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During the past few years there has been a lot of discussion about the emergent church. Now it seems that many have not been happy with the way the emergent church has moved to and have re-branded themselves as missional.

Is the missional church just another form of the emergent church? To that I say, yes and no. Just as the emergent church has its various ways with no single unifying factor defining it, the missional church is not in complete agreement either. However, there is a big difference in the way I see the emergent and missional churches.

A key focus on emergent churches is the experience. What does one feel when in an emergent environment? How can the church become a sensory experience? I admit that I was taken with this style of church for a couple of years as it seems like a way to connect with those outside of the church and in opposition to “religion.” They weren’t connecting in the more-traditional or seeker sensitive church so why not give them a place to experience God through making it seem more real and less judgmental? It made sense to me until one day I was hit with something. What about the gospel? Was the emergent church bringing awareness to the gospel in a way that lives were being transformed or was it simply paving a way for people to have their needs met in a Christianity tailor made for the season of life?

I have nothing against those in the emergent church or those called by God to serve in that capacity. I don’t believe the emergent church to be leading people down the wrong path any more than I believe the purpose driven or seeker sensitive church is misleading. God’s vision for his church is bigger than any of us can imagine and the isn’t to do it in only one way; instead the key is to make the focus on God and to live in unity and love. If we do those two things God will take care of the rest.

With that said, how can the missional church be the same as the emergent church? Simply put, the missional church requires an experience. However, where the emergent is about creating an atmosphere that brings about an experience, the missional church is all about experiencing something because of what we put into it, not what is presented to us. Additionally, the missional church will connect with those that aren’t connecting with the traditional Sunday consumeristic experience. Those that aren’t looking for a church with programs that cater to their needs.

The more I prayed about leading an emergent church, the more I believe that I received clarity on the true nature behind God’s vision for the church he was calling me to. It wasn’t about engaging people in an experience so they could feel God’s presence and come to know him more. It was about being a real and relevant place that people wanted to engage in every day. A place where Jesus could be made known without someone having to purposefully step foot into a building on a Sunday. It was about having a meaning and a purpose that stretched well beyond the borders of modern Christianity. To spell it out, this was a place that no building or program could summarize. It’s a place that can only be found deep within the heart and soul of a person. This is what led me to come to find the missional church.

Every church has a vision and mission statement. However, most often the mission of a church is to grow and be healthy and to see others come to know Jesus as Lord and Savior. The mission isn’t really a mission, but instead it is more like a mantra. We at XYZ Church want to disciple others and cause them to live out the Great Commission is basically what it comes down to. Is that bad? Absolutely not!

For me though, mission cannot be fulfilled unless it is a part of who one is. It is taking like-minded people and getting them united in a cause. In my case, the cause that should unite the church is loving God and loving others. We can show we love God by coming to a church building and lifting up our worship to him. We can show others that we love them by creating a great Christian children’s program for their family or teaching them how to be good stewards of their finances or how to stay married for life. For me though, I believe I can show God I love him by keeping his commands and I can show others I love them as Jesus loves them by going to them and not trying to attract them to me.

In my mind the missional church is about worshipping God through our daily lives and sharing the love of Christ with others in ways that have nothing to do with attracting people to a church building or connecting them with some great program. As Jesus did, we need to hit the streets and show the relevance of our faith in Christ and our genuine love for our fellow man. We should give sacrificially and engage in community and pray together and spend time studying and heeding God’s Word. In essence, to me, the missional church can simply be defined as a church that follows the model of the Acts chapter 2, first century church.

It can be a house church, mega church, internet church, college campus ministry…it cannot be defined by it’s look or it’s people. It can only be defined by Jesus and continuing his mission to see the kingdom of heaven upon earth. Jesus didn’t do things to draw people into his church. He went from town to town administering love and kindness and forgiveness to all that had eyes to see and ears to hear. He did not discriminate his message based on culture or profession or social status. His love was enough for all in 30 AD and it is still enough for all in 2008 AD. Why not go out and show the world that Jesus loves them and wants to use his people to share his love of them? Why must we call the world to come knocking on the door of our church instead? Jesus was about making those in the establishment feel uncomfortable, but at the same time he called upon his disciples to feel uncomfortable. Is a transformed life, dead to sin, going to matter much to a dying and hurting world if that transformation is only visible in a comfortable theater style seat with professional sounding music and polished speaker delivering a sermon on Sunday. A transformed life will be empowered through the Holy Spirit to speak eternal love into someone’s life if we go out and meet them where they are and not cast judgment on them. A transformed life will bring glory to God when lives outside of Sunday services are touched, yet no one mentions a church by name and uses it as propaganda. When we as Christ’s church offer to a free gift of bottled water to people because we want them to be hydrated and healthy, yet there is a big XYZ Church label on the bottle, is it really a free gift? Is it really about God’s love or the church’s love?

I don’t know how long the emergent church will continue or what the future holds for it. I love, pray for, and learn from many of my emergent church brothers such as Dan Kimball & Erwin McManus. However, I do know that the missional church isn’t something that came about as a way to try and make Christianity relevant in a post-Christian world. Missional church is just a modern expression of the first century church and it’s about time we got back to our roots of living life for the glory of God and believing that Christ will make this a better place the spirit of love he gives us through the indwelling of his Holy Spirit within us.

Missional churches are starting to gain momentum, which is a little odd to me since they were in existence back in the first century following the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ.

To help clarify a little on missional churches and explain why I believe this movement is relevant, I’ll be posting my views this week as they relate to the Scriptural and cultural relevance of missional churches. The posts this week will reflect my opinions as I have come to understand them through prayer and study. I don’t profess to be an expert on the missional church nor am I completely comfortable with churches being categorized with terms such as missional, emergent, seeker-sensitive, mega, postmodern, giga, traditional, organic, attractional or whatever labels people want to use to describe something that was intended to be unified and loving. However, it is my hope that my posts this week will help explain some of the details of what makes a church missional and how this aligns with my vision for the local church.

To help get up to speed on the missional church be sure to spend some time here. From the Friend of Missional website, let’s start the discussion with an excerpt of what they state the missional church is not:

• A missional church is not a dispenser of religious goods and services or a place where people come for their weekly spiritual fix.
• A missional church is not a place where mature Christians come to be fed and have their needs met.
• A missional church is not a place where “professionals” are hired to do all the work of the church.
• A missional church is not a place where the “professionals” teach the children and youth about God to the exclusion of parental responsibility.
• A missional church is not a church with a “good missions program.” The people are the missions program and includes going to “Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
• A missional church is not about a new strategy for evangelism.
• A missional church is not missional just because it is contemporary, young, hip, postmodern-sensitive, seeker-sensitive or even traditional.
• A missional church is not about big programs and organizations to accomplish God’s missionary purpose. This does not imply no program or organization, but that they will not drive mission. They will be used in support of people on mission.
• A missional church is not involved in political party activism, either on the right or left. As Brian McLaren wrote, we need “purple peoplehood” — people who don’t want to be defined as red or blue, but have elements of both.

I’ll start posting next on what the missional church means from Jesus’ perspectives and why this ancient form of “church” is so refreshing and relevant to some. I’ll also be explaining my view on why I believe that missional and emergent are very different words and why postmodern is becoming an irrelevant term.

Father God, may you grant me the wisdom to aid in the discussion and convey clearly about what is being called the missional church. May my words glorify you and may they speak to those that think church is something out-dated and irrelevant. Let this movement bring about hope and joy as people all over the world connect and exemplify your love for all people and come to know the saving grace of Christ for all eternity. May the results help to bring unity to the vision of your church in ways that honor you Lord. In the name of Jesus, amen.

Keeping up with the (church) joneses:

http://vandelaydesign.com/blog/galleries/best-church-websites/

With so many people flocking to google’s apps such as gmail, maps, and picasa as well as its news reader for keeping up with blog posts such as this one, it makes sense that google enters into the browser wars. For me I tend to do everything with one computer and am online with a broadband connection 90% of the time so I don’t particularly care for having to log into google every time I want to check email or catch up on blogs. However, I just updated to Firefox 3 so I could take advantage of some cool add ons that required version 3 and I don’t like it at all! I’ve been loyal to Firefox from day one, but now I’m looking to switch.

Unfortunately Chrome by google isn’t initially going to be available for us Mac users. When are people going to learn that Mac users are the important ones? Hahahaha

Read the full article from BBC News here.