Finding the Found to Find the Lost

Posted under Evangelism, missional by FPeatross

The greatest barrier to a clear Kingdom vision may be a misunderstanding of what a priority- missional community looks like. I acknowledge that most Christian churches have a missional aspect. But when one examines a missional-priority church more closely, one discovers a significant difference between church outreach and a missional church. That difference begins at the theological foundation and ultimately finds expression in practices inherent to the broader Kingdom vision. Practically speaking missional-priority means spending more time with the missing than with Christian friends

Individually some of us do this at work and in our neighborhoods. But leaders “who are in the know” become responsible for building a culture of missional priority believers.

How does a conventional church reverse its direction?

In short, missional leaders begin by systematically talking to the community about process salvation and each individual’s place in the process.

Missional leaders help the community understand the ease and simplicity of entering into salvation’s process and correct the common held belief that it is the Christian’s responsibility to take God to the missing. That old container is removed by helping the community understand that no one takes God to anyone. God is already in the lives of their co-workers, friends, and family. Missional leaders teach the community the simplicity of helping their friends connect the dot.

This becomes the center-piece of the assembly. It’s talked about every time the community comes together

• Missional leaders remove the fear. Ordinary attempts replace memorization, speeches, and coercion
• Unfortunately, there are those in church leadership who suffer from a “missional instinct deficit” which makes missional culture building impossible. Church leaders can’t be talked into or coerced to live passionately for building a culture of missional Christians. It has to come from deep within because the process of culture building is time intensive-demanding a tremendous amount of energy and patience
• All across America churches are expending energy and time crafting the Sunday morning ‘worship’ while a large percentage of resources are being consumed by staff and buildings. Churches that opt for missional culture building will have to redirecting their focus and resources. Otherwise the process will never get out of the starting gate.

For the conventional church the man in the pulpit has to consider missional culture building as important as sermon building if change is to take place. He has the pulpit. He has influence. But he must have the wisdom and the understand as well as a strong passion for developing a missional community of believers  If all these things come together a faith community has the potential of transcending the attractional consumer church and sparking a community to belief and action.  

But without a total commitment to the idea of missional culture building on the part of leadership, it’s a stillborn thought.

I haven’t given up on the conventional church as many have, but it would sadden me to think historian Barbara Tuchman was right when she said…

“In the scaled of history, inertia always outweighs that of change”