Is Your Church Missional?

Jesus said, “As the Father has sent Me, I am sending you”…As you go, “make disciples of all nations, baptize them and teach them to observe all that I have commanded you.” This is what Jesus expects of his church – in every context of life. The command is simple, but how to do what Jesus has commanded can be a little more complicated depending on your context. For example:

Try and imagine what it would be like to enter into a foreign culture and attempt to communicate the gospel....

We can learn much from a missionary named Lesslie Newbigin here. He spent much his life ministering in the pagan society of India. When he returned home to Britain after 30 years of service he realized that the culture of his own country had changed drastically since he left – it was now primarily a non-Christian society. But he realized that the church in Britain had not adapted to its new situation. This caused Newbigin to essentially ask himself, how would a missionary approach ministry in this cultural climate?

What about your church? What does its posture, its behavior, its practices, and activities communicate to the community it’s in? All of us want to understand the culture and community we are ministering in so that we can communicate the gospel with absolute clarity. To do this we need to ask ourselves the hard but needed questions. Who are we reaching? Are we primarily reaching people who are like us? Read more