Shaped By God's Heart: The Passion and Practices of Missional Churches
224
Shaped By God's Heart: The Passion and Practices of Missional Churches
224Overview
Milfred Minatrea (Irving, TX) is Director of the Missional Church Center for the Baptist General Convention of Texas.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781118429419 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Wiley |
| Publication date: | 06/22/2012 |
| Series: | Jossey-Bass Leadership Network Series , #1 |
| Sold by: | JOHN WILEY & SONS |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 224 |
| File size: | 867 KB |
About the Author
Milfred Minatrea is the director of the Missional Church Center for the Baptist General Convention of Texas. He served as pastor of several churches before becoming a highly sought-after church consultant. Minatrea desires to be an authentic disciple of Jesus and enjoys walking with others on that spiritual journey.
ABOUT LEADERSHIP NETWORK
The mission of Leadership Network identifies and connects innovative church leaders, providing them with resources in the form of new ideas, people, and tools. Contact Leadership Network at leadnet.org.
Read an Excerpt
Shaped By God's Heart
The Passion and Practices of Missional ChurchesBy Milfred Minatrea
John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0-7879-7111-1Chapter One
FROM MAINTENANCE TO MISSIONALTHE CHURCH IN A WORLD OF CHANGE
And just as we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. -1 Corinthians 15:49
We face a choice to be worldly Christians or world Christians. -Paul Borthwick, A Mind for Missions
THE PROTESTANT CHURCH in North America was born into a comfortable and familiar environment that was favorable and respectful of its presence. For many years, new churches enjoyed the luxury of acceptance and power. They enjoyed what George Hunter called a "home-court advantage."
While enjoying the beauty of their religious experience, however, they became increasingly isolated from the world. Some were adamant exponents of this separation, citing such biblical admonitions as "Come out from among them and be separate" (2 Corinthians 6:17). They enjoyed being with their group on a spiritual journey and sought to add others along the way-especially those who were comfortable in the church environment. Over the years, this separation encouraged members to adopt a specialized language. In some churches, the phrase "She walked the aisle" indicates coming to faith. In other communities church members call others "Brother" or "Sister" even though they are unrelated. Unless one is familiar with the intent, being asked to "give your heart to Jesus" might sound like a request for organ donation! Active members learned such churchspeak as natives of the culture. Inevitably, perhaps, their relationships were primarily with other members of their faith family, and their activities increasingly involved these people with whom they held much in common. They thrived.
By the middle of the twentieth century, however, this relatively peaceful existence was beginning to fracture. The times were changing, and changing fast. Young people, once relatively obedient to their elders, found themselves in an exciting new teen culture. Television, radio, and newspapers communicated startling world events with an immediacy that brought the brutalities of war right into the living room. Violent and nonviolent protests challenged national interests. Social balance was upset. What was once considered right was now wrong; what was once considered blasphemy was commonplace. Graphic sexuality found its way onto movie screens. Risqué language crept into television programming. Challenges were met with claims of First Amendment freedoms.
As divorce and cohabitation became more commonplace, traditional family units seemed the exception rather than the rule. Racial and linguistic diversity was accompanied by growth in non-Christian religions. Many felt uncomfortable with mosques and temples constructed in their communities. Court cases challenged prayer in public schools, the Ten Commandments on courtroom walls, "so help me God" in courtroom oaths, "one nation under God" in the pledge of allegiance, and "in God we trust" on U.S. currency. Litigants sought to erase all evidence of Christian bias. It seemed like the end of the world for members of many Protestant churches. To some degree, it was.
Fighting Change with Maintenance
For many church members and leaders alike, these events seemed beyond comprehension. Impossible. Unreal. Even if they tried, they felt incapable of relating in the changing environment. Some longed to engage the changing culture and share with those who had never experienced the serenity and peace found in relationship with God and the members of His church, but to their surprise other people did not seem to see their church in the same way. They felt bewildered and under fire. In response, they retreated to the sanctuary, their place of comfort, growing ever more inward in their orientation. They maintained the status quo.
Not surprisingly, they found themselves increasingly out of touch with the rapids of cultural change and the real world in which their neighbors lived. Most cared about those on the outside, but they felt impotent to connect and share with unchurched persons in any significant way. Consequently, their churches no longer anticipated having a major impact upon society and hoped only to reach enough people to help the church survive. I call this prevalent consumer orientation, isolation from society, and associated lack of belief in capacity to have significant influence a maintenance mentality.
The culture in which the church exists is a changing river, charting its own path without regard to the preferences of previous generational or cultural systems. Members of today's churches, who once felt that they held the high ground in a vast Christian nation, now feel cut off and isolated-islands in a fast-flowing stream. Clearly, the Christian church in North America no longer possesses a home-court advantage.
Where, now, is our home? As more and more people live their lives in their cars, and constant migration from town to town and even countryto country becomes commonplace, communities have naturally become less cohesive. Churches, once perceived as the center of community life, have become progressively irrelevant in increasingly diverse communities. Many people are clearly still interested in spirituality, as witnessed by the growing interest in Eastern and Native American religions, contemplative and monastic environments, holistic health, and nontraditional expressions of connection with the environment. Yet the percentage of the population practicing their faith within local churches continues to decline.
Given this situation, it's not surprising that many Western churches are now focused mostly on survival. These churches are no longer storming the gates of hell. They are simply trying to outlast the onslaught of secularism that threatens their existence. These churches are filled with members who have adopted and adapted to consumer culture. Just as they count on Wal-Mart meeting their material needs, they expect their churches to provide religious goods and services. Many of their pastors, like John, are struggling to hang on and give them access to a strong spiritual life.
Still, a change is on the horizon. Some churches-a relative few, but growing in strength and number-are beginning to understand that the key to a revived spirit is both to focus inward and also to move outward-into the world. They see the future as one of bringing the Gospel alive for a new generation in a new world-so the church will not just survive, but thrive. These congregations focus on God's mission, missio dei. These missional churches-reproducing communities of authentic disciples, being equipped as missionaries sent by God, to live and proclaim His Kingdom in their world-have connected the pervasive hunger for spirituality with the ancient but contemporary invitation to know God and live to His glory. Jamye Miller, pastor of Christ Fellowship in Grapevine, Texas, sees missional churches as "life-giving, image bearing, reproducing, multiplying, Christ-manifesting churches that glorify Him." Beyond focusing on maintenance or survival, they are energized as they reconnect with God and His mission.
Theological Foundations of Missional Churches
The Bible reveals that people are created for relationship with God for specific purposes. Foundationally, individuals are created to reflect the image of God, or imago dei (Genesis 1:26-27; 1 Corinthians 15:49; Romans 8:29; 2 Corinthians 3:18). (I encourage you to go to the Reflection and Application section at the end of the chapter and ponder these Scriptural passages, which are printed there in entirety.)
The intent of God has not changed with the passage of time. We are still created to reveal the image of God, as was His design before we yielded to temptations of sin. Subsequently, as those redeemed from sin, God desires His image to be imprinted upon His followers. They are to live as He lives, love what He loves, and pursue that which is on His heart. His church is to bear His image to a world that has not seen Him. The New Testament "Body" metaphor evidences God's purpose that His church reflect His image, as His Body being present in the world.
In His image, the Body of Christ will seek to accomplish His purpose. Those who bear His image are sent to serve His mission, missio dei, in the same way that Christ was sent to accomplish the Father's purpose. Many have found it instructive to simply reflect upon His statements recorded in the Gospel of John. Consider His dependence upon the Father, commitment to the Father's mission, and His indication of your continued pursuit of His purpose in several verses (John 4:34; 5:30; 6:38; 7:29; 8:29; 9:4; 12:49; 13:20; 17:3, 18; 20:21). (These passages too are printed in entirety in the Reflection and Application sections.) Christ's profound sense of commitment to the purpose for which He was sent resonates with clarity. His incarnational purpose was to accomplish His Father's will. Singular in focus, He knew His purpose. Just as certainly, He indicated the purpose for His followers. They are to continue pursuing His purpose. God's mission, Jesus' mission, is the mission of His church.
A final end toward which the church is sent as image bearer of God remains. Ultimately, His church exists for the glory of God, gloria dei. Jealous for His own glory, this perfect, righteous, loving deity is unwilling to share His glory with another (1 Chronicles 16: 24, 29; Isaiah 43:1,7; Matthew 5:16; Ephesians 1:5-6, 12-14. Again, see the Reflection and Application sections for the full text.)
God desires His church to relish in His glory, share His glory among the nations, and reflect His glory in word and deed. The church is a Body made in His image, sent on His mission, to be to His glory!
A Change Agent Adept at Change
A church sent into an ever-changing environment must be fluid in its capacity to adapt while maintaining a clear commitment to its unchanging purpose and God's eternal truth. Jesus assigned His mission to a Body with adaptive ability, not to a rigid organization. Churches must continuously retool themselves for effectiveness in communicating the message of hope in the rapids of changing cultures. Today, however, most churches struggle with change. As one church leader said, "Churches are very willing to change. They will make any change necessary to keep things the same!"
Change is difficult, and deep culture change is especially hard. Most churches are structured for continuity of what they have been in an age of Christendom, rather than being change, ready to accomplish mission in today's culture. Darrell Guder, editor and contributing author of Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America, describes this as the "museum curator" mentality found in many churches. This mentality focuses on "preserving the 'savedness' of the members, and the church's function to manage that salvation."
Bishop Claude E. Payne offers an extensive and excellent distinction regarding churches focused on maintenance in contrast to mission. He says that two tensions are present in churches: creating community among members and reaching those who are not members. "Today's maintenance-centered Church ministers primarily to the faithful ... It is not particularly attentive to the unchurched except philosophically, paying only lip service to the idea of evangelism. In the maintenance church, both clergy and laity lose sight of their obligation to make disciples."
Most observers would agree that Christendom is over, if it really ever existed. Societal changes force the church to carry out its mission in an environment more like that in which the first-century church was born than perhaps any subsequent period in history. In this environment, the church is challenged to participate with God in His redemptive activity. As a missional community, the church expresses the incarnational reality of Christ, present and ministering in the world. At its core, all mission is incarnational. As Michael Riddell says, "Participating in the mission of God means leaving our place of security, to travel to the place where others are. This is the heartbeat of the incarnation.... Mission is always in the direction of the other, and away from ourselves."
Missional churches exist as the presence of Christ, those who know Him and make Him known to others. Knowing Him transforms the lifestyle of His followers, those who are being equipped to live as authentic disciples. They are each being shaped by God's heart, conformed to His will, committed to His mission. As Jimmy Seibert of Antioch Community Church in Waco, Texas, told me, "We have a passion for Jesus and His purpose in the earth."
Mission-Minded or Missional?
If you are confused by the term missional church, you are not alone-it's so new that most Christians are still coming to terms with it. In fact, if you search the pages of books written before the 1990s, you will not find the word missional. No dictionary included the word; most still do not. In 1991, Charles Van Engen first referred to "missional relationships" as he addressed the role of the local church in the world. Explaining his intent in using the word, Van Engen recently wrote to me, "When I began using the term, I was not aware of anyone else using it yet. I meant a quality of the essence of being Church."
Some insist the term missional church is redundant, like "canine dog" or "feline cat." In fact, it is not. All dogs may be canine and all cats feline, but not all churches are missional. Many leaders who hear "missional church" respond that theirs is a very mission-minded church, assuming the terms to be synonymous. As you will see in this book, they are not. Much of the mission enterprise of Western churches has been enabled by mission-minded churches. Such churches view their role as sending and supporting those who have been "called" to mission service. "Mission" is therefore representative; church members pray and give so that others may go and serve. Just as churches have other programs, such as Christian Education and choral music, they also have a missions program. The word missions is but one expression of the church.
People in the missional church do pray and give so that others may go and serve; yet for them missions is more centered in "being and doing" than "sending and supporting." The missional church understands that although some may be supported as those sent to other locations, every member of the church is "sent." Mission is therefore participative rather than simply representative.
In this sense, every member is a missionary. Missions is not perceived as an expression of the missional church, but as the essence of the church.
Continues...
Excerpted from Shaped By God's Heart by Milfred Minatrea Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Preface: A Personal Letter to the Reader.Acknowledgments.
Introduction: Sending the Church into the World.
PART ONE: The Church in a New and Changing World.
1. From Maintenance to Missional: The Church in a World of Change.
2. Be Church and Be Changed: How Missional Churches Live Their Passion.
PART TWO: The Nine Essential Practices of Missional Churches.
3. Missional Practice Number One: Have a High Threshold for Membership.
4. Missional Practice Number Two: Be Real, Not Real Religious.
5. Missional Practice Number Three: Teach to Obey Rather Than to Know.
6. Missional Practice Number Four: Rewrite Worship Every Week.
7. Missional Practice Number Five: Live Apostolically.
8. Missional Practice Number Six: Expect to Change the World.
9. Missional Practice Number Seven: Order Actions According to Purpose.
10. Missional Practice Number Eight: Measure Growth by Capacity to Release, Not Retain.
11. Missional Practice Number Nine: Place Kingdom Concerns First
PART THREE: Structures and Strategies for Becoming Missional.
12. They Run Rapids in Rubber Rafts: Church Structures That Can Survive the Rapids of Cultural Change.
13. Seeing Beyond the Horizon: The Nature and Task of Missional Leadership.
14. Moving to Missional: Becoming a New Kind of Church.
Appendix: Missional Church Cultural Assessment.
Notes.
About Leadership Network.
The Author.
What People are Saying About This
“Shaped by God’s Heart is a stimulating contribution to the growing and increasingly diverse engagement in the vision of the missional church. Mifred Minatrea has drawn together insights from a remarkable spectrum of resources, which he synthesizes in strategies for missional transformation and which reward careful reading and provoke further exploration. His carefully thought-out proposals invite experimentation and innovation. This constructive work is encouraging to anyone concerned about the missional faithfulness of the Christian church in North America.”—Darrell L. Guder, Henry Winters Luce Professor of Missional and Ecumenical Theology, Princeton Theological Seminary
“Milfred Minatrea is a pilgrim not a conquistador. His book is not a map drawn by someone who’s conquered the land. It is a compass with a true north, that points to survival in the secular wilderness where Christ himself is waiting on vitality to knock. Read and the compass is yours. Knock and the door will open. This book does not point the way to church growth. It calls the reader to honest pilgrimage—to find the way to meaningful faith. Milfred Minatrea knows that where meaning is married to hope, vitality is born.”—Calvin Miller, professor of divinity, Beeson Divinity School, Samford University
“Mifred Minatrea has distilled the essence of what it means to be a missional church. The insightful summarization and articulation of distinctive practices can be the launch pad for every courageous church leader who wants to bring Kingdom impact to their world both locally and globally.”—Carol Davis, executive director, Global Spectrum; and consultant to mission leaders around the world
“Milfred Minatrea is missional! This book will be invaluable to churches who want to join the missional journey in the twenty-first century.”—William Tinsley, WorldconneX; author, The Jesus Encounter