Journey toward the Heart of God
A Leadership Workshop Exploring the Missional Church
Saturday, May 27, 2006
by Milfred Minatrea, author of Shaped by God’s Heart
Presupposition: I am not an expert on the missional church. I am still learning. There are no landing strips for the missional church, only launching pads. We’re learners together.
If you want to have a missional church, the easiest way is to start it from scratch. If you want to transition to being missional, it’s harder but possible with God’s help.
My own personal journey:
  1. •Activity without Transformation - I read Acts and saw this church that transformed culture, bringing the Kingdom to the human realm. I looked at my own church experience and saw a lot of activity without transformation.
  2. •Spiritual hunger for something more -  I began to long for more. We started out with a sense of adventure but often feel like we’re stuck in a rut.
  3. •Culture - no longer a home court advantage - Culture has shifted.
  4. •Involvement with 213 flagship churches - I was involved with these churches who were committed to transforming their communities.
  5. •Next “chapter” of ministry - As I hit 50 I wondered what the next chapter of ministry would look like. I took a sabbatical and asked Darrell Guder to point me to churches that were making a difference. I began to travel to these churches and learn from them.
If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea. (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
God’s mission isn’t going to come from programs. It’s going to come when we yearn for the things that God wants. My dream is that the church would be shaped by God’s heart.
Changing Culture: Two Eras
  1. •Then - modern, Christendom
  2. •Now - Postmodern, Post-Christendom
Describe contemporary culture. Materialistic, spiritual, futuristic, collective, pluralistic, self-absorbed, hedonistic, individualistic, relativistic, “whatever”, myopic, consumeristic.
I’ve found that when you ask people to describe culture, people come up with words like these, no matter who you ask. Everyone seems to see culture through the same lens.
Two potential responses: That’s just the way it is, or it can be different. We believe that God wants to do a new thing for us to see new possibilities.
The Context of Mission - “Sister Centuries”
We live in a time that’s similar to the first century.
  1. •Lingua franca - We have a common language.
  2. •Pax - a large nation, keeper of the peace; today, UN
  3. •GWP - Gross World Product, trade opening up throughout the world. Globalization has changed the world, and it’s changed what mission looks like. We don’t necessarily have to send them; their corporations already are.
  4. •Social stirring - There is unrest; then and now there’s a sense that something is happening.
  5. •Spiritual searching - I’m amazed by the depth of the spiritual search going on.
Is Change Possible?
Current Reality vs. Preferred Future
“The quality of a culture may be changed when two percent of its people have a new vision.” Robert Bellah, Sociologist quoted by John Stott
Two percent of your average attendance can change your church. If you have two percent of your people longing for more, then change is possible.
Song - “Flowers are red, green leaves are green; There’s no need to see flowers any other way than the way the way they always have been seen” vs. “There are so many colors in the rainbow...”
God longs for a church that sees all the colors in his heart. Enough of having people say, “That’s the way it is. There’s no need to see things differently.”
The Theological Foundation
We are created:
  1. •in the imago dei (image of God). We are being transformed more into that image.
  2. •for the missio dei (the mission of God) - what God has
  3. •for the gloria dei (glory of God)
  4. •Created in his image, for his mission, to his glory.
The Heart of God
  1. •The Kingdom of God - a constant theme within the New Testament (examples: Matthew 4:17, Acts 28:31). The Kingdom of God is on the heart of God.
  2. •The Bride of Christ - God loves the church, and Jesus gave his life for it (Ephesians 5:25).
  3. •People - God loves people. If we are like God, then the people around us form our strategy. He cares about their salvation and their physical needs.
  4. •Obedience and holiness of disciples - Desire for his people to be pure, holy, and obedient.
  5. •The worship of the nations - Example: Isaiah 66.
If we are shaped by God’s heart, these things will be on our heart as well.
Understanding Mindsets: Major Focus of Churches
As I’ve travelled I’ve seen three competing focuses of churches:
  1. •Obligation - the joy has gone
  2. •Gratification - what can the church offer for me. The focus of the church should not be our obligation.
  3. •Mission
I’ve seen a continuum of perspectives:
  1. •Terminal - focus has been lost; not much can be done. That is okay; I am in the process of dying too, but I have grandchildren who will live on. (20%)
  2. •Survival - focused on the past. This is pandemic in North America. At least one age group that is missing. (35%)
  3. •Conventional - internally focused (30%)
  4. •Missional - externally focused. We exist for those who are not yet a part of the church. (15% - smallest group)
Distinguishing the Missional Church
A missional Church is a reproducing community of authentic disciples being equipped as missionaries sent by God to live and proclaim His Kingdom in their world.
If you reduced this to two words, it would be authentic disciples. If we raise up authentic disciples, they would do the rest.
This is a description, not a definition.
First used in God’s Missionary People - a way of being the church. Guder argues that the end of Christendom has led to this missional mindset. We are not maintaining what has been like museum curators, but witnessing to what God is doing now and will do in the future.
Mission-Minded vs. Missional Churches
I am not criticizing mission-minded churches. Thank God for them. But there are some distinctions between mission-minded and missional churches.
Mission-Minded
Missional Church
Sending and supporting. (We pray and give so others will go and serve.)
Being and doing (who we are and how we live)
Representative (God calls some, the rest enable.)
Participative (every single member sent). Common word in Gospels: sent.
A program of the church
The identity of the church
One expression of the church
Essence of church
“Mission is not an optional extra for the church” (Mike Riddell). “The church is by nature missionary. If it ceases to be missionary, it has not just failed in one of its task. It is ceased to be the church.”
There are many places that have church on the sign that have ceased to be the church.
Motivating Passion of Missional Churches
A circle: Love God (worship, obey) -> Live his mission (serve, share) -> Love people (embrace, invite) -> Lead them to follow (equip, empower) -> Love God.
Passion One: Love God
Passion Actions: Worship and Obey
People would walk in and would sense something different. They couldn’t put their finger on it, but people loved God deeply.
Passion Two: Live His Mission
Passion Actions: Serve and Share (evangelization - more than evangelism; the declaration and demonstration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Show and tell.) Because the missional church is there, the community around it is a better place.
Passion Three: Love People
Passion Actions: Embrace and Invite. We don’t get to choose who we love. It would be great to be known as a church that embraced its community. We don’t love because they are responding to the Gospel; we embrace them before that.
Passion Four: Lead Them to Follow: Equip
Passion Actions Eight: Equip and Empower
Most churches skip this step. This sets missional churches apart. Missional churches equip people to live out God’s mission. This is what it means to raise up authentic disciples.
This circle is centrifugal, not centripetal. This cycle extends itself out. It is an expansive cycle as more people live it out.
These passions coalesce what it means to be a biblical church.
Our behavior validates what we prioritize. Our behavior reveals what we really value. If 2% of people get these passions, they can begin to change a church.
If you asked your people how many missionaries they knew, how many would they say?  Our people would think of a handful of people who are sent by mission agencies. We will know we’re becoming missional when we ask our people this, and they begin to describe the members of the church.
The missional church is:
  1. •not a program or a process - You don’t focus on practices; you focus on God and his heart
  2. •a return to first-century Biblical ideals
  3. •A church that is shaped by God’s own heart
  4. •a distinct culture.
The easiest change to affect is personal knowledge. Personal values is the next most difficult. Action is the next most difficult. The most difficult change to make is group action. Culture is passion in action. It is value-driven behavior.
If you are going to change culture, you have to change action. We act what we believe.
Culture Checkpoints of Missional Churches
There are nine distinct practices that reflect the culture of missional churches. These are not exhaustive or exclusive to missional churches. But bringing these practices together in one shot manifests a different culture.
  1. 1.Have a high threshold for membership.
    1. Luke 12:48
    2. In many churches, little is expected of members.
    3. Implied: nominal Christianity is abnormal. In many churches, we accept orbital Christianity, circling around Jesus but never drawn closer. Orbit happens because of a pull out and in that holds an object in limbo. That’s a good picture of churches. (alternative: vector Christianity)
    4. In the US, ten million people have gone from being part of an evangelical church to being AWOL.
    5. example of church covenant: 5 G’s - grace, growth, gift, give, go
    6. High-threshold churches are attracting and retaining members at a higher rate. In North America, we are used to trying to get the maximum level of benefit for the minimum level of commitment.
    7. You don’t need to enforce this if it is culture. Culture enforces itself. These churches also communicate what to expect of the church. Also clearly communicate the pathways to becoming a member.
  2. 2.Be real, not real religious.
  3. Mark 2:15 - many tax-collectors followed Jesus
  4. Missional churches are not interested in raising up “church people”.
  5. Culture vs. worldview - culture is about how we behave; worldview is about what we believe. We believe many of the right things but we don’t actually practice a lot of them.
  6. If what we say and how we live aren’t the same, we signal that we are playing a game. People start to do this or they leave. The alternative is to bring what we say and how we live into congruence.
  7. We don’t live out some of the “one another” practices. We believe that they are biblical, but we don’t live some of them for different reasons. For instance, we don’t confess because we think we can’t trust the people.
  8. 3.Teach to obey rather than to know.
  9. Luke 11:28 - blessed are those who hear the Word and observe it
  10. Missional churches value the Word of God. Beverly Murphy - Teaching that Transforms: Worship as the Heart of Christian Eduction. Coming to know something requires more than information. We have a modern view of a detached learner.
  11. Guder - We can be doing Bible study and never touch on how to live and serve in one’s vocation out of the church.
  12. Newbigin - “The important thing in the use of the Bible is not to understand the text but to understand the world through the text.”
  13. It is the Father’s desire that we raise up self-learners rather than becoming dependent on curriculum. We’ve raised up a generation of people who don’t know what to do with the Bible unless you give them a curriculum to go along with it.
  14. 4.Rewrite worship every week.
  15. Psalm 66:4
  16. Worship is both the fuel and goal of mission (Piper). It’s not about style. Worship has an audience of only one. It invites everyone to participate and brings everyone to offer their giftedness.
  17. We tend to package our worship the same every week. My newspaper is packaged the same every week, but with fresh and new content. Examples: an artist painting during a message; a disabled girl who can write poetry that communicates the heart of the message. Is it possible you have members that have unique gifts to offer, but haven’t been asked yet?
  18. 5.Live apostolically.
  19. John 17:18 - sending them into the world
  20. Invite your people to discover where they encounter the largest number of lost people, ask whether that is their primary mission field, and invite everyone to bring it back and then graph it on a map of a city.
  21. Identify the people in our spheres of influence and start praying for them. Many of us are unable to identify the names of lost people within five blocks of our churches. We will never be able to influence those we don’t know.
  22. People don’t believe because they are spiritually blinded.
  23. Inform people of the good news; influence people; introduce the claims of Christ to them; invite people to follow Christ.
  24. 6.Expect to change the world from their own porch.
  25. Acts 1:8
  26. The community ought to be a better place because they are there. Mayor: “If that church wasn’t there, we would have to raise our tax base to do the kind of things they do.”
  27. There ought to be an impact of the church wherever a church meets, even if it is not a community-based church. They also have a passion for unreached people groups. There are 600 churches for every unreached people group.
  28. 7.Order actions according to purpose.
  29. Luke 9:62
  30. Abandonment - Need to not only add to our church calendar but to abandon. Ask of everything we do annually, “Is this contributing to the missional nature of our church?”
  31. Balance - Churches that have 80% of their emphasis focused outwardly spike and then decline. Churches with 60-80% of their emphasis focused outwardly continue to grow.
  32. Clarity - The game is won or lost based upon this clarity. No church can do everything well. Our task is to find out what we’re called to do and do that with excellence. Are you real clear about the mission of your church?
  33. 8.Measure growth by capacity to release, not retain.
  34. John 12:24
  35. We often measure success by how many we can get to come under our roof. It’s not a “come here” mentality; we need a “go there” mentality. We exist to equip God’s missionary people to be on their task.
  36. It’s not about how many we can get under our roof. It’s sending our people out.
  37. 9.Value their beliefs, and are passionate about the Kingdom of God.
  38. Matthew 6:33
  39. They have doctrinal distinctives, but they understand the Kingdom of God is broader. They have a city-reaching desire.
  40. Illustration: fertilizer demonstration plot, where fertilizer manufacturers showcased what their fertilizer could do. The church is a Kingdom demonstration plot, where we demonstrate the difference the Kingdom makes. We don’t exist to transform culture, but to invite those in culture to become part of the Kingdom.
Assessment Reflection
Where is our church today? We need to be honest about where we are.
Where does God want our church to be?
Seven easy steps won’t work, because your context is different. Your job as leaders is to keep this tension going between your current reality and the future vision. Keeping creative tension is not easy work.
Three choices every church has concerning its future:
  1. 1.Continue doing the same things
  2. 2.Seek to do the same things better (most choose this)
  3. 3.Choose to begin doing new things
Film Awakenings - group in the Bronx that had been catatonic for decades; some came out of state with medication. First time Lucy had moved. She bypassed the water fountain and went to the window to look outside.
There are hundreds of people longing for something more. They have gone as far as our current patterns will let them go. They long to go to the window and be part of the Kingdom and to feel the wind of the Spirit flowing fresh on them.
What is keeping them from getting there?
(They didn’t invest heavily in structure. They did a low-investment structure to get the job done.)
What patterns would we have to design to help our people get there?
What prevents us from being that kind of church today?
  1. •Dualism - separating sacred and secular; I’ve done my church thing, now I’m going out to do the rest of life
  2. •Weapons of mass distraction - Parable of seed; the purpose of the weeds was not to kill the vine, but to prevent it from fruitfulness. Next best to spiritual death is spiritual barrenness. We can be distracted even by good things.
  3. •Spiritual complacency - nominalism
  4. •Lack of understanding of Biblical Christianity - not knowing our story - Old Testament phone number for God - 593-5593 (5 books - creation to crossing to the promised land; 9 books from promised land to exile; 3 books post exile; 5 books experiential/individual/poetry books; 5 major prophets - 2 before 1 during 2 after exile; 9 minor prophets before exile, 3 minor prophets after)
  5. •Worldview vs. culture conflict
What patterns would we have to fill in for our members to feel the fresh wind of the Spirit blowing?
Missional living requires:
  1. •Spiritual formation (intimacy with Christ)
  2. •Relationship (community with believers)
  3. •Focus (clarity of purpose in culture representing Christ in word and culture)
  4. •Intercession (priestly function)
  5. •Instruction (preparation to live authentically as disciples/ambassadors)
What would have to change for our churches to develop those patterns? What is your role? What would they need from you?
This must become your heart’s condition vision.
  1. •Fear is a poor chisel with which to carve out tomorrow.
  2. •Out of the heart flow the issues of the heart
  3. •Psalm 37:4
Don’t wait for the right time or be indecisive. Proceed.
An Exercise in Thinking Missionally
          1. Realm: Church
        2. Belongs to: God
      2. Made up of: Saints
    2. Functional tasks: Evangelization, Teaching, Worship, Fellowship, Service
Carried out in: e.g. Sunday morning, Alpha, small groups
CHURCH REALM ↑
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“REST OF LIFE” REALM ↓
Carried out in: schools, factories, banks, transit systems, police, hospitals, lawyers, government
    1. Functional tasks: Stewardship, education, government, justice, procreation, manufacturing, distribution, communication, marketing, arts, recreation
      1. Made up of: People
        1. Belongs to: God
          1. Realm: World
In the middle: take Rick, high school teacher. He belongs to both realms. If he is a top-tier church member, he may be investing 5 hours a week in church. He spends 40+ hours a week at work.
We have a line there that separates the church from the world. For most of the week, your members are spending more time in the world than in the church. What can you do to effectively equip Rick to be God’s missionary at Brampton Centennial High School?
Brainstorm ideas. **Spiritual formation is the primary preparation for mission.
Our people think that the top is all about the church world, but it has nothing to do with the bottom half. What if everything we do on the top half is to prepare people to live in the bottom half.