Toward an Understanding of "Missional"

I'm working on an article for Leadership Network as part of their Missional Renaissance Community, co-facilitated by Reggie McNeal and Eric Swanson. The Missional Renaissance Community is composed of nine churches who participate together with leaders from their local communities. They are basically resourcing one another as they strive to be more effectively incarnational within their local environs. Part of my writing project was interviewing leaders at the nine churches. But I'm also doing some background research on the history of the term "missional" and will make some brief comments about that in the piece.

Toward that end I've found some useful material online that I wanted to mention here.

• Andrew Jones has found what seems to be the earliest ecclesial use of the term in 1814 as detailed in his post Missional: First Occurrence of the Word.
  
  
• Andrew mentions Rick Meigs wonderful Friends of Missional Site, where in a side bar Rick explores some of the etymology of the term.
  
  
• When I contacted Rick to inquire as to the source of his info, he cited missiologist Ed Stetzer. I had earlier found a helpful series of post by Stetzer under the rubric "Meanings of Missional."
  
  
• preface
  
  
• part 1
  
  
• part 2
  
  
• part 3
  
  
• part 4
  
  
• part 5