Are We Missional?

How does a church fulfill its mission in the 21st century? Jesus gave us our marching orders when he told us to go into the world and make disciples. We have defined that as leading people to know and follow Christ. The American church has often followed the “build it and they will come” method of evangelism. We build buildings and create programs with the intention of reaching our culture. Too often these buildings and programs serve only the members of the church itself. We do church and hope many will come and join us. And some do, but many more in our culture have simply concluded that the church is at best irrelevant and at worse arrogant and judgmental. While buildings and programs are necessary, I believe there is much more to being the church. Today many in the American church are talking about become more Missional. This has been defined as “a philosophy of ministry in which followers of Christ are counter-cultural, on a mission to change the culture. Missional refers to the specific activity of the church to build the kingdom of God in all settings where church members are at work, rather than building up the local congregation, its programs, numbers, and facilities.” (Leadership Journal, Winter 2007, p 20) In other words the church must be about reaching out into the world rather than expecting the world to come to us. The church is about what is happening all week rather than Sunday morning or Wednesday night. We are the church when we coach baseball, serve on community organizations and take a plate of cookies to our neighbor. The church is not on the corner of Saxon and Clifton. The church is spread out across Loomis, Holdrege and Bertrand. We are the church. Are we building relationships with our neighbors and meeting needs in our community? Our community needs to see the church this week not as an irrelevant institution but as a community of people who are walking together as Jesus walked. Lets be Missional. Our neighbor’s future depends upon it.