Missional Church Movement – The Next Big Thing?

http://www.christianpost.com/church/General/2009/03/missional-church-movement-the-next-big-thing-12/index.html

[The Christian Post] 13 Mar 2009--More people are talking about going missional. Churches want in on the missional movement. But what is it really and why are some claiming it is the biggest development in Christianity since the Reformation?

The missional movement, in many ways, is a counter force to the traditional way of “doing” church. Rather than being program-focused, the missional church prides itself on being people-focused.

“Missional is a way of living, not an affiliation or activity,” explains missional leadership specialist Reggie McNeal in his new book, Missional Renaissance: Changing the Scorecard for the Church. “To think and to live missionally means seeing all life as a way to be engaged with the mission of God in the world.”

A person or church that goes missional does not measure how well they are doing spiritually by how often they attend church or how many people fill the pews on Sunday. Instead, missional individuals “think about God and the world” and arrange their whole life - every aspect of their life - around their faith convictions and put their faith into every day actions.

“This missional understanding of Christianity is undoing Christianity as a religion,” McNeal writes. “These differences are so huge as to make missional and nonmissional expressions of Christianity practically unrecognizable.”