In my previous post, I attempt to satire the extremes of the Missional Movement (as I like to call it). Don’t get me wrong, there is much to rejoice about when it comes to this movement. God has obviously stirred up a whole generation of PoMo’s (Post Modernists) to embrace the Gospel of Jesus Christ with great passion.

The problem you run into is that most PoMo’s, like the E-Fundies (Evangelical Fundamentalists) they loathe, are full of a lot of hot air (myself included). E-Fundies like to give lip service to Christ on Sunday and go home and live their meek, Republican/neo-Conservative existence and use the Bible to defend this obviously right way of living. PoMo’s on the other hand like to give lip service to Christ all week long and go through life posturing with rebel-like intensity pontificating about the plights of poverty and the homeless lamenting the fact that The Church has forgotten itself.

Um… yeah, The Church? That would be all of us. That’s right, from the E-Fundie to the PoMo, the Catholic (what!?) to the Pentecostal (ugh!), the hyper-Calvinistic to the hyper-Arminian – we’re all The Church. (To be clear – anyone who claims Christ as the Savior who died for their sins and, due to this sacrifice, are now reconciled to Christ… we must assume, short of incredible evidence to the contrary, they are Christians and, by definition, make up The Church.)

Life without actively living the Gospel is a heathenistic life – not a Christian one. It doesn’t matter on which side of the fence you fall – if the Gospel is in you, it must come out of you and spill onto others. If this is not happening, you need to be asking yourself (and God) some very serious questions!!!

PoMo’s have tended to simply trade one formula (the E-Fundies formula) for their own (the rebel-like social justice formula) because it’s obviously a better one. Instead of conservative morality ruling the roost, social morality now rules it. Instead of black and white legalism flatly stated as truth, black and white philosophism is declared. Rather than scripted evangelism designed to teach specific Scriptural truths, we now have completely unscripted relational evangelism designed to show that we are hip Christians who understand you don’t want to be offended.

Theology is important. Social relevancy is also important. Actively living your faith so that Christ is fully on display is of ultimate importance. Theology gives us details, relevancy gives us contours – the life of Christ in us is what everyone who doesn’t know Him needs. Throw away the formulae, rid yourself of the hangups, realize you are just as stupid and desperate as the stupidest and most desperate person you know (if you already realize that’s you… don’t be so hard on yourself), recognize that the mission we’ve been called to is impossible, and have the eureka moment where it’s Christ and the Spirit who actually do the work.