Live.Awake

living life with eyes wide open

Missional Church

| Posted by Ben Cotten on Oct 10, 2007 • (Comments)

I haven’t written about church life issues in a while, though as a pastor I think about these things CONSTANTLY. I find that most people (aside from church staffers and appointed leaders) never really think about these issues. Not good! If you’re not thinking about these things (or don’t think it matters) then on some level your vision for your place in the church is way too small.

Tim Keller, of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in NYC did an interview with Desiring God. Here’s a piece of it where he talks about being a missional church vs. what most of us would consider an evangelistic approach. Watch it and I’ll state my opinion after. Or… I guess if you’re a drive-by blog reader you could skip the short video and jump ahead to my profound and life-altering comments…

A Missional Church…

…understands what it’s like not to believe. That sounds simple enough, but I think it just may be the biggest issue. Many churches have an atmosphere of exclusion no different from the Moose lodge or a college frat. As Tim says, there is an “enormous us/them mentality”. An unbeliever walks in the door and immediately understands (without anyone yet saying a word) that they are solidly in the “them” category. Anyone that says anything to them either talks to them using every Christianese term they can think of, or they talk to them like they are deaf, senile, and from another planet. (I’ve actually seen people raise their voice and talk slowly to an unsaved person as though they were hard of hearing)

This also means that a missional church must be able to worship, preach, make announcements, etc in a way that connects with a post-Christian mentality. By “post-Christian” I mean that, though just a few years ago most unbelievers had some Christian framework (they knew who the Bible claims Jesus is, some of the Bible stories, what church is, etc) increasingly most current unbelievers have none. They only know what they learned in public school. They don’t know the gospel story on any level. They do not know what church is, what it looks like or why it even matters. If you tell someone with a post-Christian mentality that they need to “get saved” they won’t have any idea what you are saying. You might as well be speaking Russian.

So unbelievers come in and get offended by the separatism, confused by the rhetoric and leave more convinced than ever that Christianity and the Jesus that it preaches is completely irrelevant.

…is always connecting the gospel to baseline cultural narratives, hopes, problems and aspirations. This point is a source for a lot of hot debate these days. How much “contextualizing” can you do before you end up with Christianity Lite? Where’s the line? I think the short answer to that question is that as long as we are holding to a literal and authoritative view of scripture we are pretty safe. There is a difference between saying “We hurt and struggle just like you do, that’s why we need Jesus. Jesus loves you, died for you, and wants to rescue you from yourself.” and “We don’t have a clue, just like you. Think positive thoughts and maybe one day you will discover Faith for yourself.” I’m not advocating a truth compromise (I don’t think Dr. Keller is either). I’m advocating that we remind ourselves what the gospel is all about.

It really is possible to preach the full gospel, while at the same time connecting it with where people live. Does the gospel work or not? Is it really relevant to my life or not? If it is, then why can’t we preach it that way? Why are so many of us seemingly incapable of talking about Jesus in a way that doesn’t make Him seem distant and dead?

What About Evangelism?

Traditionally, if a non-missional church recognized the Great Commission as important the response was to build an evangelism program. A crack team of evangelist commandos were brought together like something out of a Chuck Norris movie. They would plan complex outreaches (usually some form of door to door). If they were really good, some would get saved. Some of those would actually come to church. Still fewer would come back and become a vital part of the life of the church.

Meanwhile, the congregation as a whole doesn’t give outreach a second thought. They don’t feel guilty because “we” are doing evangelism as a church because “we” have an evangelism program. Testimonies from the evangelism outreach commandos serve only to assuage the congregations feelings of conviction over their neglect of the scriptural imperative to spread the gospel.

The missional approach doesn’t necessarily do away with organized evangelistic outreach, but it certainly doesn’t rely on it as the primary source. A missional church’s primary method of spreading the gospel is through community. Organized outreach becomes an extension of an already thriving communal connection with unbelievers. As a result, new believers become disciples because they were connected into the community before they ever became a Christian.

One method produces a few disconnected converts. The other produces boat loads of disciples.

What do you think about what Keller says?

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Categorized as Life/Church Life, Media/Video

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    Does the gospel work or not? Is it really relevant to my life or not? If it is, then why can’t we preach it that way? Why are so many of us seemingly incapable of talking about Jesus in a way that doesn’t make Him seem distant and dead?

    Do you think it may be that as believers, we also have a difficult time deeply believing the relevancy of the gospel to our own life and that Jesus does seem distant and dead even to us (except maybe for our ticket out of hell)? Just asking... I really do wonder if most of us have had a life-changing encounter with the person Jesus Christ...
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    You have a point. I think a lot of times the reason we shrink away from connection to unbelievers is because we are afraid that the gospel simply won't work for them because of our own issues.

    So, I guess missional living starts (like everything else) in our relationship with Christ?
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    Everything begins in our relationship with Christ. If it doesn't begin with Christ, what's the point? I remember, after letting Jesus inside, having a sense of some unwritten code in the church that I didn't understand. It was like all of a sudden, because I was a believer now, I wasn't supposed to have anymore doubts, fears, frustrations, goals etc. I wasn't supposed to "question" anything - especially churchy stuff. In other words, I felt like I wasn't supposed to be REAL anymore and that bothered me!! Because now, I had even MORE questions...

    Many churches do have an "atmosphere of exclusion" and there is an “enormous us/them mentality" and unbelievers most likely will sense that. What can we do to make people feel truly welcome and comfortable? I think it helps if we're WILLING to be open, genuine, and REAL with people. I think presenting the gospel should be kept simple (for it really is simple) and not cluttered with our own personal gobblygook (sp?). Of course, this means we must be willing to get outside our own comfort zone with people. We have to be willing to take the TIME to establish relationships with people outside our church sphere. It takes a lot of work to do this... Are we willing to go there? It's a scary place outside of our comfortableness...

    On the other hand, we've got to understand that not everyone will be receptive to "hearing" the gospel. What are we to do with this? Love them - because Jesus loved them and died for them too. They're not really rejecting us, they are rejecting Jesus.

    Boy, this post you wrote Ben has many, many angles to it. This type of post would be a great discussion for a small group full of unbelievers/believers.
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    "most non-Christians can't even begin to relate to them." - Tim Keller

    That is well-said.

    When I throw a party at my house and almost 50 people attend, it can often be challenging to figure out who the Chritians are and who the non-Christians are. There are some obvious give-aways: like the girl wearing the "Christian" t-shirt, or the guy who is drunk and slurring F-bombs.

    But I love the fact that, for the most part, my non-Christian friends are relating to my "normal" Christian friends without knowing any better.

    Then later, when I tell them that half of the people at the party were Christians, they are pleasantly surprised to find that these people were quite "normal",easily able to conversate, and actually had more than a few things in common with them.

    We try to throw at least 4 big parties each year. If every Christian I knew threw these kind of "open-invite" parties on a semi-regular basis, the Christian life would actually be fun, and possibly even attractive. Not to mention, I'd get to go to a lot of parties.
 
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