For a long time, I perceived the word Missional as one of those Evangelically Sexy words–lots of appeal with little substance. I have been pleased to discover that despite its abuse, the term itself has a long history of positive use that meshes well with my own philosophy of life in Christ. I see missional…
- In our Divine Identity — Diversity, Unity, Enjoyment, and Growth.
- In our DNA of Community — Faith, Integrity, Commitment, Accountability, and Incarnation.
- In our DNA of Leadership (his is a link to part 1 of an ongoing 30 part series)
- In our Simple Mission — Reveal, Love, and Abide.
- In our Path to Making Disciples — Reveal, Love, and Abide.
- In our relational approach & Sunday Conversation
- In the call of Christ to finish the Unfinished Parable. (if you are tired of reading
, you can also watch this on-line sermon.) - In God’s design for Elders as the Community Catalyst.
A driving conviction for me is that church is the messenger of the Way; not the alternative. We are not a Christian Disneyland or a Spiritual Starbucks. We cannot compete with the world so we must stop wasting our money and time trying. If we embrace this concept, we can be nothing less than missional in our structures, methods, practices, and lifestyle.
Friend of Missional is a website that outlines many of the values I have long tried to demonstrate in my own ministry. Honestly, I have at times felt alone in my struggle to live as a square peg in a round world and am happy to find fellowship with this community. The FOM website gives a marvelous summary of how the term missional should be used. Please let me share with you what I like best. I have made some changes in the wording to give this my own flair (note the blue text indicates words I added or changed), but in large part the following is attributable to the FOM website.
- A missional church is a collection of disciples acting in concert to fulfill the mission of the Father.
- A missional church finds Her* identity and vocation in being the Bride in waiting–sent by Jesus.
- A missional church makes each individuals willing and ready to be Christ in their own situation and place.
- A missional church knows She must be a cross-cultural (contextual) people and go out into Her community.
- A missional church is engaged with the culture (in the world) without being absorbed by the culture (not of the world). She will become intentionally indigenous.
- A missional church understands that God is already present in the surrounding culture. Therefore, Her goal is not to bring individuals into a sacred space, but introduces them to a sacred people.
- A missional church is about being — being conformed to the image of God.
- A missional church will seek to plant all types of missional communities.
- A missional church is evangelistic and faithfully proclaims the gospel through word and deed. Words alone are not sufficient; how the gospel is embodied in our Family-life and service is equally important.
- A missional church understands the power of the gospel and does not lose confidence in it.
- A missional church will align Her activities around the mission of YHWH.
- A missional church puts the good of their neighbor over Her own.
- A missional church will demonstrate integrity, morality, good character, compassion, love and a resurrection life filled with hope so that She might lend credence to Her reasoned verbal witness.
- A missional church practices hospitality by welcoming the stranger into the midst of community.
- A missional church will see Herself as a Family on a mission together. There are no “Lone Ranger” Christians in a missional church.
- A missional church will see Herself as a representative of Jesus and will do nothing to dishonor His name.
- A missional church will be totally reliant on God in all She does. She will move beyond childlike faith to a life of supernatural living.
- A missional church will be desperately dependent on prayer.
- A missional church gathers for the purpose of worship, encouragement, supplemental teaching, training, to seek God’s presence and to be realigned with God’s missionary purpose.
- A missional church is orthodox in Her view of the gospel and scripture, but culturally meaningful in Her methods and practice so that She can engage the world view of all who will listen.
- A missional church will feed deeply on the scriptures throughout the week.
- A missional church will be a community where all members are involved in learning “the way of Jesus.” Spiritual development is an expectation.
- A missional church will help people discover and develop their Spirit-Giftings and will rely on gifted people for ministry instead of talented people.
- A missional church is a healing community where people carry each other’s burdens and help restore gently.
- A missional church requires that Her leaders be missiologists.
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* In reference to the church, I changed the terms “it”, “itself”, “themselves”, etc… to “Her” or “Herself”. I think this not only reflects a more biblical picture of church, but it also emphasizes the intimate nature of our existence as Christ’s Bride on earth. Quite frankly, I find the term “it” so impersonal that it flies in the face of what it means to be missional.
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Hey Joe,
Thanks for stopping by my blog. I look forward to following your posts.
Cheers,
Matt
Glad to be connected with you Joe. Thanks for the visit to my site. You’ve got great stuff here. Look forward to interacting more in the time to come. Blessings! – Ken Castor
Hi, Joe. Thanks for stopping by my site. I look forward to seeing what you post here. Peace. Jason