Follow up to Pastor's Coffee with Leaders

I want to thank all those of you who came to the pastor's coffee last Sunday night.  It was good to share with you the developments and to hear back from you about each of those items we discussed.  Below is some of the introductory information I presented.  This information provides some background for the direction in which hope to head.  I will list the other items we discussed as separate posts.  Most of these will be presented to the congregation this Sunday night (September 26 at 6:00 pm) as a "pastor's update."

Objective for this fall and spring: undergo spiritual preparation and congregational assessment that will lead to the development of a strategy.

Driving question in the process: how do we take being a missional church to the next level?

What is meant by being missional (Some book quotes):

“The Christian faith…is intrinsically missionary.  The Christian faith…sees ‘all generations of the earth’ as objects of God’s salvific will and plan of salvation…it regards the ‘reign of God’ which has come in Jesus Christ as intended for ‘all humanity.’  This dimension of the Christian faith is not an optional extra.”  David J. Bosch Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission, 2006, p. 9

“We have come to see that mission is not merely an activity of the church.  Rather, mission is the result of God’s initiative, rooted in God’s purposes to restore and heal creation.  ‘Mission’ means ‘sending,’ and it is the central biblical theme describing the purpose of God’s action in human history.”…“God’s mission is calling and sending us, the church of Jesus Christ, to be a missionary church in our own societies, in the cultures in which we find ourselves.  These cultures are no longer Christian…Now…their character as a mission field is so obvious as to need no demonstration.  The issue for the Christian church is its faithful response to this challenge.”  Darrell L. Guder Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America, 1998, p. 4-6

From Milfred Minatrea, Shaped by God’s Heart: The Passion and Practices of Missional Churches, 2004

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·      P. 11, Differences between a mission-minded and missional church

Mission-minded                                    Missional

Sending & supporting                        being & doing

Representative                                    participative

One expression of its ministry            the essence of its existence

·      P. 12, Missional church definition

“A missional church is a reproducing community of authentic disciples, being equipped as missionaries sent by God, to live and proclaim his kingdom in their world.”