A Missional Church?
Posted by Isaac Butterworth | Filed under Community, Missional Church, Vision
For the last few years, I have been occupied with the matter of vision for ministry and mission, particularly with regard to the church I serve as a pastor. The term vision, of course, relates to “seeing,” and, fundamentally, what we long to see is God’s future, as the Scriptures reveal it. I usually talk about this future as “the way God wants the world to be.” It is characterized by God’s perfect shalom (peace), which is not simply the absence of conflict but, rather, the world (including society) ordered according to God’s purposes. It is what we pray for (knowingly or not) when we say each week, “Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
Along these lines, I have been deeply influenced over the past few years by what has come to be called the missional church movement. A “missional” church is not simply a church that promotes and supports mission efforts of one sort or another. (Our church does that in some remarkable ways, but there is more to being a “missional” church.)
• To be “missional” has less to do with anything a church does, and more to do with what a church is, with the character of its common life.
• To be “missional” means to discover – as a church, not just as individuals – what God is doing in the world, specifically in our own neighborhood, and to join in that great work (no matter how small it may appear to be).
• To be “missional” means to understand that the mission is nothing less than to restore the whole created order (“a new heaven and a new earth”). Therefore, THE mission is not the mission of the church; the church could never restore the creation. It is first and foremost the mission of God (the missio dei), and God has called us to be partners in that movement.
The best definition of “missional” that I have come across is that of Rachel Held Evans. She writes that a missional approach…
…is simply a commitment to living like Jesus in order to serve as an imperfect participant in the Kingdom of God that is among us now and as an incomplete picture of the fully restored and redeemed Kingdom of God that is to come. Missional living is basically redemptive living…within a community and for the community.”
The big question is: What does God want to accomplish in the lives of people as a result of their involvement with the churches of which we are a part? The Scriptures, of course, give us several profiles of the work of grace in the lives of a people. The Apostle Paul describes “the fruit of the Spirit” in Galatians 5:22f.: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Ephesians describes a community in which we “speak the truth,” in which we manage our anger so that it is not an indulgence in sin, in which we let no evil talk come out of our mouths “but only what is useful for building up…, so that [our] words may give grace to those who hear.” The description also includes giving to the needy, putting away “all bitterness and wrath and anger, together with all malice,” and being “kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven [us].”
Ultimately, of course, God’s design is that we be “conformed to the image” of Jesus (Rom. 8:29), or, as Ephesians puts it, we are to “be imitators of God, as beloved children, and [to] live in love, as Christ has loved us…” (Eph. 5:1f.). The question I ask about the church I serve is this: Is it a setting in which this work of grace can take place? There is, of course, no setting in which God is not at work. But can we be midwives, so to speak, of this gracious work of God? This should be our focus: to be an alternative community for the sake of the larger community.
Part of being a “missional” church is to move away from being what is called an “attractional” church, that is, a church where the effort to get more people inside our walls on Sundays becomes the primary mission. The mission is “out there” as well as “in here.” In his 1961 book, The Company of the Committed, Elton Trueblood wrote:
The paradox of the apparent victory, yet real defeat, of the contemporary Church is nowhere more vividly demonstrated than in the present concentration upon attendance. Great billboard advertisements appear by the hundreds with a single message, “Worship Together This Week.” The fact that the donors of the advertisements are undoubtedly motivated by goodwill toward the life of religion, as they understand it, does not obscure the fundamental ineptitude of their effort. Obviously, the sponsors of the advertisements look upon attendance at a religious assembly as the major religious act or the major evidence of church membership” (The Company of the Committed, pp. 18f.).
It is not, of course. God’s main concern cannot be reduced to getting people to sit in pews for an hour each week. God’s main concern is to heal this fractured world, and the invitation stands to join with God in that effort.
Having said that, I should say one more thing – which may seem contradictory at first but, in fact, is not. Gathering for worship is not negligible. If we are to have any sense of community in the congregations to which we belong – a real part of what it means to be “missional” – we need a stronger level of commitment to being together at the “family celebration.”
Worship at its best is not about entertaining me; it is about serving God. We’re not the “audience” in worship; God is. What you and I bring to worship is as important – and perhaps more important – than what we “get out of it.” If we are to be the community God has called us to be, we must give priority to being together. We must show up. It is in our gathering that we hear the Word proclaimed and receive the Word enacted in Sacrament; it is also there that we discover the Word in the world and are sent to follow the Word into that arena (Book, of Order, W-1.1004). It is there – in the world – that we will find Christ, the living Word of God, actively engaged in restoring the creation.
Photo credit: Sonoran Visions — Kino Bay by Artotem
February 1, 2010 at 10:59 pm
This is a great message and I think brings to light the true purpose of what the Church is about. It is about God. I think we all easily forget that worship is not about us. Like you said, “Worship at its best is not about entertaining me; it is about serving God.”
What is the purpose of the Church as a whole, not just the church on the corner that you attend? Much more than increasing membership. It is about fulfilling God’s purpose and building loving relationships with others.
February 2, 2010 at 2:21 pm
You are exactly right, Jonathan. As God’s people, we are in a covenant relationship with our Creator and Redeemer, whose intention is to restore a severely damaged creation. We often spend precious energy on matters unrelated to our Lord’s real mission in this world. Thank you for your comment.
February 2, 2010 at 9:22 am
Thanks for such a timely message. My first note from your sermon on the 24th is, “Consider that when you leave church wondering if you have been entertained enough.” I’m afraid we are a society that has become addicted to being entertained and hope that we can learn to play to an audience of One!
February 2, 2010 at 2:18 pm
Joan, we cannot help but be influenced, even shaped, by the dominant culture. It makes consumers of us all. Our best strategy begins with awareness and then moves to intentionality with regard to what we will allow to shape us. Dallas Willard, in his book Renovation of the Heart, says: “That spiritual place within us from which outlook, choices and actions come has been formed by a world away from God. Now it must be transformed” (p. 14). Thank you, Joan, for taking the time to comment.
February 2, 2010 at 10:21 am
So then, does the missional church look and behave like the person that tends to the sick, the poor, the widow, and the orphan? Then, worships God in an accountable and communal environment? We have a written witness to the prototype. HOW DIVINE.
February 2, 2010 at 2:08 pm
Brad, when I think of the New Testament image of the church as the Body of Christ, I am convinced that the term “body” is not exhausted in the notion of a collective group (such as a school’s “student body”). Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) once wrote: “Christ has no body but yours, no hands, no feet on earth but yours. Yours are the eyes with which he looks with compassion on this world. Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world. Yours are the hands, yours are the feet, yours are the eyes. You are his body. Christ has no body now on earth but yours.” Thanks for your comment.