Shall I stay or Go Now?
Here’s a simple issue to start with but its absolutely fundamental to get right and it will influence how we spend so much of our time and energy. Rick Meigs has a great little summary about being missional and in it he says the following:
“Jesus told us to go into all the world and be his ambassadors, but many churches today have inadvertently changed the ‘go and be’ command to a ‘come and see’ appeal. We have grown attached to buildings, programmes, staff and a wide variety of good and services designed to attract and entertain people”
As he says, the change comes along ‘inadvertently’ and the next thing we know all we’re doing is pumping time and energy into our little ‘temples’ and hoping that people will just wander in, hear the gospel and turn to Christ.
Now I think there is something still to be said for the ‘attractional church’ and in my ideal church I’d have ‘go and be’ operating in perfect harmony with ‘come and see’. I think that if you’ve got a building and you’ve got a lot of gifted staff then use them, there are a few people who still will walk into church (especially here in South Africa where there are still echoes of a church culture).
So I wouldn’t dispense of the attractional model on one front at least. BUT if that’s all that’s going on then you’re in trouble - and its my suspicion that most of our western churches in South Africa are in trouble. I did a little bit of personal research in the 14 or so churches that were in my area when I worked in Durban.
About a third of them were growing, the rest had either plateaued or were declining - but get this: The growth in that third almost always came from Christians migrating from one church to another, there was almost no new convert growth. Church hopping is not church growth, and not only is it not church growth but its also a sign of an unhealthy church climate and a serious lack ofmissional activity. The only churches that ‘grow’ in this instance are the ones who can afford to entertain - they’ve mastered the ‘come and see’.
Missional church says ‘no - we need to GO TO THEM’. We need to live and breathe the gospel in the community where everyone else lives and breathes. That means getting involved in the different social structures of you community but with purposeful intent. We need to build relationships with people outside of the church in their context, finding out about their hopes, dreams and struggles - hearing their stories - and then graciously and humbly introducing them to the greatest story of all, the story of Jesus.
That means putting time, effort and energy into what you’re doing outside of the formal structures of church, outside of Sunday services, Bible studies and even evangelistic events. Its about purposeful living so that we might introduce others to Jesus.
Are you living missionally?
