Missional Churches
Are We A Missional Church?
I want to ask a question this morning that it’s time we must answer:
If First Baptist church closed its doors today after we leave, would anyone but our own members notice?
Would the city be saddened because such a great community-transformation partner…..a missionary of impact was gone?
Or, would it even miss a beat?
Churches are called to the mission of propagating the gospel……..spread the good news that Jesus Christ died for us. Scripture clearly teaches this.
The mission includes the task of worldwide evangelism, social justice, meeting human needs, and many other activities.
Jesus’ last words to his disciples pertained to missions. Many churches today forget the church did mission as it learned to apply its theology.
Q. Has our church been Biblically faithful…….acting as the presence of Christ in the neighborhood and the community?
Have we been able to relate Christ to the people around us? In short…is our church MISSIONAL?
What is a Missional church? In simplest terms, Missional churches do what missionaries do.
First Baptist Church must rediscover the need to focus on the mission of God and be missionaries in Marion and Grant County.
If we’ll do what missionaries do……….study and learn the culture of the community, proclaim the good news, & be the presence of Christ, we’ll become a Missional church.
A Missional church functions as a missionary in the community.
It eats, breaths, and lives within its culture while sowing seeds of love, grace, redemption, and good news.
Missional churches take Acts 1:8 literally. They act like missionaries in their own Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the Earth.
To become a Missional church we must act faithfully and intentionally whenever God gives us the opportunity.
A missional church focuses on meeting needs both inside & outside the church. It takes care of its own, but it also reaches out for the sake of the gospel.
Some churches could be classified as attractional churches; they’d do anything in their power 2 attract people & get them inside the building.
The Missional Church sends people out to serve the community whether the people we serve ever come to our church or not.
So let’s evaluate how we’ve been doing of late.
If First Baptist church closed its doors today after we leave, would anyone but our own members notice?
I believe the Holy Spirit can empower and transform this church if we will become incarnational. What’s that all about you ask!
Missional churches are deeply entrenched in their communities.
Their focus is not entirely on their facility but on living, demonstrating and offering Biblical community to a lost world.
First Baptist Church does not exist for itself.
If we are to be an incarnational church, we must function as the body of Christ because we represent the presence of Christ in Grant County.
We must also become an indigenous church. We must do a better job of reflecting the culture around us……..We are too different!
Being an indigenous church is harder than it sounds because almost all declining churches already have a culture.
In most cases the existing culture is from a former era that’s only meaningful to those within the church, not those in the community.
I believe the gospel is best lived out when we become firmly rooted in the surrounding communities culture.
You heard me say the words declining churches. I believe that we either grow or die.
In the church it may not necessarily relate to numbers but most certainly we must be growing in spiritual health or we perish as an institution.
We’ve reached a plateau where we’ve become stagnant.
As we listen to our secretary report the losses through death and the additions through baptism, there’s no gain. There is little excitement!
When we heard the financial report we learned that as of September 1st we were $28,000.00 behind (year to date) in the budget.
We’ve had to hire folks to do the work that volunteers used to perform.
Can we survive? YES!
But we must narrow the cultural distance between our church and our community so that the gospel is easier to communicate.
Being a missional church means moving intentionally beyond our church preferences, making missional decisions rather than preferential decisions.
The most effective comeback churches will be those that intentionally think like missionaries in their context.
Since I came in 2001 I’ve often heard the tales of how the church in past years had been filled & that at one time or another everyone in Marion had come through here.
What happened? Why did they come in the front door & slip=the back?
Could it be that at some point when numerical success occurred the church turned its attention inward saying, “we have enough now”.
We no longer need to reach out and we’ll now allow other churches to do the difficult work of sharing the gospel with the lost.
The Missional church responds to the commands of Jesus by becoming incarnational, indigenous, and intentional.
When Jesus said, “As the Father has sent me, I also send you”, the mandate was not for a select group of cross-cultural missionaries.
It was a commission to you, to me, to our church.
We have a sender (Jesus), a message (the gospel), and a people to whom we are sent (those in our local culture).
More than half of them have no relationship with Christ & are unchurched.
How we do church is grounded in scripture but applied to culture. Simply stated, Missional churches are biblically faithful and culturally relevant.
You and I are sent by God to be on His mission. Its not @ us!
The Bible says, “but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people 4 His possession, so that U may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light’.
Christians of the apostolic age had none of our advantages; they didn’t even have the N. T. Still, they turned the world upside down.
If First Baptist church closed its doors today after we leave, would anyone but our own members notice?
One reason a church may experience decline is because Jesus is displeased with the way the church handled past challenges.
Another is that the church may have been disobedient at a crucial point.
Most churches love their traditions more than they love the lost!
Repentance may be a spiritual issue, but it’s also a pressing need.
So……church, what must we do?
- Repent. Change takes place as the church is renewed spiritually.
- Believe that it is God that changes churches
- Faith is the indispensable & foundational ingredient for true growth in the church, both spiritually & numerically.
- Hebrews 11:6 says, “without faith it is impossible to please God”.
- We must all serve God and begin to love the community. As we do, we will discover community needs that aren’t being met
- We must adopt a new outlook on the harvest of souls outside the walls of the church……..start looking outward!
- Our worship service must be celebrative & we must seek God’s heart
· Finally…..there must be strategic prayer efforts as a key to renewal. Start praying for God’s leadership; fast and pray for the Holy Spirit’s leadership; gather as prayer teams to fervently petition God.
The Apostle John was told to write the following to the church in Laodicea. Not to unbelievers……to a church!
“I know you inside and out, and find little to my liking. You’re not cold, you’re not hot—far better to be either cold or hot! You’re stale. You’re stagnant. You make me want to vomit. You brag, ‘I’m rich, I’ve got it made, I need nothing from anyone,’ oblivious that in fact you’re a pitiful, blind beggar, threadbare and homeless. “Here’s what I want you to do: Buy your gold from me, gold that’s been through the refiner’s fire. Then you’ll be rich. Buy your clothes from me, clothes designed in Heaven. You’ve gone around half-naked long enough. And buy medicine for your eyes from me so you can see, really see.
“The people I love, I call to account—prod and correct and guide so that they’ll live at their best. Up on your feet, then! About face! Run after God! “Look at me. I stand at the door. I knock. If you hear me call and open the door, I’ll come right in and sit down to supper with you. Conquerors will sit alongside me at the head table, just as I, having conquered, took the place of honor at the side of my Father. That’s my gift to the conquerors! “Are your ears awake? Listen. Listen to the Wind Words, the Spirit blowing through the churches.”