"Missional type church"
In a comment on a previous post, Stephen asked me what I thought a "Missional type church" really is. I had used the term without defining it an attempt to explain why a church wasn't what I was hoping it would be. This was most in order to try to not be insulting to that church - I (most of the time) don't like criticizing other churches.
[Note to Stephen: If it makes you feel better you can read "church" whenever I type it as meaning "community of faith"]
So here's my preliminary attempt at an explanation:
What makes a church a missional church can be tough to pin down, because it's not based on anything that is traditionally called theology and it also isn't a matter of having or not having specific sorts of programs. I think it is more of a mind-set the speaks of the underlying goals of a church. I think this can be shown be the types of questions church leaders would ask (of course these questions aren't mutually exclusive, it's a matter of emphasis).
Leaders of a "typical" church might ask:
1) What program do our attendees need?
2) How can we help our attendees believe our doctrinal distinctives?
3) How can our church grow?
Leaders of a "missional" church might ask:
1) What can we do to help those in our area who are unchurched?
2) How can we help are attendees be a blessing to the world?
3) How can God's Kingdom advance?
Technorati tags: Missional Type Church Missional Missional+Church Questions
[Note to Stephen: If it makes you feel better you can read "church" whenever I type it as meaning "community of faith"]
So here's my preliminary attempt at an explanation:
What makes a church a missional church can be tough to pin down, because it's not based on anything that is traditionally called theology and it also isn't a matter of having or not having specific sorts of programs. I think it is more of a mind-set the speaks of the underlying goals of a church. I think this can be shown be the types of questions church leaders would ask (of course these questions aren't mutually exclusive, it's a matter of emphasis).
Leaders of a "typical" church might ask:
1) What program do our attendees need?
2) How can we help our attendees believe our doctrinal distinctives?
3) How can our church grow?
Leaders of a "missional" church might ask:
1) What can we do to help those in our area who are unchurched?
2) How can we help are attendees be a blessing to the world?
3) How can God's Kingdom advance?
Technorati tags: Missional Type Church Missional Missional+Church Questions
posted by Freethinker at 2:38:00 PM
6 Comments:
You are a very funny young man!
Good explanation of a missional church.
I would say that missional church see everything they do as an opportunity to advance the Kingdom. They don't limit "evangelism" to just a process or a "Tuesday night outreach" but rather engage others lives daily "as they go about their lives." (The word "Go" in the great commission actually can be translated "in your daily going").
Also I think a missional church cares more for those people that aren't involved in their community/church than they do for those people who are involved. They are consistently realizing that Christ calls us to leave the 99 to find the 1. It's not that "discipleship" and "pastoral care" isn't important. Just the opposite really. A missional church will see that true pastoral care/leadership and Biblical discipleship happens best as we engage a lost, hurting and lonely world with the message of Christ.
Great thoughts Jasen. (Oh yeah....I stumbled last night with my diet. My life group had some candies and I eat some MandM's! Pray for me!!!)
Nice thought Stephen, I'd have to agree.
Are you trying to count calories?
I will pray for you.
Good definition Jasen. I think a good healthy church is completely missional that rarely asks the "typical" questions. The church that my wife and I attend is an Evangelical Free church, yet you wouldn't know it from a Baptist or other similiar protestant church once you got inside the doors. We've been going there 3 years, and i still have yet to hear any of the church's "doctrinal distinctives" in a message. It's currently going thru an overhaul to develop itself from a suburban 90% white church located in a rapidly urbanized locale to an urban multiethnic church representative of its surrounding neighborhood. Needless to say, some members aren't going willingly down that path.
If you want a church to criticize, look up any Unitarian Universalist "church" and find their doctrinal statement (if you can call it that) or a copy of a sermon. Those buildings gather the who's who of the mentally handicapped and spiritually lost folks. They stand for nothing, everything goes. Thus, as one of their websites states, they "do not stand, they move."
I will be interested to hear if your church makes it to the "urban multiethnic church" stage.
That appears to be something that is really hard to pull off.
yeah, it will be interesting. I don't forsee it coming to pass within less than 20 years... which is what the pastoral staff is thinking and thus not forcing huge changes in a short amount of time, but rather letting the focus slowly change and God lead it. Here in Minneapolis, as it is probably at other large cities around the nation, the trend is to build a church in the suburbs for the well-to-do white folk and then when the urban areas reach out to it in 15-20 years, move the church building out to the new suburbs and "run away" from the urbanites. Not exactly a good witness.
That is a familiar pattern. I know one church around here that manage to pull it off with changing it's name even though it was a geographical reference. The Oaks Fellowship, formerly a church in the Oak Cliff area of Dallas, now a church in the suburb of Red Oak.
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