Rex.Espiritu.net - a blog vox

Here’s something I submitted for reflection at the church congregation where God has called me to serve…. 

What does it mean for us to be a missional community?  As believers in Christ within the family of faith at First Presbyterian Church, what is the Lord calling us to in fulfilling the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) for our surrounding community?  What unique gifts has God given us to offer our neighbors in New Castle, Henry County, and beyond?  How would the Lord have you exercise your gifts along with others as we are called to participate in mission and ministry with those around us in cooperation with the Holy Spirit? 
To be a missional community, we cannot be a congregation that expects people to come to us.  Instead, we are called to seek ways to become involved in our surrounding community; to engage with and be a blessing in the lives of people around us.  The “old way� of doing church may have meant focusing on buildings and land, or programs and facilities.  The idea exemplified by our popular culture in the movie, Field of Dreams, was the model of “if [we] build it, they will come,� or to put it another way, “if we upgrade or modernize, it will be more appealing for them to come.�  (Dr. Stephen A. Hayner in his message at the inaugural conference of the Presbyterian Global Fellowship characterized this with the notion of “compelling them to come in� as one may misapply mission by conquest from the parable of the great banquet in Luke 14:23.)[1] 

But the missional church must take issue with that.  While it may entail the use of a more adequately equipped facility to do the work of ministry with excellence for God’s glory, the greater and larger vision is one that would include us living our lives with intentionality in and among those around us in such a way that a desire for the God Whom we serve is engendered within them and that they are moved to become willing to be with us as we are with them. 

The missional church is called to be incarnational, embodying Jesus as the body of believers in Christ being salt and light so that the surrounding world might witness and experience the things of the kingdom among them and be drawn to the Son by the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit.  Facilities and programs are a means to relationship and a vehicle for ministry.  They should never be the primary focus of staff, leaders, or anyone else in the congregation gathered for worship, study and fellowship.  The missional church’s focus is to keep on asking where and how they can be in and among the folks in the community with the purpose of glorifying God and forever enjoying God together. 
The Rev. Dr. Terry Mann, pastor at Fountain Park Church writes on “being missional�… 

Being missional is indeed about caring, reaching out to, and ministering to those commonly referred to as “seekers.�  But it goes so far beyond that. 
A lot of the discussion I am hearing centers around being missional in this sense: “What do we do in order to have others come to us?�  “How should our program look to be attractive?�  Friends, that is not being missional.  That is being attractional.  [There is a] Huge difference.

Attractional says, “How do we get them here?�
Missional says, “How do we go to them?’
Attractional says, “Here we are.�
Missional says, “Where are you?�
Attractional says, “Come, let me help you.�
Missional says, “Let me be with you.�
Attractional says, “What is appealing?�
Missional says. “Where should I be investing my time?�
Attractional says, “Come.�
Missional says, “Go.�
Both care about those without Christ, but the core movement is opposite. 

Now, before you say so, let me.  Being missional will indeed be attractional, – at least on some level.  When folks see you coming to them, see you caring for them where they are, without a hidden agenda; that is indeed appealing!  BUT and this is a big BUT, the key . . . is that being missional starts with the church going to them; not us striving to get them to us.  Please understand this difference.  It is at the core![2] 

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 12th, 2006 at 12:02 am and is filed under Missional Community. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.