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.

But, yeah, great examples.

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.

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.

Thanks.