I want to feature some of that here and respond to it:
Webb's comments in italics and mine are below.
While Sunday mornings may not look that different on the surface, I think that in content they would be vastly different.
For one thing, a missional community would have so much to share pertaining to what God had done through the week, that the testimonies themselves would transform the emotional level of the service.
Picture a service that starts with worship - leads into community testimony and report time and flows back into worship.
The praise would mirror much of this excitement.
The tithing would go through the roof because the people would be engaged with the mission and therefore more compelled to give.
People would give with a sense of purpose - knowing what was going on and feeling involved in the actual ministry.
I think Sunday school would consist more of building missional strategies, serious prayer for the people they are reaching and for the work being done; there would be more problem solving discussions, vision building, and overall encouragement.
planning, training releasing brilliant! :)
Youth groups would no longer place emphasis on trying to make Christianity look cool to kids, but rather, it would challenge them, engage them missionally, inspire radical faith and commitment to changing the world. The youth would be perhaps a missional church's most dynamic and anointed missionaries.
inspired radical teens released to be Jesus to the community
Building projects would be shelved until it could be determined what best served the growing missional needs of the church.
Fund raising would become much more motivated. Churches would begin to grasp the for-profit business ideas which not only would raise serious finances, but that could also become an integral part of the missional work.
Taking community and building buildings to meet needs? radical
Getting from point A to point B would be, for some, an insurmountable challenge and more than a few churches that try it would split over the change. But, the end would more than justify the means.
What would stand in the end would be a church full of strong, dedicated disciples of Jesus for whom unconditional love, compassion and radical servant-hood was all they lived for.
Maybe I'm a dreamer, but it is all I live for, and if I can do it, I see no reason why a whole church can't do it. I'm certainly nobody special. People just need to be led to the water. And if they drink this kind of water, they will thirst no more; I promise. ;)
Webb
Webb Im a dreamer too - I long to see a church that takes seriously transforming itself into a missional community light.
missional, missional church, Missional Living, Leadership,
3 comments:
sounds like a great way to do church...
Great idea except the part about titing. Tithes were never used in the OT to send out missionaris or to convert a single Gentile. New covenant giving principles were good enough for the early church who was led mostly by women and slaves. God bless them. They gave sacrificially until it hurt because they wanted to see souls saved for God's kingdom. See my web site at www.shouldthechurchteachtithing.com
Russ, that is a good point. Actually I agree with you about tithing. I'll have to check out your site. It's been quite a while since I read Campolo's 'The Kingdom of God is a Party" where Tony makes a case that tithing was used to throw a party every year for the poor and downtrodden. Everything else, according to Campolo, was to be used to help those in need. Of course, even a brief study would reveal that religious leaders corrupted that idea from its onset.
I've never had time to sit down and really study Tony's premise, but it really is the way the Church should be. Sadly, like you say, it is typically those who have little to begin with who make the real sacrifices. The rich tend to want their contributions to be seen by all--i.e. grandiose worship complexes.
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