Missional Church

I attended at a District continuing education day with one of our denominational “leaders.” The subject for the day was “Equipping People for Missional Ministry.” When I saw the title I was immediately intrigued. The missional approach to ministry resonates with my own thinking and philosophy about being the church. I was excited. Then I saw who the presenter was. Because I knew of him from my time in Kansas City, I knew a little about him: his pastoral history, his work as a DS, and now his work as a consultant. I must confess that I was a little skeptical. What I have read and thought of the missional movement had little in concept with what I have seen of his ministry.

After spending a morning talking to us about how to make people feel at home in our churches (making sure the bathrooms are clean, sending follow-up gifts for visitors, etc), he paused to take questions. My mother tried to teach me to filter the stuff that goes from my mind to my mouth before it leaves my oft-gaping pie whole, but that morning my questions burned too hot in my mind. And so I asked him:

1) Who are the writers who really articulate the “missional church” well that we should be reading?

2) How would you differentiate between “church growth” and “missional church”?

To the first question, he responded well listing several of the key authors that are writing on the subject, letting me know that he is well read enough to talk about the subject with some degree of clarity. To the second question, however, his response felt to inadequate – even missing the whole point. His response was this: Church growth was about numbers; missional church is about motive -- Church growth was about getting people in the pews. Missional church is about getting people saved.

I cringe.

I don’t think his analysis was fair to EITHER concept, so to be fair, I pondered the question myself. Here are some of my thoughts about the issue.

1) Church Growth seeks converts; Missional Church seeks disciples –

A convert is one who has “prayed the prayer,” “prayed through,” “found Jesus,” or any number of other colloquialisms describing our response to God’s offer of grace. Now that they have prayed the prayer, they are in the club. Now their job is to get more people into the club. It is almost as if once they’re in, they’re in.

A disciple is one who walks daily with Christ. Praying “the prayer” is nice, but ultimately it is meaningless if it does not become a way of life. At a recent retreat, 4 of my teens either became saved or rededicated their life to Christ. I completely affirmed them. I told them I was proud that they were sensitive to the call of Christ and that I was proud of them for responding to the call. But I also told them that whatever happened between them and God that night had to happen every day of their life. Relationships are only healthy when they are growing. A disciple is one who walks every day in a growing relationship with God through Christ.


2) Church Growth seeks salvation of souls; Missional Church seeks healing of persons –

Church Growth seems to fragment persons into component parts: soul, mind, body, finances, etc. The church exists to save the soul of sinners. Whether a person is suffering from mental illness, addiction, cancer, poverty, or any other number of issues, their real need is salvation.

Missional Church says, yes, people need salvation, but living in the kingdom of God means we have to also work with them to find healing of their mental illness, addiction, cancer, poverty, etc. By showing compassion and solidarity with the broken in all arenas, the church is being Christ and revealing God so that they might experience full salvation in all their life.


3) Church Growth emphasized sterile, contemporary worship; Missional Church emphasizes authentic, Christian worship –

What else can we say? Those who brought us church growth brought us churches that look like any other new building. They brought us so called “worship leaders” whose credentials include plenty in the arena of vocal performance and nothing in the arena of church or sacred music. They stripped all signs of our faith: art, crosses, pulpits, altars, fonts, etc., in favor of Thomas Kincaid, projector screens, Plexiglas podiums, and nothing in the realm of sacraments. It was almost as if the goal was to trick a person into becoming a Christian. I am reminded of the proverbial frog in the kettle. “Put ‘em in boiling water and they’ll jump out…put ‘em in cold water, turn up the heat slowly, and they’ll boil.” Worship quit being worship and started being cold water…never mind lukewarm.

On the other hand, Missional Church embraces passionate and authentic, Christian worship. We see a return to the arts. We see a return to some degree of informed liturgy. We see a return to sacraments and biblical preaching. People are looking for faith that is real and true and authentic. People want to follow those who are real and true and authentic. Worship once again becomes worship.


4) Church Growth aims to get the world into church; Missional Church aims to get the church into the world –

Church Growth measured “success” by how many people came to church and how many people joined a small group. The missional church measures “faithfulness” by how many needs are met, by how many people are involved in doing the work of Christ, by how many people are partnering with God, and one to another, in his divine mission. The Church Growth church is those people who are gathered. The Missional Church is those who are gathered and sent.

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I certainly have a limited perspective on things, so having outlined some of my thoughts, let me ask you the question I asked that day: how would you differentiate between the Church Growth and the Missional Church approaches to church?