Does Anybody Really Know What A Missional Church Is?

I was talking with Dian Kidd from UBA (one of our church planting leaders in Houston) yesterday, and mentioned that our team/ministry was very intentional about planting “missional” churches. I told her that this was a “distinctive” of NCI. She raised a very good question with me – she stated that almost everybody today considers their model to be “missional” (i.e. Willow models, Saddleback models, Acts 29 models, GlocalNet, Organic models, denominational models, etc.) She was right! So the question is “What do we believe a missional church really is?” I’m convinced that not every model that claims to be “missional” is.

I’ve recently begun consulting relationships with a couple of new church plants and the leadership teams all claimed to be “missional.” As I asked them questions to understand their visions and their mental models of church, I realized very quickly that they were much more “consumer-driven” than missional. In fact, I’m coming to believe that North American “consumerism” is the biggest barrier to churches being missional. To plant or lead a missional church you have to begin with a core principle that I first learned from Fenton Moorhead, and that is “the church does not exist for itself!” Charles Van Engen in an excellent book entitle God’s Missionary People explains this in more detail. I commonly see American Christians nodding their heads in ascent, but then without realizing it, immediate start asking the “what’s in it for me/us” questions.

In its essence, the church is a community of faith! It’s not a building, a place, an event, a program, or just an organization. It is a community! Having just returned from Southeast Asia I’m reminded again (from the church in the east) that Western Christians don’t do “community” very well. That’s not a slam, just a reality that we must work with. If you don’t do “community” well, you will not do “church” well! The best analogy for community is family, and the family has been weakening in the U.S. for several decades. Thus, we are loosing our grip not only on family, but also community. Now here’s my main point: as a community of faith we do not exist to consume ourselves, we exist to be on mission in the world as a community! In my mind this is a huge issue, a critical paradigm that most Western Christians do not get (even though we say we do!) Why do I say that? Because it shows in how we start and lead our churches! It shows in how we allocate our resources! It shows in how we measure success!

Jesus did not end His ministry with His crucifixion, resurrection, or ascension. His plan was (and still is) to continue His ministry through this vehicle the Bible calls “the church.” The church exists to continue doing the work that Jesus did. It does not exist to provide programs for our children, great music for our worship times, meaningful Bible studies or a myriad of other programs and activities (although those things are not bad!) Ultimately the church exists to proclaim and represent the good news of the Kingdom! That was Jesus’ ministry! That’s basically all He did! He proclaimed the Kingdom, He taught about the Kingdom, and He demonstrated the power of the Kingdom to change lives and society. To have a Biblical view of church, we must understand the ministry of Jesus and the centrality of the Kingdom of God. That’s what we will discuss in the days ahead.

But for now, let me conclude my ranting with this. On a continuum of 1 to 10, 1 being a consumer and 10 being a missionary, where are you? Where are the people you lead? Are we feeding consumerism or are we calling out missionaries? Are we planting churches to just attract consumers, or to produce disciples who do the work of Jesus collectively (as a community)?

The past couple of weeks I hung out with Steve Chin, a Chinese pastor from Taiwan. When I used the term “missional church” he looked at me rather odd. He said, “I would never use that term. To our people it’s like saying educational teacher.” (See his post on my last blog.) Because of their understanding of the church, the term “missional church” doesn’t make sense! Of course the church is missional! This terminology will only make sense in Western societies and societies that have been deeply influenced by Western consumerism. So lets be aware of that as we use the terminology.

What do you think?