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“All God’s people are sent on mission and called to ministry.
The only questions are where, among whom, and doing what?” Ed Stetzer

There is a geeky joy that most of us academics feel, even if secretly, when we learn a new word that captures what we have been trying to say for some time, but found ineffable. At the beginning of the twenty-first century a neologism began to appear that captures the sent-ness of the call many of us feel as Christ-followers in the wilderness of the academy.  The word is the adjective, “missional.”

The Missional Professor
Missional is freighted with all of the connotations of mission inherent in Paul’s declaration, “We [all that are in Christ] are ambassadors [emissaries] for Christ, God making his appeal through us”(2 Corinthians 5:20).  In the first century, the call was to all of the saints, not just to an elite class of “professional Christians” to be on mission.  The task of the apostles and elders was, “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12).

Somewhere along the way we lost that sense of “calling” that is the origin of the word vocation, or “vocare” in Latin.  Perhaps it’s time to examine this missional role.

On a Mission from God
Many of us as Christian faculty realize that we are “on a mission from God” as the Blues Brothers said—but with much more earnest and serious consequences.  We long to be missional, faculty members who are more than just members of the academy practicing a pleasant ecclesiastical hobby.  Also more than just professors who sincerely but silently hold to a clandestine faith, as a sort of secret fifth column of the kingdom of God.  Many of us see that God is calling Christ-followers in the academy to live on mission, loving and serving their academic community where God has billeted them.

Voices from the Commons
Good intentions are insufficient alone.  “Even if I wanted to be on mission I don’t know how,” I often hear.  Alternatively, other colleagues of mine have expressed this concern. “You don’t know how repressive and intimidating my campus is.”

Fortunately, there are many voices from the Commons, voices of faculty and of they who labor alongside them in the academy, sharing how they are seeking to live on mission and what that might look like in our world. We think you’ll find these voices interesting and provocative.

Please Join the Conversation
We invite you to join the conversation.  If you know other Christ-following faculty out there, this “Forward to a Friend” link will give them an opportunity to receive these “missional moments” each week.  Also, if you’d like to author a “Missional Moment”, check out the guidelines at this “Join the Conversation” link below.  Of course, this email newsletter is subscription based and your friends can easily opt-in and opt-out as desired.
— Sam Matteson, UNT