“Missional” is definitely “Buzzword 2.0-Compliant” these days. Trevin Wax offers Missional – The New Buzzword (HT: Steve McCoy) which provides some thoughts on what it is and is not. Similarly, Signpost Phil has composed a list of indicators of a mission shaped church. What makes a church missional? Are you missional already and don’t know it? I’m imagining Jeff Foxworthy saying,
- If your church calls a meeting every time the neighbour across the street buys a case of beer, and you meet at his house… you might be missional.
- If you crawl out of bed on Sunday morning at 11:30 and your pastor gets on your case for missing your tee-off time… you might be missional.
- If your conservative evangelical friends and relatives can’t understand how you can sit around your living room with the neighbourhood riff-raff for an hour or two and call that “church”… you might be missional.
- If you roll your eyes when people ask where you go to church because “church” for you has no name and keeps moving around… you might be missional.
This is funny. And true. :) Sounds like my church, so we must be missional then. I guess we can stop worrying about that one. Thanks Maynard.
(if you start any sentence with the phrase the 21 century mission church)
You name your kids Emegent or Brian, and they have verbal fights with any one with the initials D.A
Forge is not just a place to work metal….
How about these:
– If the seasons of your church journey are reflected in the names of your seven kids Naomi, Paul, Obadiah, River, Moonbeam, Brian, and Smallbabykiwi… you might be emerging.
– If you can’t figure out why your parents listen to sermons live and in person when they could just get the podcast… you might be emerging.
– If your ten closest christian friends includes eight bloggers you’ve never met in person… you might be emerging.
– If your church website was more than six months old and underwent two complete redesigns before the church had its first paid staff member… you might be emerging.
– If your church telephone directory has only email, IM, and Skype addresses… you might be emerging.
Hey, this is kinda fun once you get started!
I’m laughing hard. Our church qulaifies in 4 out of your most recent 5! Ha! I’m not sure that’s an entirely good thing, but…at least I can laugh at us!
if you’re like, “paid staff member!?” … never mind.
Right, Alan, what was I thinking?
Emerging:
– If your church has been around more than three years, doesn’t have a paid staff member and has no firm plans to hire one… you might be emerging.
– If visitors can attend for more than three or four weeks and still not be sure who “the pastor” is… you might be emerging.
– If you’re selecting a larger meeting space and half of your group votes against one of the options because “it used to be a church”… you might be emerging.
Missional:
– If visitors ring the doorbell and wipe their feet when they enter your “church”… you might be missional.
– If after two years your church is not a registered charity and doesn’t have a bank account… you might be missional.
– If you’ve ever rescheduled or relocated a regular church gathering because “Jimmy has the chicken pox”… you might be missional.
If your spouse sneezes in the other room and you break from blogging long enough to instant message them a “Bless you”, you might be emerging.
(Just happened to me. Not sure if I should be proud or ashamed!)
Peace,
Jamie
If you’ve ever had an original thought and acted on it rather than waiting to be ‘released in ministry’.
If you’ve realised that the Sunday service is a regular christian event, not to be confused with ‘Church’.
If you’ve decided that simply subcontracting the responsibility of ‘need’ to various ministries and programs isn’t actually our calling.
When your unsaved friends don’t seem offensive anymore, you might be emerging.
Ah there are plenty of them…
– If a barbeque/poolparty in your backyard is referred to as a “baptism service” you might be missional.
– If your daughters answer to your expressed opinion that a thin sweater is not enough clothing in december is either “In my context it is” or “I just want to be relevant”, you might be emergent.
– If your churches name:
1. Is spelled with no capital letters, or with capital leeter anywhere but in the beginning of words.
2. Consists of the name of biblical person/place/vocation, and a noun.
3. OR contains the word coffee or café
4. Or the letter z or x or a number, you might me emerging.
(The most emerging churchname of course contains all the above, as such: “tenTmakeRs cOffEe zoNe 2.0”
Ha ha!! Hilarious!! I love it!