The day approaches

I have clearly fallen behind on my “one post per day until Sunday…”

Our final Mission Team meeting is this coming Saturday at 6:00 pm. We will continue our discussion of why we’re doing this service and how we can best design it to be missional and transformational. We will also spend most of our time praying for the service launch on Sunday. This will not be a “fireworks and confetti” type of launch but rather a exciting start to what will hopefully be a steady and consistent gathering!

Whew, this week has been a blur of meetings, shopping, and band practices. The logistics are mostly together and we have a good plan for what we’re going to do this Sunday and beyond. But that’s all it is, a seemingly good plan thrown together by well-meaning people…without God. With God, we humbly hope that he is going to use our meager efforts to advance HIS kingdom and HIS mission. It’s our privilege to partner together with him. Please continue to pray for our mission as a whole church….

Open Hands

Something to keep in mind as we move forward with our collective mission to build lives through relationships:

Philippians 2:5-7 (New International Version)
New International Version (NIV)

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature[a] God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature[b] of a servant,
being made in human likeness.

Jesus was God, but he exemplified for us how to live with open hands, as he did not consider equality with God as something to be grasped. As people, we (I) are very good at holding on to our own rights, at looking out for ourselves. That type of self-interest is not the way of Christ.

Check out a great message taught by David Ruis on this principle:

Missional Church

Hey everyone, I found a pretty cool article that attempts to summarize and extrapolate what it means to be a “missional” church and to be people with a mission (essentially the same thing). As with everything, this is by no means infallible or comprehensive but I felt that it was worthwhile and very effective. Read critically. Check out Friend of Missional for the full article.

An excerpt.

“One important note before you continue: On this website, the term “church” refers to the people of God; the called out ones; those formed for his dwelling and bearers of his presence in the world. It doesn’t refer to a building, denomination or physical location. So when you read “church,” think of yourself and your faith community, not that building you go to each Sunday.

In an article titled, “The ‘Missional Church’: A Model for Canadian Churches?” David Horrox writes, “The church should stop mimicking the surrounding culture and become an alternative community, with a different set of beliefs, values and behaviors. Ministers would no longer engage in marketing; churches would no longer place primary emphasis on programs to serve members. The traditional ways of evaluating ’successful churches’ – bigger buildings, more people, bigger budgets, larger ministerial staff, new and more programs to serve members – would be rejected. New yardsticks would be the norm: To what extent is our church a ’sent’ community in which each believer is reaching out to his community? To what extent is our church impacting the community with a Christian message that challenges the values of our secular society?”

Dan Kimball in “The Emerging Church” (Zondervan, 2003) describes the missional church “as a body of people sent on a mission who gather in community for worship, encouragement, and teaching from the Word that supplements what they are feeding themselves throughout the week.”

Both Horrox and Kimball capture much of the essence and heart of what it means to be missional, but can we probe deeper and articulate a more definitive understanding? I think we can and what follows is an imperfect attempt to explore and develop our appreciation of what it means to be missional.”

this is what the card looks like; weekly update May 21

Coming this next week, we will have 2,500 cards that look like these pictures. They will be two-sided and super nice, but we need you to use them or else my office will be overrun with cards. Since they likely won’t arrive until after Sunday, let me know if you’d like to get a hold of some…

I’ve started a new thread on the message board for Mission Team-related conversations. You can also access it under the Conversations tab. Also, if you aren’t our friend on myspace, I’d suggest you get over there and befriend us.

Thanks and stay tuned for one post per day from now until June 1st.