Church Planter: Missional Is to Go, Incarnational Is to Stay

A leading proponent of the belief that Christians should always be on mission, or "missional," in their daily lives says it's time for believers to stay and live longer in the areas of the world that they feel God has called them to.

Church planter Jeff Vanderstelt, who leads Soma Communities, a body of church planting churches in South Puget Sound, Wash., was one of several speakers discussing what it means to be missional on Wednesday during the first day of the two-day Verge 2012 Conference at Austin Music Hall in Texas.

During the conference, that is also being live streamed on the Web, Vanderstelt discussed what it means for Christians to move from not only being missional (living a life that brings people into a relationship with Jesus), but to be incarnational (adding a discipleship factor to daily living), as well.

"I like to call mission trips, 'mission visits' and longer term ones, 'mission vacations,' because we are going to vacate when we leave. We are not staying," Vanderstelt said. "And that's a problem. I'm watching a lot of people getting excited about the hipness of going.

"Missional is [to] go and incarnational is [to] stay," he explained. "I've seen a lot of people that want to go, but I don't see a lot of people that want to go and stay."

The Verge Conferences were launched in 2010 by the Verge Network of Christian leaders who say the group is an advocate and champion for movements of Gospel-centered missional communities. Keep reading