Missional Church! What makes a Church Missional?

I really thank God that the church we are involved in is indeed missional!

Here are some basic thoughts on Missional Church as I try to get my head around it.

There is a huge spectrum of what mission looks like at a local church level. Below are some of the scenarios you often find in churches who are totally involved in missions, partly involved and not at all engaged.

Total Involvement A church with mission at the heart is a church who see mission as the DNA and structure around which the church is built. ·      This kind of church will usually include people in leadership who are apostolic or evangelistic in gifting and equip the whole church to be missional in their thinking and practice. ·         A majority of church activities are ‘outreach’ based and focus on winning people to Jesus. ·         The giving of such churches to missions is often outstanding and there is a general sense of excitement and motivation in the congregation. ·         There is a structure and expectation to support those who are wanting to be involved in long term mission service or set up local mission initiatives. ·         This kind of church would have a well structured mission programme and most likely have several short-term mission trips taking place every year. ·         This church would value mission right from the locality to the ends of the earth. They educate their congregation on unreached people groups and encourage all to get involved in giving and praying and going on mission.

Some Involvement ·         This church is concerned with keeping the membership happy and so cater to the desires of those who are in the church rather than outreaching into the community and the world. ·         There is some involvement in missions in terms of their giving to missions projects around the world and they may also run some outreach style activities but more on a sporadic basis. ·         Missions activity and evangelism is encouraged but there is no formal structure to enable this to happen.

A Little/ No Involvement ·         This kind of church has long since ceased to do any form of outreach or evangelism into the community. ·          It is more focused on maintaining the status quo. Such churches do not attract the younger generation. ·         If you asked the congregation whether they believe in evangelism they would whole heartedly agree and yet they do not know how to reach out to their community let alone the world. Such churches are often led by pastor/ teacher leaders in gifting who personally have no vision for outreach. ·         This kind of church may give to missionaries when they are on itinerary.

How can local churches be more missional?

The Leader Needs to be Mission minded

A well known saying by John Maxwell is that ‘everything rises and falls on leadership’. Great leaders have the potential to influence and enthuse their followers. Any church which is going to have a missional emphasis will definitely have a leader who is passionate about seeing a lost world won to Christ. Such leaders are innovative and active individuals who draw others into the task of the Great Commission.

The church will reflect its leader. If the leader is very pastoral and nurturing then the church will attract people who need care and attention. The church may also be full of nurturing types of people. If you have a church which is led by a very evangelistic or apostolic person, you will find a church enthused to do evangelism and outreach. If the leader has a passion for Israel, this too will be reflected in the church. For a church to be truly missional, the leader has to be mission minded and know how to equip and channel missional activity in the 

church.

The leader needs to be ‘releasing’ in nature. This means that they are more involved in the advancement of the Kingdom of God rather than holding onto gifted or talented individuals in the church- should those individuals wish to serve God in another capacity or context. The leader needs to also balance ‘releasing’ with ‘shepherding’ and protecting the congregation as they go about serving God.

The Vision of the Church Must be Missional

I believe it is wise for every church to have a vision statement. This needs to be prayerfully thought through. For a church to be truly missional the vision statement should reflect this emphasis and then the activities of the church should centre around this. My view is that a missional church should have ‘discipleship of all nations’ as an agenda.

A church leader we know stated that a missional church is ‘A church that pushes boundaries to reach people, breaks down barriers to minster the gospel to them, and builds bridges to connect them to God and the Church!’ This would be a great vision statement for a church to take on board.

The Church Must be Taught on Missions

The church congregation need to be taught about missions. I wonder how many Christians truly understand the Great Commission and placing God’s plan for the world as a top priority in their life.

Churches need to be taught about the significance of Matthew 28:18-20, Acts 1:8 and other Great Commission scriptures. Christians need to know that God wants to use each person in His great master plan to reach the nations with the gospel. Such teaching and emphasis must be prioritised throughout the year.

The church need to be educated on global issues and unreached people groups with a focus on how we need to love all races in the world.

The Church Need Equipping and Encouraging to Get Involved in Mission.

Beyond teaching is the whole emphasis of training. Churches need to be trained and equipped to get involved in missions. There needs to be well thought through plans and opportunities for every church member to be equipped to reach others. Churches need to encourage those who have faith to share their faith with others. It is a good idea for churches to invite visiting evangelists to come and share thoughts and ideas on how to reach others with the gospel and opportunities to invite the un-churched to evangelistic meetings.

There also needs to be space and opportunities for individuals in the church to set up projects in order to raise money for mission and get further involved in missions work at home and abroad.