Missional

As I mentioned last week, CONNECT is about moving Grace Church toward being “Missional” and “Incarnational.” This week, we’ll look at what I mean by Missional. Come back next week for the meaning of Incarnational.

For a long time in America, the church developed as an organization. What God intends for His church certainly has organizational structure. However, the church is primarily an organism. As we learned in Ephesians during Grace Matters, the church is a family and we are God’s adopted children (1:5), His possession (1:14). We are His people (2:19), in relationship with Him and with each other (2:15-16). And we are His holy temple, His presence in the world (2:21-22). We are called His body, with each of us being gifted in unique ways so that when we minister together we represent Him in and for the world (1:22-23, Romans 12:4-8, 1 Corinthians 12:11-27). The church is meant to be organic. Look at how Paul puts it:

Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. Ephesians 4:15-16

Unfortunately, what was intended to be a people actively living out every moment of their lives in the name of Christ and for His Kingdom has become an institution. For a lot of churches in America, our faith has become a show on Sunday morning and a list of rules of things you can’t do. If you want to know where that path leads, look at Europe. The cathedrals are beautiful but empty. And, while you might find some “religion,” you’ll be hard-pressed to find “faith” outside of small pockets. And faithfulness is scarcer still.

During Grace Matters, we read the letter from Christ to the Ephesian church of the second generation, those who had taken the good seed of Paul and began to implement “church” (Revelation2:1-7). While they did some things quite well, Jesus accused them of leaving the love they had from the beginning, their passion for Him and for His Gospel. As a result, He threatened to take away their lampstand. In essence, the warning to these Christians is that they need to return to the service for which they were called or else they would be denied the power of the Spirit. If they were going to follow their own desires for the church, God would remove the only power that can truly make a difference among them and in the world. Frankly, this is the last thing any church, especially Grace, would ever wish to hear from their Lord.

Wow, that was a lot of background to get to the point. Being missional means being fully-engaged in the mission of the church. And the mission of the church is to make disciples (Matthew 28:19). But guess what? Making disciples is something that happens in the world more than it does in a building on Sunday morning. While solid biblical preaching is clearly a vital part of the ministry of the church, as is the gathering of God’s people for worship, teaching without implementation is useless. Therefore, what happens beyond the boundaries of the church building and Sunday morning is significantly more important than what many churches have become.

Becoming a “church of small groups” at Grace Church is about living in faithfulness to our calling as God’s people. Our understanding of the Gospel of Grace as we studied it during Grace Matters must compel us to be “on mission” for God every moment of our lives. And since our identity in Christ is more corporate than individual, we’re compelled to pursue divinely-created community. This is crystal clear from Scripture. God wants us to be Missional. Therefore, CONNECT is Missional.

Come back next week as I look at the term “Incarnational.”