Thursday, July 26, 2007

Becoming Missional

Brian Russell has almost single-handedly given me hope that the Wesleyan Church has a chance to give up its addiction to church growth and business models for the church and that it might somehow figure out how to become a missional organization.

In this post, he lists 4 transitions that an existing congregation will need to make in order to become missional:

1. Reintroduce the apostolic narrative of Acts. "In many struggling churches, the people of God have lost the capacity to dream of what God might do in and through the community. One of the first steps in transitioning to a missional model is to help followers of Jesus Christ to begin to dream again dreams shaped by the Scriptures."

2. Move from surviving to living. "The goal of the Church of Jesus Christ is life in relationship to God." Surviving keeps us from living. Sacrificing for the future can also be an obstacle. A church must learn to live in the power of the kingdom in its current circumstances.

3. Move from consumerism to participation in the kingdom. "The people of God shift from consuming to becoming Kingdom-rooted entrepreneurs who seek to extend the influence and reign of God to the ends of the earth. Congregations shift from inviting people to have their needs met to unleashing people to change the world."

4. Shift from attractional methods to incarnational ministry. "The World no longer serves as a threat from which followers of Christ flee. Instead, the World becomes the venue for life and service in God's mission."

Sounds like he's pretty much got it right.

Pastor Rod

"Helping You Become the Person God Created You to Be"

1 comment:

tonymyles said...

I like this... not complete, of course, but definitely prescriptive enough for the modern and movement enough for the postmodern