In my "Echoes" entry of April 4, I outlined some ideas behind what's being called the "Missional Movement" in Protestant churches these days. Following the idea that if it's important, you oughta say it (at least) more than once, I want to talk about this some more here. But this time I want to take a little different turn, like looking at another facet of a jewel. I want to think about how we might rethink a few things about "church" in light of all of this. Theologian Brian McLaren is one of a handful of folks often quoted when the idea of "missional church" comes up. He was the morning speaker for General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) on Monday morning, July 2, in Pittsburgh. In his talk he described four thoughts about the church that are driving the missional movement. He was summarizing, so the ideas weren't all that new. But he crystalized

Theologians like to make up words — or use old words differently. Some folks call these "neologisms" (how's that for a word?). Every once in a while one of those words catches on, goes viral, and makes a difference. The word "missional" is one of those. It's spreading through the church, with impact. Books written (Missional Church; Cultivating Missional Communities; A New Missional Era; The Missional Church in Perspective), conferences had, websites put up, and blog articles written. Over the course of about 20 years the word has become a part of church culture, at least among "mainline" (or "oldline") Protestants. Alongside this word "missional," another term has also arisen, and that's "emergent." Coming from different sides of Protestant life — "missional" coming out of the mainline and "emergent" coming out of Evangelical churches — the two terms try to describe a singular phenomenon facing...