Missional discipleship: Discerning spiritual-formation practices and goals within the missional movement

Abstract

The missional church movement has emerged as a voice calling for a return to the church’s inherent missionary nature and identity. As a part of that call, “discipleship” has been identified as the key to success of the movement as well as the success of the Western church as a whole. However, “discipleship” and related terminology are devoid of conceptual clarity due to terminological imprecision. To this point, no single work has identified a tangible concept of “missional discipleship,” and this lack of precision leaves missional leaders with no clear goal of spiritual formation. Without a clear goal, a clear and intentional spiritual-formation plan and process is ever elusive. When missional literature on spiritual formation is observed as a whole, however, and common themes are identified, a tangible concept of missional discipleship materializes. The purpose of this article is to identify spiritual-formation practices and goals as found within missional literature, and develop a tangible concept of “missional discipleship.” Therefore, the results of this study bring forth the following proposal: Missional discipleship is the experiential process of identity formation which results in a disciple who exhibits tangible evidence of mission, community, and obedience in his or her life.