For What It’s Worth… Missional Church

Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in
Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and the ends of the earth.”

In the past 27 years much has been written and discussed about Missional Church. What is Missional Church? Why does the church need to be called back to being missional? The origins of Missional Church are helpful. Here is a brief history:

A 1998 book titled Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America was the first work to introduce the concept of a missional church. The multi-authored book grew out of the Gospel and Our Culture Network, a group of professors and pastors that sought to bring the World Council of Churches’ discussions of missio dei (“the mission of God”) and Lesslie Newbigin’s missionary insights to bear on North America. According to Missional Church, the American church had been tied to a “Christendom model” of Christianity, wherein the church focused on internal needs and maintaining its cultural privilege in society. The decline of Christendom provided the church an opportunity, they said, to rediscover its identity as a people sent by God into the world as gospel witnesses.
(What Makes a Church Missional, Christianity Today, March 5, 2008)

This year Good Shepherd needs to take an intentional step in the area of missions and evangelism. I think it is critical that we come to understand ourselves as “a people sent by God into the world as gospel witnesses!” Why? Because, by the grace of God, that is exactly who we are!

There are innumerable ways we live God’s Kingdom in the world every day. We live it through seemingly innocuous ways of being kind and generous. We live it by reaching out to another in need and lending a helping hand. We live it out when we share with another person the reason we have hope because of God who loves us deeply. We live it when we invite someone to come with us to church.

Let us all take the risk of opening ourselves to others this year. Let’s be vulnerable enough to become witnesses with and for Christ in our community, on our street, at our work, etc. This is how God’s Kingdom will grow…through us. God’s mission depends on us, in that, God wants God’s mission to flow through us…to others.

In doing so, you will be His witnesses in Melbourne and Palm Bay, in all of Brevard County and Florida, and even, if you are one of those international cruising types…to the very ends of the earth.

Blessings,

Your Pastor,

Scott <><