Missional Community

What does missional ministry look like for your...

2006-01-19T17:27:00.000-08:00

...Prayer Ministry

Community prayer walking/driving
Praying for the lost
Community prayer website or online bulletin board
Prayer booths
Adopting community leaders for prayer
Community prayer meetings

Missional starts here

2006-01-04T09:03:00.000-08:00

I often here it asked "how does a church become missional".

While there are some concrete ways a church can move towards missional ministry, it is of critical importance to remember that signifiant movements and transformations always start in the lives of individuals.

Its time to draw a circle around ourselves and start moving what's in the cirlce toward missonal living.

How are you personally becoming more missional? Check out the "Missional?" section of www.missionalcommunity.com and ask yourself the questions that are listed.

Do we value people serving the community?

2006-01-02T09:52:00.000-08:00

I recently had a conversation with a woman who shared about the experience her husband and she had in a local church…

“We started to attend the church because of a support group for adoptive parents they had. We were never really into church, but we both had some religion in our backgrounds. We really liked the opportunity to be fed spiritually. However, after a few months we realized that the message of the church was in order to be fully accepted into the community we needed to sign up to participate in all these activities the church had going on. We just couldn’t make that commitment. We’re already very committed to helping others and do so in many ways in the community; from adopting needy families at a local school to serving in leadership of various community organizations that are meeting the needs of people. We just felt like these community activities we were involved in just didn’t count to the church and our community service would never be valued by the church.

I wonder if this is the message we send to people through our church. Do we value people that serve the community as much as we value people that serve in programs in the church?

Where's the proof?

2006-01-02T09:50:00.000-08:00

If you couldn’t speak how you would communicate to people that you were a Christ follower? What would be the proof that you followed Jesus?

How often you attend church?
How much you’ve learned about the Bible?
How much time you spend in prayer? How much money you give to the church?
Which bumper stickers are on your car?
Which candidates and political issues you support?

It’s pretty clear from John 13:35 what Jesus taught…”Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are followers of mine.” If that isn’t a call to missional living, to irrationally loving EVERYONE around us, I don’t know what is.

Looking at people through God's eyes

2006-01-02T09:49:00.000-08:00

Comments overhead by a church member...

Did you see the guy in church this Sunday that looked like he was homeless? How could you miss him? I saw him before the service out by the coffee cart smoking a cigarette. His hair was all messed up, his clothes were kind of ratty, and his shirt wasn’t tucked in and didn’t fit right so his belly kind of hung out. It was gross. What was he doing here? Then during the service he got up to leave and even said something aloud to the person next to him in order to excuse himself from the service. One of my kids said they saw him bend over to pick something up and could see his crack…not the kind you smoke. Eeeww! I found out later he was (so-and-so’s) brother. He’s an alcoholic and I understand has done every kind of drug you can think of.

The question that kept rattling around in my head when I heard this was... I wonder what they’d have seen if they looked through God’s eyes?

How do you spend your time? Attracting or blessing?

2006-01-02T09:47:00.000-08:00

My daughter and I were greeted the other day at a local shopping center by a group of people from church handing out postcards that invited people to their church and explained “what is a Christian”.

As we talked about this, we agreed that the church undoubtedly had people’s best interest in mind in trying to get them to get involved in their church. As we continued the conversation we brainstormed about the circumstance from a missional perspective…

What if the 6 to 8 people that were there, for about 5 – 6 hours each, took those 30+ hours and blessed the community by cleaning up a local park or volunteering in some other project? What kind of message would that send to people about what their lives would be like if they attended that church? Which use of their time would tend to draw people closer to the missional God we serve?

Certainly something to think about when we’re spending our valuable resource of time.

What do you see God doing?

2006-01-02T09:44:00.000-08:00

Here's a great exercise to try:
Pray that God would give you eyes to see what He sees in the community around you. Then pick a place in your community and spend 1-2 hours observing people.

What needs do you see?

What opportunities are their to bless people in your community?

What do you see God doing that you can be involved in?

Share with us what God revealed to you.

Psalm 23 & Missional Living

2005-12-27T11:00:00.000-08:00

If we are to be God’s hands and feet in the world around us, how are we doing?

Are we shepherding people and providing for their needs? Do we give them rest and peace or only further add to the weariness and lack of peace in their lives? Do we renew and build-up people’s strength or suck the life right out of them? Are we guiding people through life or leaving them to try and figure it out on their own, and then standing around pointing out how their not honoring God? When people find themselves walking through the dark valleys of life are we there to help comfort and protect them? There is no doubt people’s lives are filled with enemies to their souls. Do we provide a feast for them, welcoming them in with blessings, amidst all the enemies they face? Surely God’s goodness and unfailing love will pursue them their whole lives, that’s just how He is. But are we pursuing people with goodness and love so that they can experience what God’s like here on earth, and have the opportunity to know Him and live with Him forever like we will?