Missional - A chance to do something

Ran across this organization and thought I'd pass it along.

Worth checking out.

Our Beautiful Day

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Missional - Its harder to compete with so much choice

Check out this article:

GM dealers offer Toyota test drives

Now you can compare similar cars all at one place. Choice run rampant.

Whats it mean to the church?

Well first off it means we can't compete! We must stand on our distictives. Those things that set us apart from everyone else.

We can't be "similar" we must be distictive! If we are similar to something we will get shopped like every other product.

The church must stop acting like a product as well. The church is the sum of its people and its mission. Not its building and its programs.

What does your church stand out with?

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Missional - Starts Small

As you may know, we've accepted a position as Senior Pastor at a church in a rural county here in North Central Pa. We are excited and thrilled to begin this new journey.

It will be an opportunity for us to help a church become missional as well as live it out ourselves.

It began for me last week by meeting the local Convenience Store owner and the Postal Clerk. What fun!

Now Im working on how to begin to develop these relationships.

I have also discovered the local lake is a great place to meet others and talk. I have already been there to pray and consider God's beauty and God has brought a couple conversations about with folks because of that.

Im excited to see how God uses these things and develops these relationships.

Stay Tuned.

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Missional - A Leadership Lesson

“Ph.D. in leadership. Short course: Make a short list of all things done to you that you abhorred. Don’t do them to others. Ever. Make another list of things done to you that you loved. Do them to others. Always.” — Dee Hock

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Missional Another example In My Neighborhood

Here's another great example:

Missional In My Neighborhood

A determined caller asked, "What can I do to be missional in my neighborhood?"

I love questions that seek to create opportunities to share the simple 'love' of Jesus. So I offered a quick list of suburbia ideas for the caller to consider for her 'neck of the Northern California suburbia woods'

I've always felt awkward when I'm resting at a stop light, trying not to look at the homeless panhandler (Icon of God) out my driver's side window. I know, I know..."they do this as a scam to make easy money off of guilt ridden passers-by." I don't care. I want to meet a need, and I want to do it cheerfully and loving.

Whenever I go to McDonald's or any fast food location of your appetite's choice, I buy multiple $5 gift cards.

Last week I purchased $25 worth and placed the cards above my car's visor. Now, whenever I see someone asking for 'some help', I quickly pull one of the cards out from the visor and tell them to go get a warm lunch on me.

If the light is longer than normal, it creates a conversation.

I now pray for "Jimmy" on a daily basis, and I look for him each Wednesday afternoon during my drive into the radio station. We've struck up a dialog each time I've handed him the card. He's confounded at the 'love in forethought' that goes into buying the cards. Last week a small break through...he told me to keep praying for him as I drove away.

Read the rest Here.

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Missional - Church Cancelled

Church Cancelled, Service Begins

Across the country, churches are closing their doors on Sunday mornings to serve their communities through the new four-week churchwide campaign called Faith in Action. Will you join them?

by Heather Johnson
from Outreach magazine, May/June 2007

Curtis Lake thought the flood of 1996—when eight inches of water filled his suburban home—was disastrous. But what the first week of November 2006 brought him and the other residents of Sumner, Wash., turned out to be much worse. Nearly 10 inches of rain fell on the town of 10,000 just south of Seattle. Seven rivers flooded. Streets filled with mud and silt. And this time, Lake's belongings sat under 18 inches of water. Also destroyed were 33 of the 41 mobile homes of River Park Estates, the senior living park he manages.

"We lost everything," Lake says. "And most of the residents just left."

But, to his surprise and relief, help arrived. Nearby Calvary Community Church (cccsumner.org) had cancelled that weekend's services to head out and serve the community as part of a new four-week churchwide campaign called Faith in Action. Little did the congregation know their service weekend would be so well-timed; Sumner had never needed so much help.

Early on that Saturday morning, a forlorn Lake stood surveying the damage at the River Park Estates' front gate, when more than 250 volunteers "just started showing up," he recalls. Volunteers set out to save salvageable items by removing mud and sifting through personal belongings. Clean-up crews from the church eventually emptied 49 trash dumpsters of debris collected at the mobile home park.

"You know, Calvary was just an absolute God-send," says Lake, who now chats with the church's associate pastor on a regular basis. "I saw those people there to help, and it was like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders."

Demonstrating Christian service is the heart of the Faith in Action campaign created by leading Christian publisher Zondervan (zondervan.com), Christian relief organization World Vision (worldvision.org) and church communications firm Outreach Inc. (outreach.com) [parent company of Outreach magazine]. The three organizations have put together a name and program to a movement that has been gaining momentum for more than a decade, starting with pioneers like Vineyard Cincinnati founder Steve Sjogren's servant evangelism ministry (servantevangelism.com) and Fellowship Bible Church in Little Rock, Ark. (fbclr.org), with Pastor Robert Lewis. Eighteen years ago, Lewis led a focused, churchwide reorganization to make serving the community a core value of the church.

Faith in Action focuses a congregation's attention on local, national and global needs, as well as God's heart for service. For a full month, sermons and worship services, small group discussions and daily devotional readings, all lay the foundation for the campaign's culminating event—"Faith in Action Sunday" community service project(s) and the corresponding cancellation of regular worship services. Moreover, the campaign also has an intentional outreach focus, where unchurched friends and community members are invited to join in the volunteer efforts, serving alongside church members.

Read the rest of the article:

Church Cancelled, Service Begins

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Missional - News of Missional Churches

Ran across this article today:

Area churches reaching out to Upstate communities in new ways

Using simple tools, some newer area churches are making connections with their communities using candy bars, cookouts and home repairs.

LifeSong Church, The Point, Life Changers Outreach Center and New Destiny Outreach Center are reaching out and ministering to the community in unique ways.

These congregations are bringing the mission field home, making a big impact despite their small size.

Jeff Hickman and Brian George co-pastor LifeSong in Lyman where the motto is: "Being missionaries where we live, work and play."

LifeSong's presence in the community was felt months before its official launch on Easter.

Churchgoers volunteer at the Southeastern Children's Home, Greer Soup Kitchen and have monthly collection drives for organizations such as Miracle Hill Ministries and Middle Tyger Community Center.

They also have rehabilitated area homes through their "Community Transformation Projects" - all this from a church that draws 70 to 90 people for Sunday morning worship services.

Hickman and George, who oversees mission projects, encourage people in their congregation to invest themselves in the community.

"We want to become so intertwined in the community that the community would miss us if we were not here," Hickman said.

Hickman said he believes many churches have become more inward focused.

"They take all these tithes and offerings up, and most of the money churches spend, they spend it on themselves rather than taking and spending those resources that are being given for the kingdom of God."

Hickman differentiates between "mission-minded ness" and a "missional lifestyle."

He said there are many organizations or causes LifeSong could donate to.

"When we send our money to these things, that's being mission-minded. But a missional lifestyle is actually where we're not giving our funds for somebody else to do it, we're actually taking those projects upon ourselves to do," Hickman said.

Tennessee teenagers turned Lyman into their mission field when they helped LifeSong prepare for its launch. About 80 middle school students from Long Hollow Baptist Church in Hendersonville, Tenn., performed light construction work on the church. They also led Bible studies and handed out invitations to the church launch in the community.

"We believe that Jesus gave us a clear example that you go out into the community and you meet people right where they are, and you meet their needs," Hickman said. "Meeting their needs gives you an opportunity to be able to share his love and bring them to a personal relationship (with Christ)."

The church's vision comes from Luke 10:27, a verse imploring Christian believers to love God with all their heart and to "love your neighbor as yourself."

"We're getting back to the basics of what Christ teaches," Hickman said.

"I can stand up in the pulpit and I can preach all day long. I can go out and knock on people's doors and tell them all day long that Jesus loves them. Jesus didn't just preach to people. He actually showed them that he loved them because he met their needs," Hickman said.

READ the rest of the article:

Area churches reaching out to Upstate communities in new ways


THOUGHTS?

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Missional Gold Mining

Paying a person’s toll

Paying for someones food or gas

Giving out water

Mowing someones lawn

Shoveling someones walk

What other little missional gold nuggets are you doing for the community around you?

This kind of mining is showing love and that is Kingdom enriching.

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Missional - Research on Small Groups

Here's some good research on small groups:

Check it out, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Smaller Passionate Groups Outperform Large Generic Communities

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Missional - Here's a Neat Way to Be Missional

Seth Godin Shared this organization with his readers.

I think this is an incredible idea. You can do this as an individual, family or faith community.

Family to Family

What if every family unit in a church would do this. How many lives could it change?

To my blogging friends - spread the word.

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Missional - Missional Ministry must be generational

I believe on of the biggest challenges to missional ministry is the need for the ministry to be cross generational. A great value is lost when we focus on only one segment of the population:

The follow generations are the ones sitting in our churches today:


Traditional workers (born before 1946): They value loyalty and discipline, and they respect authority and hierarchy.

Baby Boomers (1946-1960): They have great expectations of success. Currently, this group occupies positions of higher corporate responsibility, and has the largest proportion of workaholics in history. This is also the generation that gave birth to the “Yuppie” phenomenon.


Generation X (1961-1979): This generation has the best academic training and international experience in history. They have begun to make a break with traditional patterns of behavior, demanding a more informal environment and abandoning hierarchical authority in favor of a more horizontal and flexible structure. They have pioneered policies that involve flexibility and conciliation. This generation is rich in entrepreneurs because personal initiative predominates within a context of skepticism toward large enterprises.


Generation Y (starting from 1980): Generation Y is the first in history to have lived their entire lives with information technology. It is not easy for them to understand the world without it. Like members of Generation X, their childhood was comfortable and prosperous. They are more individualistic than earlier generations and demand autonomy in their opinions and behavior. They emphasize personal activities above social and labor considerations.


As you can see there are vast differences between these groups. Add to that the environment i.e. urban, suburban, and rural and you can the mix of generational factors the church faces today.

If we are to have truly missional ministry in a community, when will be able to involve all generations. Each will be counted on to bring their strengths to the mission and contribute as God as gifted.

To many times today ministry is aged focused. We need more cross generational opportunities. Whets wrong with all worshipping together, learning together or serving together? We need the ability to pass on wisdom down and up the generational chain. Traditionals and Boomers need x,yer's knowledge of technology and our changing world. X and Yer's need their commitment to getting the job done, experience and determination.

True communitas can only come across the generations when we are all committed to a common mission with common purpose. Leaving groups behind does not create communitas it creates division.

How can we strive for our missional communities to be cross generational?

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Missional - Only takes a Cell Phone

Check out this article.......

Man gets 5,000 calls for YouTube posting

So you make a YouTube posting offering to talk to anyone about anything. 5,000 needy people call you. Doesn't that tell us something about engaging our world's?

A simple act of being willing to talk to someone sparks a huge response.

I was preaching yesterday on the fact that we are called to love the unlovable. This guy is out there living it out.

So what can you do?

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Missional – When a Missional Church Gathers

What happens when a missional church gathers itself together?

Someone recently posed this question to me, so I’ve spent sometime thinking about this.

When a missional church gathers itself together what might it look like?

The first quality I think it should have is that it should gather around its testimony. If the missional church is operating in its sent mode each week, then the people of the church should have testimony of how God is working. These stories should be a building block of the time spent gathered together. Testimony of God’s working is a powerful catalyst for propelling us forward in our mission. It gives us hope that God has not abandoned us and that each of us can be and are being used by Him for His Kingdom.

The second quality would be an attitude, atmosphere and applied sense of worship. We are in awe of the wonder, majesty, grace and all the other qualities of the King. We should approach Him with praise and worship on our lips and hearts. We gather to worship the King.

The third quality should be an incubator of learning. Using all the styles of learning we should creatively present the Word and ingrain it in the hearts of the people. Learning need not only be facilitated by top down learning methods but by, auditory, participatory and visual methods as well.

The fourth quality is fellowship. True fellowship should be nurtured and fostered. We can not be the body of Christ with out being in fellowship with Him and the rest of the body.

Another important quality is remembrance. We need to be reminded of Who God is, What He has done, What we believe, where He has brought us from and the reality of His Kingdom. Remembrance is a centering tool that allows us to place in balance the past, present and future.

One more that I can think of would be commissioning. The sending of the body back into the world to accomplish God’s mission in the coming week. “in your going, DO!” We send those gathered together back into their mission to build the Kingdom as God has called them to do.

I’m sure theres more but these are my initial thoughts.

What do you think?

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Missional - Community means Belonging

Sunday I got to teach my first week of 13 weeks of Sunday School class on Becoming more missional (thanks to those who helped me with the cir).

One of the things we mentioned briefly there was the idea of community.

I was following a motorcyclist tonite, everytime he passed another biker he waved. It was like he was friends with every other biker on the road. That couldn't possibly be, but there he was waving.



Why? Because bikers share a common bond and it doesnt matter who you are, if your a biker your in.

A friend of mine and I were talking sometime ago about the fact that fans are the same way. Show up at a staium full of tailgaters, throw on the proper team jersey and instantly everyone wants to share their drinks and food with you. Put wrong jersey on and you will get run out of the parking lot. But the right jersey means your in!

See to fans if your one of them it doesnt matter. Come on in and join the party!

What we talked about in the class was the classic TV show "Cheers"

Remember the lyrics to the theme song?

Making your way in the world today takes everything you've got.
Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot.

Wouldn't you like to get away?

Sometimes you want to go

Where everybody knows your name,
and they're always glad you came.
You wanna be where you can see,
our troubles are all the same
You wanna be where everybody knows
Your name.

You wanna go where people know,
people are all the same,
You wanna go where everybody knows
your name.

One aspect of being missional is that we must be able to develop a sense of belonging in people around us. The sense that a life lived in loneliness is a life unfulfilled. God created us for community! We must build that sense of community in everything we do.

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Missional Community - Dee Hock's Thoughts

Community is a powerful glue.

When we find it in a group, we latch on to it no matter where it is.

It seems that leaders of the church are treating developing community as the holy grail of Kingdom building. I think there's some truth to this.

Here's a great article by a very provacative futurist Dee Hock:

Community Values

Have a read and give me some feedback on what you think, Does Dee Hock make some valid points?

missional, missional church, Missional Living, Leadership, Dee Hock, Community,

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