Being Missional in Suburban FPC

In recent weeks and months I have received a great blessing. I hear more and more folks using “being missional” in discussions regarding Fountain Park ministry, program and budget planning. This is a tremendous advancement from 2-1/2 years ago when Fountain Park was still struggling to understand its less than one year existence and had practically zero understanding of the true meaning of the word “missional” much less knowing what it meant to BE missional in a suburban setting.

In all honesty, there is not a lot written and researched on being missional in a suburban setting. Consider this. The 5-6 blogs I put up last fall on being missional in the suburbs STILL get hits reading them every day. Sad as this may read, almost all work on being missional I have been able to uncover is discussed in an urban setting. Now, please read these next few sentences slowly and thoughtfully. I have no issue with urban ministry. I actually love urban ministry and wish I were in it some times. In 1994, my first look at a ministry change was to a ministry in downtown Chicago. It was not until three years ago that I finally realized that God was not going to allow me to pastor a church in an urban setting – as much as I wanted to. He led me into the suburbs in every discussion with churches at that time. I am here because this is where God has ordained that I should be, not because it is my life’s goal. I was never a suburbanite until I moved to Pittsburgh. I have learned and am learning to love it and learning how to eat shrapnel and enjoy it for what it is. (More on that in a minute.) This plays into why we as a suburban church are trying to develop partnerships with urban missional congregations.

What this means is that, proportionately speaking, there are few of us out here who are moving into this arena of discussion . . . and we do not all agree on every issue!! So, on some level, we are on the cutting edge. Before you get too excited remember this . . . the cutting edge is where the shrapnel is. I have always thought it best to be just behind the “cutting edge.” People on the cutting edge in every area are the ones who get electrocuted, die in experiments, and in general invent all sorts of ways that do not work. They are the most misunderstood and least appreciated until they are dead and gone. The cutting edge, quite frankly, is not safe. It is extremely dangerous. Ask the explorers who ventured across the seas in the 1400’s and 1500’s. Ask the folks who landed at Jamestown in the 1600’s. Ask the first pioneers who crawled into a covered wagon with their family and began the long journey west in the 1700’s and 1800’s. Ask the Mercury Astronauts. Ask the members of Apollo 13. Ask the families of the Challenger.

I am not, and never have been one to play it safe. I see no reason to change now. Jesus never took the safe road. Paul never took the safest route. John the Baptist was not a “safer.” Mary, the mother of Jesus, surely did not take the easy road. Nor did John, Thomas or Priscilla.

We, along with some others in the United States, are on the shrapnel end of things. It is misunderstood. We are often assumed to be just another take off on what is happening elsewhere. Fellow travelers, these are not just tweaks in ministry we are talking about. Being missional is not just the latest church growth fad. It is an entirely new (old) way of thinking. It is apostolic. It moves, changes, and evolves with every new location.

As happy as I am about the language of being missional being used in our venue, I am likewise a bit saddened by its misunderstanding.

Being missional is indeed about caring, reaching out to, and ministering to those commonly referred to as “seekers.” But it goes so far beyond that.

A lot of the discussion I am hearing centers around being missional in this sense: “What do we do in order to have others come to us?” “How should our program look to be attractive?” Friends, that is not being missional. That is being attractional. Huge difference.

Attractional says, “How do we get them here?”
Missional says, “How do we go to them?’

Attractional says, “Here we are.”
Missional says, “Where are you?”

Attractional says, “Come, let me help you.”
Missional says, “Let me be with you.”

Attractional says, “What is appealing?”
Missional says. “Where should I be investing my time?”

Attractional says, “Come.”
Missional says, “Go.”

Both care about those without Christ, but the core movement is opposite.

Now, before you say so, let me. Being missional will indeed be attractional, – at least on some level. When folks see you coming to them, see you caring for them where they are, without a hidden agenda; that is indeed appealing! BUT and this is a big BUT, the key . . . is that being missional starts with the church going to them not us striving to get them to us. Please understand this difference. It is at the core!

As we look to our summer ministry and our future staffing and planning, let us not forget that we should ask how we “go,” not how we get them to “come.”

I am . . . enjoying the roller coaster ride!