Day 23

 “Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes, and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” —ACTS 2:46-47

A buzz word in recent years in missionary and church strategy conversations is the word ‘missional’. It’s a good word, though it has unfortunately gathered a few connotations that make some people nervous. ‘Missional’ is to mission what fictional is to fiction. It is an active word.  Missional is an adjective – a descriptive word, whereas mission is a noun.  A ‘missions’ church can be fairly passive, even though it is interested and giving to missions, whereas a ‘missional’ church will, by definition, be engaged and active.

To become missional, the center of a church’s life has to move from its platform to its people. The platform ministry, the public worship, the teaching of the Word of God is essential for a healthy church so as to equip the congregation to be fruitful, and together, in a whole range of ways, take the gospel to people in their circles of influence. 

This is not new of course! It is what Luke describes in Acts 2 as they “enjoyed the favour of the people” and saw “the Lord adding to their number daily, those who were being saved”. The early church became a little bogged down in Jerusalem, and persecution broke out against them with Stephen being the first disciple to have been martyred. Acts 8:1-2 says, “On that day a great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.” This was a ‘lay movement’ with ‘all except the apostles’ taking the gospel; that is, all except the ‘professionals’.

In fact, the leadership gifts are designed “to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.” (Ephesians 4:12-13) Their job is not to ‘do the works of ministry’ but to ‘prepare God’s people’ to do them. This is what the term ‘missional’ describes, and it is not new. It is as old as the early church, and some just happen to be using a new word for it to help people think freshly again.

It is not about being a mission church, but about the church being missional people. Would you say you have a missional perspective?