditional church who is almost enslaved to her attractional ecclesiology to actually disciple its members into sent missional Jesus people?
Churching church people seems incredibly daunting and almost impossible without a miracle. It seems like our best Biblical example of angry church people turned missional is the Apostle Paul, but he was actually killing and persecuting the Church before his profound Beatific vision of Jesus himself caused him to convert! I know there is always hope through Christ, but Churching church people seems to be a pretty tough sell. I mean, how many “Pretty Bettys” do you know who want to become unattractive “Ugly Bettys?”
Jessemac