what is a missional church?

it's funny how you can spend three years studying something and still have a hard time describing it. my concentration in seminary was "missions and world christianity," so i literally spent three years talking about mission. i even took a class called "the missional church" (which was my favorite class in seminary), but now that i'm out of the classroom and actually trying to build and be a part of a "missional church," it's kinda hard to figure out what it's supposed to look like.

in the english language, the word "love" has become quasi-meaningless. for example, i love my husband, but i also love cookie cake -- same word, very different meaning. if a word means everything, it essentially means nothing. the same thing has happened with the word "missional" in christian circles. in fact, i was at a conference a couple weeks ago when steve timmis stood up and said, "missional has become a crap word. we just need to throw it in the garbage." (now go back and read that in a british accent like his -- i've never heard the word "crap" sound so intellectual.)

i recently stumbled upon a couple of videos that i think are helpful in describing what it means to be a missional church. they're not perfect, obviously, but i love how simple and concise the first one is, and i love how brilliant and matter-of-fact alan hirsch is in the second one (it's a clip from his talk at the verge conference in february).

i want to highlight EVERYTHING he says, but these are my favorite:

"damned if we're not all sent! every christian is a sent one."

"a missional church allows missiology to determine ecclesiology."

"it's not so much that the church has a mission, it's that the mission of God has a church."

i realize i'm not so much offering an answer, just more voices in the conversation, but hey, at least it's a start at sorting through the "missional" jargon.