So in a recent discussion with a mate who asked, 'what do you do in your missional church' (to paraphrase), my mind was stimulated again to re-visit this topic.
We are now about four years into our 'no name yet' missional church, and we still don't have a name - but I think that some of our activities, goals and purposes have in some way been codified.
Firstly, one of the main goals of what we are doing is to be able to engage our natural, organic community in the most natural and organic ways. What this means in practise is that we only do the the things that we would normally do - but try and place the lens of living out our faith in each of those activities. For example, for my wife, doing the school run becomes a means through which connections can be made with the other families who go to the same school and who are in the same class. This is something that we normally do - but seeing it as part of mission changes the intentionality behind the activity.
Importantly, this not about doing the traditional church thing and 'inviting' someone to an 'outreach' event, but actually caring for and loving people with whom you are sharing life - with no strings attached.
It might seem crazy, but from my experience the institutional church paradigm tends towards the 'invite to an event' model, rather than what I have suggested above. There is heaps of literature about this - but really, it is about living life the way that Jesus did.
It's a complex topic on one level, but in another sense quite simple....
To be continued...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment