So I’m beginning to wonder if it’s “a wrap” on this whole “missional” movement splash, especially in terms of church planting? I can definitely see the wind being taken out of the sails for some. I’ve been particularly curious about crickets I hear when bringing up a few issues among missional Christians:

(1) David Fitch dropped an atomic bomb on Tim Keller, Acts 29, Ed Stetzer, missional _____, blah, blah. and I haven’t heard a word in response other comments on Fitch’s blog. No gospel tweets about it. No defense. Fitch said that the whole Neo-Reformed church planting movement with these guys has become nothing but attractional and is dependent on, and built mainly, on Christianized populations–ie., not reaching unchurched folks. That is, these church models don’t really reach non-Christians. Wow. Fitch named the elephant in the room. Keller and others responded on the posts but couldn’t really argue against his point. Is it a wrap?

Crickets. . . .

(2) Missional Christian education. Churches can be missional but Christian education cannot? There is so much backward thinking about the role of institutions like churches and school in evangelical social though that missional young people cannot imagine the importance of missional Christian education.

The Reformed tradition has ALWAYS placed a high premium on Christian education. Historically, it just wasn’t possible to claim to be Reformed and not promote some form of Christian education as a need in the communtiy. Current so-called missional Reformed guys are silent on missional Christian education? Why?

Crickets. . .

(3) Real issues of justice in inner-cities. I can’t find any center-city churches who are actively fighting and prophetically speaking out against abortion. It is the number one cause of death among blacks in cities. Who’s speaking prophetically for traditional marriage in light of black and Latino marriage rates? Poverty is not the biggest issue in inner-cities. I can’t find center-city churches who are out front fighting against the proliferation of HIV/AIDS stuff, and so on. These are the issues killing inner-cities (not stuff like “food justice”)

Crickets. . . .

These crickets are making me wonder if the jig is up. Maybe this movement has reached its apex and will now plateau and decline. It lasted about 10-12 years. It was a good run but maybe it’s just now another Christian subculture “thing” that’s run it’s course and something innovative. With gentrification, the suburbanization of ethnic minorities, and the suburbanization of poverty as they flee from cities, center-city churches and church planting in the future may have little to do what anything guys like Keller, et al are saying today.

Culture is changing faster than the Neo-Reformed missional guys can research, write, and have conferences about I’m afraid. For example, the New York and Chicago where folks planted in 10-20 years ago will not exist in 10 years from now. Anything being published about center-city culture and church planting published in 2010 (because it was written in 2008-2009, based on research and trends from 2004-2008) maybe already outdated and behind the curve with little bearing on the future because of the rapid city cultural changes occurring at the moment.

Planting an evangelical center-city church in 2011, and beyond, will likely be more like hosting a white suburban youth group 8 years ago. Same suburban white kids but they now live in the city. This may explain why many successful missional center-city church planters were in youth ministry 8-10 years ago. Same population, different zip code. Fitch put a spot light on that.

Crickets. . .

Anthony Bradley is an Associate Professor of Theology and Ethics at The King’s College, NYC. This commentary is taken from Bradley’s blog, The Institute, and was also published in the Commentary section of WorldMag.com and is used with permission of the author.

[Editor’s note: Some of the original URLs (links) referenced in this article are no longer valid, so the links have been removed.]