Missional in the Suburbs: Part 1 - Don't Go to Church

If you read very much regarding church patterns and cultural interaction, at some point you will come upon the phrase “missional” as it relates to the church. As simple as that phrase should be, there is a great deal of baggage associated with it. Much of that baggage comes from the modern church’s use of the word “missional.”

In modernity, most of the church allowed the word to be reduced to reference to missionaries on foreign soil and US churches sending them money. (Okay, it is a bit more complicated than that, but that is the essence.) The Emerging Church in America is seeking to change that. We wish to reclaim the use of the word “missional,” to its right and true use. I actually wish there was another word that we could use to convey what we truly mean when we say being “missional,” but in reality, there is not. The word properly understood is exactly what we are about.

When you attend Fountain Park Church or any other Emerging Church’s worship gathering, you will probably hear the word missional thrown around. Here is what we mean. We are talking about taking Jesus into the world seven days a week, in our neighborhoods, to our work places, on our recreation events, hanging out with our friends, at concerts, mowing the lawn, . . . well you get the point. Being missional is truly about being Jesus with skin on all the time. It is no longer about being so attractive as a church that people will want to join. It is being so attractive as a follower of Jesus that people will want to know him. Being involved in a local faith community (like Fountain Park) is an outgrowth of the goal, not the goal itself.

A good pastor friend of mine has a shirt that reads, “Don’t go to church” on the front. The back reads, “Be the church.” That is being missional.

Tomorrow I want to address what I experience as a pastor of a suburban church seeking to lead my folks into a missional spirituality. It continually stirs me. I hope it will stir you.