The larger the church, the longer it will take and the more complex it will be to transition from an attractional or somewhat insulated congregation into a missional community. The more entrenched in the systems and management of the church organization a pastor becomes, the less free he will be to pastor missionally.
But it is not difficult for a community member, pastor or no, to adapt to a more missional focus for their Christian life. Indeed, while pinning down a commonly accepted definition of "missional" can be tricky, a greater and common understanding of the missional concept can actually occur simply by adopting a more missional life. Meaning comes through doing.
Here are five things any believer can do to adopt the practice of missionalization:
1. Pray For a Changed Heart
All believers should be praying "without ceasing" anyway, but what is harder to do is to pray intentionally and regularly for people you don't see . . . and maybe don't like. Pray that God will give you a heart for those outside your sphere of daily life that you never see, and pray that God will give you a heart for those inside your sphere of daily life that you often would rather not spend time with. One of the aims of missional life is getting outside ourselves and our self-interest, and one powerful way to do this is to pray that God will teach us to care deeply for people we normally would rather not spend even a few minutes with. This is the crux of incarnational living: emptying oneself for the sake of the quote-unquote "unlovable." That is the purest heart of grace, and that is the missional aim.
2. Meditate on the Gospel of the Kingdom
The gospel is the power of salvation for all who believe. It is the gem of God's revelation to us. There is no greater piece of information, no greater piece of news, no greater blueprint for living than the good news that Jesus is King and his kingdom has come. Read the Gospels and chew on them, pray through them, study them, memorize them. Read books and listen to messages that herald the kingdom. Talk to people about what it means to be the kingdom of God. A lot. The more excited you get about the wonder and beauty of what it means to live as citizens of heaven, the more motivated you will be to actually live as a citizen of heaven.
Obviously you cannot stop at study and meditation.
3. Talk to Your Neighbors
Or do anything really that gets you out of an insulated existence and into the presence of your neighbors and others in your community. You can start small. Hang out outside. Walk across the yard or the street to chat. Offer a neighbor a piece of yard equipment or a tool you think he might want to use. Talk about the school, talk about your kids, talk about the weather. Talk about anything. Just get out and be present. Over time a relationship will develop. You may actually find it happening more quickly than you imagined. I had only four or five conversations with my neighbor before he told me a close family member had just died and it made him think a lot about religion. I don't believe he told me that because we were close or because I always brought up religion with him (I hadn't mentioned anything spiritual at all by that point). I believe he told me that because he, like all of us, are starving to be known and to share. We're chomping at the bit for relational intimacy.
4. Volunteer
Go help somebody. There are lots of volunteer agencies and charities that need help. Don't worry about not having enough time. One day a month makes a difference to many of them. The key here is not to just throw money at something (although that's good too). It is to get out of your house and interact with people doing mission work and with people who need help.
5. Go Public With Your Church
Have your Bible study or small group in a public place. Coffee shops, cafes, food courts, etc. Exercise your spiritual disciplines in the public eye, not just in the privacy of your homes or church classrooms. And ask your church to have groups out in public like this. It may not work for everyone and for every purpose, but by "doing church" in public, we accomplish two things: a) We make it a more comfortable environment for people to invite friends. b) We get used to the feeling of living spiritually in the public community (as many members of the Church universal do every day around the world).
These five practices do not encompass missional living or missional ecclesiology. They are merely a start, just some basics. But these practices are a good Starting Five for individuals interested in what it might mean to begin thinking through missional discipleship.
Jared Wilson is the pastor and co-founder of Element, a missional Christian community in
Nashville, Tennessee, and an award-winning writer whose articles, essays, and
short stories have appeared in numerous publications.
Jared's first book, The Unvarnished Jesus, releases Fall 2009 from Kregel.
A graduate of Middle Tennessee State University, he lives outside
Nashville with his wife and two daughters.
Encounter Jared's passion for the ongoing reformation of the evangelical church
almost daily at www.gospeldrivenchurch.com.
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