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What are Some Practical Examples of What it Means to be Missional?
In the comments of the last post, Jim asked this question:
“I’m just beginning to try to help my established congregation turn itself into a missional focus.
I really like the notes and presentation, but where I struggle is where your presentation leaves off…what does this look like practically…what are the practices your community is a part of…in what ways is your community different in appearance, look and action than what I see going on in my established non-missional congregation?
just looking for some practical, concrete things I can point to as I think about helping my congregation move in another direction.”
This is really a great question! I began to make a comment but realized it was really long and figured it may as well be a new post. So here are my thoughts…
I was going to write in the last post that i felt like the weakest part of the class was the end. That’s mostly because I had less time than I wanted to have to prepare this part.
I also stayed away from the concrete things so as to hopefully ignite the imaginations of those in the class without giving them the answers. that would have been too easy :). That said, if I were to teach the class again, I’d probably have some more concrete examples to work though.
I would say this, the ways it has looked at the well is by beginning in small, small ways. Its been a four year process for us and its clear we have a lot more work to do.
Some examples:
- Getting face to face with poverty in your own town or city will do more for mission than anything else. find a way to regularly get a few of your people interacting with the poor. They won’t put up with the status quo anymore. Some of the most effective ministry we do has come from small pockets of our congregation having regular experiences with those in need.
- Find a few people who have realized that the way we are living economically in our culture is terrible and encourage them to find ways to begin living differently.
- Invite your small groups to be more than bible studies, encourage them to serve in the community.
- When you talk about budget and money, make sure its all connected to mission. if you can’t, then reorganize your community a bit to actually be about mission. if people don’t see how your church is affecting others, giving will be down. which means, if your church isn’t giving outward… your giving will be down. the problem is either that the church isn’t giving or that the congregation doesn’t see the connection between their giving and the mission.
These are just some examples off the top of my head. Basically, creating change within a church (especially one with a lot of history) is a long and trying process. I believe the biggest thing leaders can do is to start with small “mustard seed” experiments and see where the Spirit leads.
A good book would be The Missional Leader by Alan Roxburgh. In his book, Alan has some great thoughts on cultivating conversations in your church that call forth the mission God has for the congregation.
Anybody else have anything to add?
Malcolm said...
107/14/08 8:28 PM | Comment Link |
Hey Todd… If you look at my post from the Missional synchroblog the other day you will see some practical examples of what it means to be missional… click here: http://www.completinggodsmission.com/Mission_Work/Missional/Entries/2008/6/23_What_is_Missional-_Definition_%26_Examples-_Missional_SynchroBlog.html
Thanks.
Dan B. said...
207/15/08 6:13 PM | Comment Link |
Hi Todd,
Some things our church is doing:
1. Thanks to the passion of a few women, we have a pretty thriving jail ministry to women. This includes a weekly Bible study and a weekly AA meeting in the jail. We duplicate the Bible study that is held in the jail on Sunday morning so that when women get out of jail they can pick up the Bible study/small group at church. We did this so they can meet women in church and find out that all of us have problems and issues we’re working on. So far, 7 women from jail attend regularly and two are being trained as small group leaders. We also in the last 6 months have a developed transitional housing, called “My Sister’s House,” where women can go when they get out of jail instead of going back into the same home environment (drugs, abuse, etc) where they came from. We have two women there now and hope to have 4 by the end of the year.
2. We’re choosing a ministry evangelism/outreach project each month. This month we’re purchasing Rapid Deployemnt Kits for Campus Crusade to distribute to troops. In August, we’re collecting cell phones for the local domestic violence shelter. They can get the phones reconditioned to be 911-only emergency phones or use them to raise money. We’re also inviting someone from the shelter to talk to our kids about what they do to augment a series they’re going through on sex, purity and modesty.
3. We’re also in the beginning stages of a men’s compassion ministry to help single moms, the elderly and others with home and car maintenance projects. It’s something we learned about from our trips down to New Orleans after Katrina.
And one thing we try to do is let the community and our congregation know about what we’re doing and what the results are. Not to blow our horns but to generate excitement and passion within the congregation so that others who have ideas will come forward. We also want to “brand” our congregation as one that cares about people outside our church walls.
Dan B. said...
307/15/08 6:15 PM | Comment Link |
One more thing about the jail. We’re hoping we’ll have three guys go through jail training at the end of the year so we can with the men what we’re doing with the women. Hopefully, even have a “My Brother’s Place” going.
Todd said...
407/16/08 10:42 AM | Comment Link |
Dan, good stuff! especially the prison thing. I like the continued help you are offering the women after they get out. very, very cool.
Josh said...
507/17/08 9:21 PM | Comment Link |
Todd -
Interestingly mission in the post is centered around service or economics…but what about getting people ‘missionally minded’ in their everyday relationships. If you link the idea of ‘mission’ and suburbia one of the greatest things we can do (and what I attempt to do) is simply connect with those around me who are different and establish relationship with them.
So I mow my neighbors lawn because he’s got allergies or I watch other neighbor’s kids or my wife and I befriend those who were considered outcasts when they moved into the neighborhood because of lifestyle choices.
I know consumerism is a huge issue that makes economical decisions and decisions to give of oneself in service as some of the things to do to be missional, but I would also suggest we just look at our context (work, neighborhoods, places we daily are) and see how we can break out of isolation(ism), which I think is something else both the church and culture deal with in a suburban environment that leads to more of an anti-missional mindset.
Todd said...
607/17/08 11:28 PM | Comment Link |
Josh, right on. Most definitely! I have found that the financial and economic and time issues often (not always) make it harder to do the things you jsut described. Meaning: we’re so strapped with debt we’re working extra long hours and just “have no time” to do these things. Or, at least we’re so stressed with life that we think we don’t (Even though we really do).
But, yeah, great examples.
Malcolm said...
707/18/08 5:51 AM | Comment Link |
Josh and Todd… good points. This same thing happens within churches. As the summer goes longer, as tithes and offerings go down because of the economy or because of the holidays… churches have a tendency to want to circle the wagons and want to take care of those that are coming to the church, they become inward focused and instead of being missional, they become focused on maintaining what they have.
Which takes the church away from it’s calling within the neighborhood or community in which they live. Churches also are straddled with debt, or put their money in things that they think they need, which in both cases takes resources away from living out their missional calling.
I know when I was on a church staff, my best and most creative ministry happened when the church cutback my operating budget. It forced me to not do so many outreaches that cost money… but it forced me to do low cost outreaches that ended up being more relational, more fruitful and became more missional. Things like starting a jail Bible study, going out and hanging with the homeless, working more at the homeless shelter and soup kitchen.
Gary said...
807/19/08 10:26 PM | Comment Link |
I knew a guy in Denver who took in a street kids who had been abandoned by his parents. Where did he meet this kid? At Burger King, where the kid worked. He learned his situation because he actually talked to the kid who worked at Burger King. I’m not sure that being missional calls for something dramatic. It’s about realizing that we are sent at every moment. It’s about bringing the most mundane moments (i.e. going into Burger King) into the Kingdom of God.