Becoming A Missional Church - Living Into Our Identity
The dialogue goes something like this…
“We’d like to learn how to get more members in our church.”
“Great!” I replied as I prepared to lead a workshop. “WHY do you want to get more members?”
I meet stunned faces.
They responded, “Isn’t that what we are supposed to be doing?”
“But why,” I persisted.
Finally a brave soul said, “If we had more members, we’d have enough people and money to keep our pastor so she can stay here and take care of us.”
Sadly, this is true for many of our churches, so we need to be asking questions. Questions like, “How did we get here?” And more importantly, “is God calling us to another way?”
The Missional Church movement is sweeping across the country, and many in the Moravian Church have been intrigued by its understanding of God (theology) and the church (ecclesiology). But what does it MEAN to be a missional church? Missional offers a contrast to what we usually think when we say “mission” — a mission trip, budget, or committee — which makes mission an event or a program. Think of missional as “missionALL.” God calls ALL of us to participate in God’s mission to the world. Some of us are called to be full-time missionaries in remote areas of the world. However, God calls ALL of us to be witnesses to God’s love and grace every day in every way.
This article serves as a starting point to what many leaders in our church hope will be a conversation about how we might move toward becoming a missional church and living into our identity as missional Moravians. In the next several issues, various voices from around the church will offer examples, challenges, and opportunities to move toward a renewed missional identity. We invite your responses, your push-back, your examples with the hope of reclaiming our missional identity so that we might join God’s mission in and to the world.
Let’s get back to the workshop question. How did we get to a place of wanting more members to keep our churches going? A quick sweep through the history of the church might help us learn, without blame or shame, why we are where we are today.
John 20:19-22
On the night of the resurrection, the disciples were gathered in an upper room, hiding because they were afraid. Jesus came to them, gifted them with peace and the Holy Spirit and said, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” Go, tell stories of how God has changed your life.
Acts 1:8
Just before the Ascension, Jesus gathered his followers in Jerusalem. “You will be my witnesses, in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria, even to the ends of the earth.” The Holy Spirit equipped Jesus’ followers to be witnesses. Jesus didn’t ask for volunteers; he didn’t hope some could fit discipleship into their busy schedules. He said, “You will be my witnesses.” All of you are witnesses, not just the ordained professionals. Jesus told his followers where they would witness — at home, in the neighborhood, in those places where you feel like a stranger, and to the ends of the earth. Mission work was not just for places far away, but at home and everywhere in between.
Herrnhut
Our forebears in faith had lived in fear of persecution. Disputes about purpose and identity turned their focus inward. Yet God came to them and blessed them with an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. God sent them out to be witnesses to the “ends of the earth,” including St. Thomas, South Africa, and North America. They went, not to build a church, but to bear witness to God’s saving love and grace.
Church at the Center of Culture
Over time, the church became institutionalized. Seminaries trained pastors to care for people in the churches. For the better part of the 19th and 20th centuries, the culture encouraged church participation. Churches were in the center of towns, pastors were prominent leaders in the communities, and nothing competed with church participation on Sundays and Wednesdays. People joined the church and went to the building to meet God. Evangelism committees brought in new members and mission committees sent money overseas. Slowly and without meaning to, our mission shifted from going out as witnesses to maintaining the membership, the building, and the institution of the church.
Church at the Edge of Culture
The culture has not remained supportive of the church. Since the 1960s, the church has slowly moved from the center of culture to the edge. It is no longer a matter of which church to join, but whether to join any church at all. In response, we tried to get more members. “If only we had a better youth program.” “If only we knocked on more doors.” “If only we had a more dynamic pastor, then people would come to our church.” But better programs didn’t yield bigger memberships.
Where We Are Today
Among many churches where I offer workshops, members are gathered in fear. They are afraid that the church they love will disappear. Declining membership and dwindling finances threaten the very existence of their church. Their focus has turned inward.
God’s Response
Just as on that resurrection night, God comes to us in our fear, walks through the doors of our churches, and offers peace. Jesus breathes on us the Holy Spirit and sends us out. We cannot stay inside the church waiting for people to come. God sends us out into the world, where God is working, and invites us to join God in that mission, at home, in our neighborhoods, in those places where we are uncomfortable, even to the ends of the earth. Jesus sends us out to tell the stories of how God is at work in our lives. Jesus does not send us out to get more members so we can save the church. God sends us out to be good news, agents of peace and reconciliation, to feed the hungry and clothe the naked.
Becoming a missional church means becoming a place where saints are equipped for the work of ministry. Those saints rejoice that God continues to be at work in the world; they offer their Spirit-given gifts to participate in God’s mission to the world. Some have critiqued the missional church movement as focusing too much on ministry outside the church. We need ministry, formation, and pastoral care in the church and ministry in the world. The missional church recognizes that ministry inside the church is not an end in itself. Rather, its purpose is to equip the saints to join God’s mission in the world. The missional church acknowledges that the mission is not ours, but belongs to God. We join God’s mission in and to the world.
If you think of this last drawing as an olive, the church is like the pimiento — which, as part of the olive — flavors it. We are in the world as Christ’s witnesses — to flavor the world with love, grace, and joy.
When, by faith, we are able to relinquish our focus on maintaining the institution of the church, then we are free to be the people of God, the Body of Christ in the world. Letting go of the institutional church as we know it is difficult work, but joining God’s mission for the sake of the world is an enormous blessing. How God is leading us in this move forms the conversation of this series.
