Missional Churches

My passion is to work in a missional church. That is the whole point of the program I have been accepted into. It will teach me to be a missional pastor. Just like every industry there are "up and coming" ways of doing things and in church life one of the buzz words is being "missional".

So what does it mean? Well, there are different ways of describing it - I think this example works best:

Church A decides to have a church picnic. They do a potluck after church on Sunday where they gather for a picnic at the field in the back.

Church B decides to do a church picnic. They send notices around the neighbourhood that everyone is invited. Its still potluck and they gather at the field in the back.

Church C decides to do a community picnic. They do it on a Saturday so that people won't be intimidated by everyone wearing their church clothes on a Sunday. They bring in activities to attract the community. They set a budget to ensure there is enough food. They make sure that the picnic is visible from the street so even if they use the field in the back they have attractions at the front to make people feel free to join in.

Church D notices how how most of the people in the local park are picnicing in families. They can think of a lot of their community friends who probably never have a picnic because they can't afford it or don't have anyone to picnic with. They decide to talk to some of their contacts to see if a picnic would be a great break in the summer. They invite the different church friends they have like the senior's residence down the road, the food bank patrons that use their food bank, the group that meets for NA and put in an advertisement in the local paper. They ensure they have food that their Muslim neighbours can eat. They get the local soccer team to join in and start some impromptu games. They make sure that the church people are totally intermingled with the rest of the picnickers.

All of the churches celebrate relationships. Church D makes an effort to go where the people are and serve their needs. Their aim is to get to know the community and to offer community building. The major difference is they don't plan an event for themselves and then invite others to come. They plan events for the community and go to where the community gathers - and they take part and enjoy it. Church D is missional because they leave the safety of their own home turf to engage with people on theirs. Its not evangelism - its the step before that. Christ hung out with people both inside and outside the synagogues. For those inside he related to them through Scripture, for those outside he talked to them about things that mattered to him and them. Churched people should be able to talk to others without evangelising but by witnessing through who they are by Christ living in them. My dream is to walk with people who want to try to get to that point in their lives - where serving others in the community and everyday life is part of who we are. Sunday is still set aside for worshipping our awesome God. Alpha is still needed because we will have some people who will be interested in finding out more about why we are Christian. The church will still have traditional carolling services to encourage those who haven't been in a while to come back. But the effort to be part of the community will be the main focus.

This makes perfect sense to me and I'm lucky to be in a church that this won't be a huge leap for. I don't know when we would be ready to start thinking of doing things outside of the church but I know that the heart is there! When I first joined church I kept waiting for this next piece - when do I go out and hang out with seekers, atheists, and agnostics? Instead I found that my life consisted of my church days and my personal time. I would like to see them blend together!

The Summer Of Vicki

Well I graduate I Saturday. So that leaves me with 3 months before things start to get busy with school today. I consider this "the summer of Vicki" which means this is the summer where I hang loose. Last summer my internship and my job took up all of my time. This year my job and some babysitting is a great break from school. Hopefully a little preaching to keep me honest! Nothing creates discipline then being responsible to share God's word with others!

I've got big plans:

Read books that have nothing to do with pastoring or leadership of churches.

Go to the cottage - even on Sundays! This means we get to worship in this little United church that is so positively cute! Very friendly and laid back and lots of people in our cottage area go there.

Get a hobby - I'll probably try watercolouring for fun. Haven't done it in years and was actually a bit better with sketching. Maybe I'll start up sketching.

Cook. Yup, I love to cook when I don't have to. Haven't done this is years either. Hope to do this while I babysit the kids. Its great - I cook up a meal for Karen's family and take enough home for me and Cliff.

August starts up again with camping with Willowdale, the Leadership Summit and my first week in Seminary.

I think I have already written down too much stuff to cram in!