The missional church

This post is from the defunct blog "Dying Church"

Mark Naylor has written an excellent article (available here in PDF format) on the missional church. On a discussion board on the article, Mark says this:

I would like to reiterate that neither the article I wrote, nor the comments on this website, are a call to dismantle the institutional church. Rather the point is that we are not called to build an institutional church but to seek the kingdom of God. In fact we are not called to build churches at all - that is something that Jesus said he would do. However, when we are involved in the mission that Jesus began and calls us to continue, then the institutional church is well placed to facilitate that vision and mission. It is when the church mistakes its vision as one of becoming bigger and more successful, rather than being impacting with the transforming gospel in the world, that is loses its way.

The whole article under discussion is worth a read.