Transforming Leadership, Transforming Lives!

Presents

What is a Missional Church?

Primary Ingredients of Missional Church DNA

A true helix is complex

So is the churchA true helix is complex

The Missional Church

An authentic faith community whose primary focus is serving outward, on

mission with God, bringing Christ’s love alive in its neighborhood and beyond.

6 DNA markers ofmissional churches

Mission Markers

1.Treats its context as a fluid/constantly changing mission field

2.Active in & supportive of mission

3.Mission = Great Commission (making disciples) + Great Commandments (loving God and others as self)

4.Recognizes all people as the subject and object of God’s mission

5.Engaged in transformation of persons, churches, systems, culture

6.Multiplies church, disciples, mission

Mission Markers

You live in a constantly changing mission field

Treats its context as fluidMarker #1

What changes can you identify since 1958?

• In your community?• In your church?• In our denomination?• Which change the way we do/be church?

20081958Our 50-year timeline

Marker #1

Mission Field

• Missional people live in the imagination that they are God’s missionaries living in a mission field.

• Missional people live in the reality that they live in a land where the Christian faith does not dominate culture or society.

Marker #1

Traditional characteristics of a mission field

1. Other beliefs

2. Diverse cultures and languages

3. Social needs & justice issues

4. One or more “overlooked” people groups

5. Lack of enough churches that are reaching out to their community

Marker #1

Has your community become a mission field?

Marker #1

How is your church responding?

1. What other belief systems are present or dominant?2. What languages are spoken?3. What cultural world views are represented?4. What social/economic needs & justice issues are

apparent? Who is affected?5. Are there “overlooked people groups”?6. Is there a need for new or more “indigenous”

churches to reach out in your community?

Active in & supportive of missionSupportive of

1.“Over there”

2. Financial

3. Denominational• Foreign (IM)• Home (NM)• Regional

4. Programs

5. Low direct involvement

Marker #2

Engaged in

1.“Right here”

2. Participation

3. Congregational• Cross Cultural• Contextual

4. Mission teams

5. High levels of engagement

How might we be active in the missions we support?

• Are there community services we can partner with?

• Can we receive training from missions we support?

• What else?

Marker #2

Missional church recognizes its mission includes both…

The Great Commission• Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,

baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.

―Matthew 28:17-20The Great Commandments• You shall love the Lord your God with all your

heart, and with all your soul, & all your mind. • You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

―Matthew 22:37-38

Marker #3

The Great Commission Matthew 28:17

God calls your church to leave its “stained glass borders” and go into all the world with the Christian message to make new disciples, teaching them to obey everything Jesus has commanded us.

Marker #3

The Great Commission (Evangelistic) Mandate

• The outcome of discipleship is believers who are equipped, empowered and engaged in the work of God’s mission in their context and beyond.

• Jesus invited (called) people to experience discipleship by becoming involved in his mission activities before they came to faith.

Marker #3

• What does your church perceive to be the goal of evangelism?

• In what ways does your church demonstrate faith and invite others to become disciples who also follow Jesus into God’s mission?

The Great Commission (Evangelistic) Mandate

Marker #3

Treats all people as subject & object of mission

Object of Mission

“Acted upon/served”• Served• Evangelized• Contextualized

for… • Expect little from

Subject of Mission

“Active/Engaged in”• Participating in• Evangelizers• Incarnated within

own culture• Expect God to speak

and act through

Marker #4

Object of Mission

In your community,

who do you

• Serve?

• Evangelize?

• Advocate for?

• Expect little from?

Marker #4

Subject of Mission

Who do you expect to

• Participate in mission?

• Invite others to be disciples?

• Incarnate the Christian message?

• Serve and speak God’s voice to us?

Marker #4

Transforms people, church & communities

This missional endeavor seeks to hold persons, churches and communities accountable to their God-given task of being missional, and provides opportunities and resources for transforming to that purpose.

Marker #5

Transforms people• How are church members being transformed

by God’s Holy Spirit? How are church members being equipped for service?

• Resources and opportunities for renewing members for mission?

– Spiritual vitality?

– Personal integrity?

– Missional intentionality?

Marker #5

Incremental changes are implemented intentionally to enable a church to move toward becoming a “community of faith which directs its ministry focus outward toward our community and world beyond.” This is a continual process.

Transforms churchMarker #5

Transforms church• What resources are in place for your church’s

transformation toward its missional purpose?• What systems (boards, committees, governing

bodies) are undergoing change to be focused outward?

• What new initiatives are being born and what programs no longer serving their purpose are being put to rest?

Marker #5

Community transformation• This missional endeavor extends beyond personal

transformation to corporate transformation, calling the systems and powers of our communities to their rightful position of servanthood of the people they tend to subjugate.

• No system, the church included, is exempt from its need for the liberating transformation of the Christian message.

• If your church no longer existed in your community why would it be missed?

Marker #5

Transforms context

– Making it a safe and just place to live– Calling systems to servanthood– Promoting cultural sensitivity– Supporting economic development– Supporting religious freedom

Marker #5

How can your church participate in community transformation?

Multiplies church, disciples & mission

• Multiplication of missional action through multiplying missional teams

• Multiplication of missional faith communities through extension and bridging

• Build into your missional teams the DNA of reproduction!

Marker #6

• What mechanism does your church have in place to foster missional action through creating new missional teams?

• How will your church build into its first missional team the DNA of reproduction so other teams that include people from the community can be formed?

Multiplies church,disciples & mission

Marker #6

Keeping “missional” in focus

Looking at “church” through missional eyes is like looking at the familiar in a new way.

Keeping “missional” in focus

The new “missional- way” will go in and out of focus, until trained eyes can hold the old and the new in focus.

The Missional Church

An authentic faith community whose primary focus is serving outward, on

mission with God, bringing Christ’s love alive in its neighborhood and beyond.

Missional in terms of ABCUSA Policy Statement on Evangelism

Evangelism is the joyous witness of the People of God to the redeeming love of God urging all to repent and to be reconciled to God & each other through faith in Jesus Christ who lived, died, and was raised from the dead.

Missional in terms of ABCUSA Policy Statement on Evangelism

So that being made new and empowered by the Holy Spirit, believers are incorporated as disciples into the church for worship, fellowship, nurture and engagement in God’s mission of evangelization & liberation within society and creation signifying the Kingdom which is present and yet to come.