Missional is not another word for outreach, it is not a program you add, and it is not something you choose people to do. It is the ethos of a community.
A driving force of a missional church is the belief that God has gone before them, is present, active, and inviting the church into what He is already doing. God doesn’t follow us. Instead our attentiveness leads us into what He is doing and prepares us to be present in what He is doing the lives of others.
Missional is a posture that believes God is really at work everywhere around us. It is an understanding that our job is to be present, attentive, and be a supporting role in the journeys of others. It assumes that we are all broken, beautiful, lovable, and full of rough edges.
Your Church cannot become missional because it would mean starting over. It means that your members are no longer your reason to be. Members are there to be agents of hope, love, and to create a family of hope in their midst.
People unable to do this are part of our context. Those we find ourselves lifting onto our shoulders to see into a more clear part of the mirror we cannot even see into. That they would know they are worth everything in the universe.
For me, success in missional ministry means that the community is transformed, and many of them have no idea who I am, and might not yet even know the God who is drawing them forward.
Photo Credit: Iryna Yeroshko
For my friends/readers in ministry, please keep going. God has called you and I believe with all my heart you have responded faithfully. If you are called to be missional then join us, but if not please leave it to those of us who are. The kingdom of God needs billions of expressions of love created by each of our faithful lives we each represent.