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The lives of saints swim against the cultural norms of personal fulfillment. Saints do not see the Christian life as personal therapy, but as personal denial. To be a Christian involves much more than most of us are willing to negotiate. Through most of Church history, Christians have counted the cost, taken great risks, and lost opportunities to become famous, rich, and wellliked. Columbanus, one of the great evangelists and spiritual leaders of western Europe, wrote a letter defending his life and theology in 603. Division threatened the church, so this Irish missionary in France wrote the following:

“If we all choose to be humble and poor for Christ’s sake (Who, for our sakes became poor, though He was rich) then, with our various lusts laid aside and our mortal cares cast out from the sinful clay, by humility and by the willing poverty which the gospel teaches ... all the sons of God shall mutually enjoy between themselves a true peace and entire charity ....”

I highlight the words humility/humble and poor/poverty, because Columbanus identified true Christianity with humility and poverty. We no longer do. What was the heart of faith for him doesn’t even register for us. We’ve lost something along the way. To talk about missional spirituality is really something of an admission of the weakness of our cultural Christianity in the West. Mission has become an adjective as a way of recovering something that we once had, and that most Christians outside of the West still have. We have forgotten that followers of Jesus are sent people. There is just no other way of being a Christian. Christians throughout history have resisted the affluence and indulgence of the dominant culture, because they believed they couldn’t be a witness for Christ in this world of sin while trying to fit into it. The only way to be a witness was to stand out or step out. In doing so, they became “sent people.”

Sent people have to step out or stand out before they are sent out. Sent people have to step out or stand out before they are sent out.The famous Celtic monks of the north, who did much of the evangelization of western Europe, stepped out of the world only to be sent back into the world in order to change the world. Thus, I would submit, Christian spirituality is missional in essence.

But not all spirituality is missional. I studied Therevada Buddhism in my graduate program, much to my father’s chagrin. I found it helpful both in understanding Buddhists in East Asia and my own faith. The sayings of Siddhartha Gautama struck me by their similarity to Christian teaching and their stark contrast.

For example, the Enlightened One is asked (my paraphrase), “Where is it we can find salvation?” The Buddha responds, “Why do you ask me where to find salvation? Salvation is found in yourself.” In another saying in the Dhammapada (verse 276), it is given very directly: “Striving should be done by yourselves; the Tathagatas are only teachers. The meditative ones who enter the way are delivered from the bonds of Mara [the evil one].” The path to enlightenment is traveled alone. The image of the Buddha meditating in a lotus position is an accurate portrayal of this type of spirituality. Salvation comes from within — it is solitary and it is for one’s self.

Christian spirituality is different. Christian spirituality is from another and it is for others. It is dependent and dynamic. Let me explain.

We are absolutely dependent upon Jesus Christ. Whereas the Buddha might say to look within yourself, Jesus says, “Look to me.” We are absolutely dependent upon the life and work of Jesus Christ to receive what we could not earn or gain on our own. We are absolutely dependent upon Jesus the way a branch is dependent upon a vine, the way a baby is dependent upon her mother. Christian spirituality is learning to remain in Jesus Christ while we are living in a world awash with comforts, voices, and temptations that would carry us away from him.

Moreover, the fulfillment of salvation (a type of enlightenment but much more) is not the end. We are empowered — and this is where the word “dynamic” comes in, dunamis being Greek for power — to continue the mission of Jesus. We are given the joyful task of participating in Jesus’ ongoing work. “As the Father has sent me, so send I you.”

The Christian life is one of following Jesus, and following implies movement. Jesus did not call us to be static models of perfection. He enlisted us to be ambassadors in a place of great conflict. “So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us.”

When we read the words, “You are the light of the world,” we are reminded that our holiness is not for ourselves. Our holiness is for the world, for the nations, for those who have not yet seen the beauty of the everlasting God.

Missional spirituality, to be brutally honest, is a spirituality of sacrifice, humility, and suffering. It is not easy. But it is fulfilling. In fact it is the only way we will be fulfilled as creatures of the great Creator God. We are designed to imitate the crucified and risen Jesus.

There is no real Christian spirituality that isn’t missional.I recently reconnected with a Vietnamese Presbyterian leader I first met in Singapore in 1989. Upon meeting him again, I was reminded of his life of dependent dynamism: a spirituality for the world. When I first met him, he was just beginning to make visits back to Vietnam, where he had been imprisoned for his Christian faith for a number of years. His imprisonment seemed to indicate defeat. Yet his spirituality was one that did not depend upon comfortable surroundings or a good cup of coffee. He prayed. He sang. He remembered Scripture. People around him began to ask questions. Some believed and soon he had his own “cell group ministry.” The frustrated guards moved him, and once again a new church was started at the other end of the prison. After starting several cell groups in the prison, he was finally removed from not just the prison, but from the country.

Spirituality, real Christian spirituality, embraces the Jesus who is bleeding for the world. As we welcome Jesus into our hearts each day, we take up our crosses and follow as he leads us into the world. We shouldn’t need to talk about missional spirituality. There is no real Christian spirituality that isn’t missional.

Scott W. Sunquist is Professor of World Christianity at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and a member of the PFR Board of Directors.