Missional Revolution

I've always loved the concept of revolution. It inspires me and maintains within me a drive and a desire to keep on pressing forward to see God move in great ways. I'm not sure that I've ever seen the move of God that I dream of. It's a move of repentance.

Revolution and repentance have this in common: They both change something from one system to another. They seek to change people from walking in one direction to turning around. Revolution changes structures and systems; repentance changes hearts and worldviews from the inside out.

The Church in Britain still needs a revolution of repentance. Until we stop and call out to God for His gracious mercy we will continue in decline. We cannot grow as the Church of God while we are not acting like the people of God. While we are loving our structures and our ways more than God and God's ways we cannot grow to be the mission force of Jesus to the world.

I'm not against structure (even the body needs a skeleton) but I'm struggling to see how structure has become our focus. I see some beautiful signs of God's Kingdom coming all around us, but I long for so much more. Don't you?

The Church has lost it's mission to bring the world to Jesus, and Jesus to the world. There is a revolution around us. the missional Church is rising up to take love to the lost, to take hope to the hurting and to take provision to the poor. It's message is powerfully spiritual and practically supplying.

Let us seek the face of God. Let us hear his powerful voice of truth speak into our hearts until we turn back to Him and are turned towards the world again with the power and practicality of the Gospel message.

Church 1

Church - what is it? What is it not? Loads of us are asking these questions. Is it missional? Is it simple, organic or institutional?

It strikes me that our 'ecclesiology' (study of the church) focusses on what church is when we gather and I wonder if we have formed an incomplete ecclesiology. I have become unsettled with Church because it generally focusses on Sunday gatherings. Church employees are encouraged to put energy into Sunday activities most of the time. Yes, we have midweek endeavours - youth groups, clubs, cells. It strikes me that if we are to be followers of Jesus then 'The Church' needs to focus on Making Disciples - I believe that this should be through shared experiences of doing life together: meals; laughter, worship, talking, friendships that exceed superficial christian nicities, etc. Jesus spent time with his followers - they saw his struggles and his joys and they learned from how he handled life's complexities.

Maybe our ecclesiology needs to incorperate 'living lives together'?

More later

Missional Distinctives

The following are five biblical distinctives form the foundation of a missional perspective:[6]

1. The Church is sent by Jesus Christ (John 17:18; 20:21, Luke 9:2; Matt 28: 19–20;Acts 1:8)
2. The Church is sent with the Cross (1 Cor 1:18, Eph 2:16, Col 2:14, 1 Pet2:24, 2 Cor 5:17–24)
3. The Church is sent in Community (Acts 2:42–47; 5:42; John 13:34–35; 1 John 3:16–17)
4. The Church is sent to every Culture (John 1:14; Matt 20:28; Acts 17:22–34; Luke 5:29)
5. The Church is sent for the King and His Kingdom (Matt 10:7; 25:34; Luke 4:43; Rev 11:15–17; Jer 10:7; John 18:36)

(Cited from: Dave DeVries, Missional Transformation: Fueling Missionary Movements that Transform America, Bakke Graduate University, 2007, 8-12)

Missional weblinks

Check out the two new links "Missional Church Network" and "Missional Apologetics" for more on being missional.

Blessings fellow missioners

missional missing?

My wife and I have been exploring "organic" and "simple" Church recently. Our experience in Trad structures has not been most positive to be honest. I've been on the journey for 30 years in one way or another (i'm 33 now!) and have been a commited Jesus Follower for 15 of those. I come to a point where I'm wondering if our "christian service' is doing more to oil the Church machinary than to reach the lost with the amazing love of God. I mean it seems like mission is an 'add on' to being Church.

You go into most churches and you see a crappy mission notice board with out of date newsletters and ancient photos (ok, I'm being a bit mean !) and other than that you need to stay alert during the service (that probably lacks transcendence - being mean again!) to hear the passing mention of mission work. Mission happens elsewhere and it's somebody else's calling! It's almost like we've been blinded to God's mission around us.


we have got it all wrong - Jesus' life portrayed in the Gospels was a truly missional life. He ministered everywhere. He listened to people and to God and lived a life that connected the two together. That's being missional in my estimation.

we've got so caught up in trying to keep Church going that we've stopped going into our world and being Jesus to our neighbours. Is being 'missional' part of our life.

Read MARK 10:46-52 (go on, do it now)

Answer these questions in your own mind:
1. Ask God to show you your 'blind spots' in being Missional
2. Ask God to open your eyes and see the world as he sees it
3. Ask God to lead you to the people that you can share the love of Jesus with (in wrds and in works)

May we follow Jesus into the messinesss of people's lives and communities.