A New Word with a Forgotten Message; Missional

I recently attended a Conference in which I had the wonderful opportunity to hear Dr. Ed Stetzer. While preaching he used a word “Missional,” a word that I have heard before but never really understood. I learned that a church that is not missional is not really a church. When a church loses its mission, it ceases to be a church.

Missional is an adjective describing all of the activities of the church body as they are brought under the mission of God, to proclaim the good news of salvation through His Son Jesus Christ. Being on mission very easily becomes one activity in church among many others begging for attention. Over time churches allow meetings, programs, traditions and other good things to cumulatively move the church from missional mode to maintenance mode. A church must continuously see itself as missionaries and all of its energies must be missionary.

A missional church understands it has been sent into an irreligious world to proclaim the Gospel of Redemption that is made possible by the Son's sacrifice for our sins and the Father's love for us. Every believer is sent on this mission by God just as Jesus was sent on this mission (John 17:14-16, 18; 20:21). To respond to this calling is to be missional. To neglect it is to disregard the mission of God and to cease being the kind of church that is following Jesus.

What is a missional church?

A missional church is a theologically-formed, Gospel-centered, Spirit-led fellowship who seeks to faithfully incarnate the purposes of Christ. The mission of the church is found in the mission of God who is calling the church to passionately participate in God's redemptive mission in the world (Matt. 28:18-20; Acts 1:8) - a world that has radically changed in North American in the last 50 years. This church, and every generation in the church is called to bring the good news of the kingdom into a spiritual encounter with the aspirations and challenges of that culture where it resides. Believers are on a mission from God.

In many churches this may require a new vision, new ways of thinking, and new patterns of behavior (Matt. 9:16-17). This means pre-believers are encouraged to be included in the context of all of the church functions as they make small steps toward Christ (Luke 19:10).

A missional church must adopt an approach to ministry learned from the foreign missionaries who communicate and relate in understandable ways to the godless inhabitants in their respective cultures (1 Cor. 9:22-23).

John 20:21, "Jesus said to them again, Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you."

Dr Ed Stezer preached a message that I will never forget and a message that has given me fire in my bones.. He said, To be missional, is to understand that “We are sent to all people, with a message, Empowered by the Holy Spirit”

Ewj2008