Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Friend of Missional





  • "A missional church is one where people are exploring and rediscovering what it means to be Jesus' sent people as their identity and vocation.
  • A missional church will be made up of individuals willing and ready to be Christ's people in their own situation and place.
  • A missional church knows that they must be a cross-cultural missionary (contextual) people in their own community.
  • A missional church will be engaged with the culture (in the world) without being absorbed by the culture (not of the world). They will become intentionally indigenous.
  • A missional church understands that God is already present in the culture where it finds itself. Therefore, a missional church doesn't view its purpose as bringing God into the culture or taking individuals out of the culture to a sacred space.
  • A missional church will seek to plant all types of missional communities to expand the Kingdom of God.
  • A missional church faithfully proclaims the Gospel through word and deed; how we embody the gospel in our community and service is as important as what we say.
  • A missional church seeks to put the good of their neighbor over their own.
  • A missional church will give integrity, morality, good character and conduct, compassion, love and a resurrection life filled with hope preeminence to give credence to their reasoned verbal witness.
  • A missional church practices hospitality by welcoming the stranger into the midst of the community.
  • A missional church will see themselves as a community or family on a mission together. There are no "Lone Ranger" Christians in a missional church.
  • A missional church will see themselves as representatives of Jesus and will do nothing to dishonor his name.
  • A missional church will be totally reliant on God in all it does. It will move beyond superficial faith to a life of supernatural living.
  • A missional church will be desperately dependent on prayer.
  • A missional church gathered will be for the purpose of worship, encouragement, supplemental teaching, training, and to seek God's presence and to be realigned with his God's missionary purpose.
  • A missional church is orthodox in its view of the Gospel and Scripture, but culturally relevant in its methods and practice so that it can engage the world view of the hearers.
  • A missional church will feed deeply on the scriptures throughout the week so they are always ready to speak up and tell anyone who asks why they're living the way they are.
  • A missional church will be a community where all members are involved in learning to be disciples of Jesus. Growth in discipleship is an expectation.
  • A missional church will help people discover and develop their spiritual gifts and will rely on gifted people for ministry instead of talented people.
  • A missional church is a healing community where people carry each other's burdens and help restore gently."

Rick Meigs brings us Friend of Missional.

1 comment:

Missional Jerry said...

Rick has done an excellent job with these thoughts.