Missional Renaissance Series

Here is where my heart has been for the last few weeks. This book has changed my perspective on how we think about church. Indeed it has done what the subtitle reads-"Changing the Scorecard for the Church". Not that this book is the "end-all" on "how to do church", but the ideas and principles in this book are bigger than any church marketing or evangelism strategy. I firmly believe this is the direction the modern church must move for it survive. Yes...survive. So this week I would like to share with you a few of the principles in Missional Renaissance and offer some hope for the what church should and could look like in future generations.

There are 3 major "Missional Shifts" he talks about. The first one being a shift from internal to external ministry focus. Now, this sounds simple. And most of us would say, "Duh, that is the point of the church". I would wholeheartedly agree with that. But (and it's a big but), when you look at how the modern functions, more specifically, the way ministry is run inside of our churches, I think our actions show a bit differently.
Just to list a few
-3 hour long meetings a week to learn about the bible. We do this while hoping visitors come in and join our little clubs. Then, and only then, will we gladly welcome them with open arms.
-Most of our ministries and ministry leaders are trained to be focused internally. We have trained our leaders to be organizers OF the people in the church FOR the people in the church. (Baby shower ministry, Fellowship ministry, Men's and Women's ministry). All these are good things, but are they for internal or external purposes.
-Many of our Sunday morning worship times become "Which church has a better one, and who can present the gospel in the most creative way." Many times what happens, or doesn't happen, is dictated by the paying members in the pews (more often than not a few well paying club members at that).

I'm not saying that good isn't happening in our churches. I'm not saying that people aren't growing spiritually. But I am saying that present system that is "The church" is not working. With the time that we spend studying what to do, heaven forbid we carve some of that time out to go and do it! Let's stop worrying about how many people ARE in our pews and focus on how many people AREN'T in our pews. I have a lot more to say on this subject, but i think this post is long enough. More to come.