On-Mission Mondays: Mission-Minded or Missional?

Lord willing, I’ll put up a post every Monday about being “on mission” with Christ. I’ll spend a couple of months asking you to think with me about the principles in Milfred Minatrea’s book, Shaped By God's Heart: The Passion and Practices of Missional Churches
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“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.” With this quote from Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Milfred Minatrea begins his book designed to create a yearning to be shaped by God's heart.

He challenges church leaders to transition their churches from a "maintenance" mentality to a "missional" mentality. Too many churches, he says, have fallen into a maintenance mentality:

The Protestant church in North America was born into a comfortable and familiar environment that was favorable and respectful of its presence. . . . By the middle of the 20th century, however, . . . the times were changing, and changing fast. . . . Some longed to engage the changing culture and share with those who have never experienced the serenity and peace found in relationship with God and the members of his church, but to their surprise other people did not seem to see their church in the same way. They felt bewildered and under fire. In response, they retreated to the sanctuary, their place of comfort, growing ever more inward in their orientation.

Not surprisingly, they found themselves increasingly out of touch with the rapids of cultural change in the real world in which their neighbors lived. Most cared about those on the outside, but they felt impotent to connect and share with unchurched persons in any significant way. Consequently, their church is no longer anticipated having a major impact on society and hoped only to reach enough people to help the church survive. I call this prevalent consumer orientation, isolation from society, and associated lack of belief in capacity to have significant influence a maintenance mentality.

A "missional mentality" is very different. Minatrea defines a missional church as “a reproducing community of authentic disciples, being equipped as missionaries sent by God, to live and proclaim his kingdom in their world.”

While many churches would regard themselves as "mission-minded," Minatrea says this is not the same as being missional. Mission-minded churches view their role as sending and supporting those who have been "called" to mission service. "The missional church," says Minatrea, "understands that although some may be supported as those sent to other locations, every member of the church is 'sent.'"

This sounds very similar to what I've been saying at Hillcrest about having a "beachhead mentality" instead of having a "bunker mentality." Those are military terms. A beachhead is an offensive position that soldiers establish so they can push into occupied territory. A bunker is a defensive position where soldiers hunker down when under attack. When I began to challenge people to make Hillcrest a beachhead instead of a bunker, some people looked for another bunker to join.

I've been told that whenever a church goes through a transition, you can expect to lose 15%. That's been my experience, too. Thankfully, though, we are becoming more missional instead of just mission-minded. We are beginning to see ourselves as a mission point to our own community instead of just a church that sends money and people to mission-points far away.

Minatrea outlines nine essential practices of missional churches. Across the next several Mondays, I hope you'll think with me about each one.