Saturday, October 4, 2008

“What’s this ‘Missional’ thing again?”

In my last post about partnering with West Huntsville Elementary School (WHES) I used the term “missional” several times without explaining it. We’ve been using that word at Faith for a several years now and Dr. Stager has explained it numerous times. But if you’re like me it’s still having a tough time sinking in. What is the difference between being “missional” and the core values of missions, outreach, and benevolence that Faith was founded on and still has at its roots today?

First and foremost, mission goes hand-in-hand with witness. God wants us to reach out and tell others about Him. Mission is following Jesus’ example in delivering that witness message. We are called to help the poor. But more importantly we are called to reach out to the poor-in-spirit and deliver God’s message of hope and salvation. A Fortune 500 CEO, a soccer mom, or a homeless family could be equally poor (or rich) in the Spirit. Mission is about building relationships that allow us to witness. We build relationships with those we serve. We also build relationships with those we serve with. And we build relationship with God when we pursue His work. All of these relationships allow us to nourish and be nourished by the love of God through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Often we forget, or are just learning, the relational nature of witness and mission. The world we live in is increasing in a benevolent attitude. The result of faster news, increased wealth, and the example set by many churches. But the world is also extremely fickle! Today’s effort is lost in tomorrow’s news. The world uses benevolence as leverage; expecting this or that in return. The world uses benevolence to further power or class distinctions; “We need to help those people.” To the Christian, this drives home the point that what we physically do has little and fleeting impact on this fallen world. Anyone who has been personally involved in mission work will tell you it’s the personal and emotional connection between individuals that provide fertile ground for the Spirit to act and change lives; both lives! For all of you who have experienced this connection I am eternally grateful for your blessings and, frankly, somewhat jealous.

To me the largest difference between being missional and doing mission is that we are working with people rather than simply ministering to people. Faith has practiced being missional to varying degrees over its 50 years. I think the recent emphasis has been because we do have those core values we may be ready to embrace this newer missional church movement more fully and take our mission to a new level. To more deliberately pursue this witness-mission partnership, not just for small groups but for the Faith family as a whole! I hope and pray that this will lead us to better training and mentoring, better discernment, better matching of activities with individuals in different stages of spiritual growth, better discipleship, more real witnessing. One first step in this direction is the “Mission 101” class that will be offered by University of Faith, led by Frank Broyles and others, the first three Sunday’s in November! I’ll be there, will you?

We have such a wealth of physical and spiritual resources at Faith. Much of it is untapped, waiting for the vision of our part in His Kingdom on earth to come into focus. If we let Him, where will He lead us?

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