Intentional Missional - Focus on the Basics and Love People

By Amy Hamlin

Okay, so how did you do this last week? Did you accept your mission and get uncomfortable? To be precise, did you follow what God commands us to do? Did you allow His Spirit to guide you through the ins and outs? Didn’t do so hot, huh? Well, no one said this would be easy. Continue to work on the task that God has put before you (aka last week’s mission), as we now move our focus to the basics of being intentionally missional and loving people.

So, what are the basics of being intentionally missional? I know what I think the ins and outs of being intentionally missional are, but doing a little research never hurts. So, once again, I must thank Google for the advances that allow me to look up information in an instant to gather more facts and figures than I could possibly get to in a life time.

I found that everyone has his or her own interpretation of what the basics of missional communities are. Not surprised? Well, me either. However one of the Blog’s I came across was written by Ed Stetzer. Stetzer’s primary role is Vice President of Research and Ministry Development for LifeWay Christian Resources. He wrote an article titled, “A Missional Church”, which gives a broad interpretation of basic intentional missions. Of course, there are more than the things just listed below (according to Ed and all of the articles I came across), but being intentionally missional is certainly:

Incarnational: Missional churches are deeply connected to the community. The church is not focused on its facility, but is focused on living, demonstrating, and offering biblical community to a lost world.

Indigenous: Missional churches are indigenous. Churches that are indigenous have taken root in the soil and reflect, to some degree, the culture of their community. An indigenous church looks different from Seattle to Senegal to Singapore.

Intentional: Missional churches are intentional about their methodologies. There are scripturally commanded requirements about church, preaching, discipline, baptism and many other biblical practices.

Stetzer goes on to say that, “a church is not missional because it is contemporary or traditional. A church becomes missional when it remains faithful to the Gospel message while simultaneously contextualizing its ministry (to the degree it can) so that the Gospel can engage the worldview of the hearers.” Remaining faithful to the Gospel sounds like a great idea. Let’s look there. The words of the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 talks about the Spirit’s call for us to be missional in culture.

¹⁹ Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. ²⁰ To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. ²¹ To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. ²² To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. ²³ I do all this for the sake of the gospel that I may share in its blessings.

So that leads us into the “loving people” part. Paul’s mission was to lead lost people to Jesus. One of the Blog’s I came across was written by Ben Williams (not sure what his Bio is, but I like what he had to say). He says that “a good missionary does EVERYTHING (short of sinning) to bring people to a relationship with Christ.” Did you catch the key phrase in that last sentence? Okay, well go back and read that last sentence. Do you see it now? A good missionary does EVERYTHING (short of sinning) to bring people to a relationship with Christ. This does not mean we need to bring people to a brick and mortar structure so they can have a relationship with Jesus. It means we need to be about building relationships with non-Christians in order to have Spirit-led opportunities to share the Good News with them-meeting them where they are.

Okay, so that got me thinking. WDJD (What Did Jesus Do)? Jesus' approach was to go where people were. He traveled far and wide. He hung out with the poor, the outcast, the lonely. Sinners, prostitutes, tax collectors, Samaritans, women caught in adultery, lepers, cheats, thieves, drunkards, idolaters, and murderers. The unclean. He went to went places like weddings, parties, and religious festival celebrations. What is the common thread? PEOPLE! He loved people. Jesus didn’t just invite people to the temple. He didn’t wait for people to come to him. Rather, he frequently had dealings with people who happened to intersect with His life as they went about their daily lives.

Stetzer also wrote that, “’When Jesus said, "As the Father has sent Me, so send I you," (John 20:21) that was not to a select group of cross-cultural missionaries. Instead, that was a commission to our churches, you and me. We have a sender (Jesus), a message (the Gospel), and a people to whom we are sent (real people with whom we intersect in the course of our everyday lives). It is worth the effort to go beyond our personal preferences and to proclaim the Good News of a Risen Savior in whatever context we find ourselves. That's being intentionally missional.”’

So, the journey continues.

Your mission for this week, if you choose to accept it, is to be an intentional 24/7 presence within your daily activities.

Missional Church: Intentionally Missional - Get Ready to be Uncomfortable

By Amy Hamlin

In the last few months, there has been lots of activity surrounding YoungLife and the partnership with Reliant. As exciting as this is, I can’t help the many questions that are flooding my brain. Where do I fit in? Where do we as a community fit in? How do we get from here to there? How can we have the most impact? Are we an intentionally missional church?

Most, if not all, of us have heard about being on a mission for Christ. But doing mission is not the same as being missional. So what does it mean to be missional? Looking for some answers, I went to the web. After reading quite a few articles and blogs, I found that missional communities/churches are being called different things in different places, but the idea is the same: a group of people, doing the mission of God together outside the confines of the regular church building.

Having Googled myself silly, I came across a blog written by a guy named Rick Meigs. I love what he says about how we as a church body deal with being on a mission. "Jesus told us to go into all the world and be his ambassadors (Matthew 28:18-25), but many churches today have inadvertently changed the "go and be" command to a "come and see" appeal. We have grown attached to buildings, programs, staff and a wide variety of goods and services designed to attract and entertain people.” So true! Guilty as charged. So how do we change our “come and see” mentality to “go and be”?

All of a sudden, I am hearing this “but that is SCARY! It means that I might actually have to get uncomfortable and share my faith with someone!”

“Yes, I, too, have that knot in my stomach. But what if . . . ?”

What if you and I replace the "come to us" invitations with a "go to them" life? Meigs suggests that our mission becomes “’a life where "the way of Jesus" informs and radically transforms our existence to one wholly focused on sacrificially living for Him and others, and where we adopt a missionary stance in relation to our culture. It speaks of the very nature of the Jesus follower.”’ Sounds good to you, but you are probably still sitting in your chair, white-knuckled and gripping on for dear life. Maybe you need a little more motivation than the Great Commission. Thom Rainer is the president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources, which provides church health insights. Some interesting statistics about groups of people that “accept” Jesus as their Lord and Savior jumped out at me:

- 63% of people who accept Christ do so before the age of 18

- 18% are between the age of 18-25

- 26% are 26 years old or over

Wow! Are you motivated to share your faith yet? I see some head nodding, but who is going to talk to “those” people over there you ask? Jesus says, “but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8). We are the presence of Jesus in this world. Only through us, individually (that means you) and communally (that means Reliant/YoungLife), does the world see Jesus. That is a great reason why “way of life,” behavior, and practice, not just words, are important.

Welcome to the journey.

Your mission for this week, if you choose to accept it, is to get uncomfortable. You might already know this passage, but just as a refresher, Matthew 28:18-25 says, ¹⁸ Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Jesus didn’t ask us if we’d like to go. To be precise, He commanded us to go. He expects it of each of us. He authorized us to do it in His stead. He provides His Spirit to guide us through the ins and outs of it – right down to providing us with the courage and the necessary words. Are you up to His task for you?