The Church in America Becoming Missional (Part 3)

Go anywhere in the United States and you’ll see a universal format of singing and preaching as the fundamental cornerstones of the content of worship service. The church’s main premise is to conduct a service so it can attract visitors to their building and then assimilate them into the life of the church and its programs. Some large churches do this incredibly well and provide excellent services. From when a person enters the parking lot to when they leave they are treated to a host of volunteers who will greet them, show them to a chair, teach or baby-sit their children, sing to them and then provide a reasonable amount of entertainment from PowerPoint to skits, dramas and items. Some people can go from one large church to another enjoying world class preaching and music.

Unfortunately many of the smaller churches have the same aims and intentions, but they do not have the facilities, resources and volunteers to provide the same quality product. They most likely have attended the large church services and even a yearly conference hosted by the large church and yet they find such experiences unreproducible.

American church services are normally incredibly inward in their language and content. Only people familiar to the Christian culture would truly understand the majority of what is said and sung. There is usually a cultural issue where the songs and style is dated. The service only appeals to people whom like that style.

This results in most people feeling they could not bring the average unchurched friend or relative to these services. In fact most of the people who do attend are the members of that congregation or visiting Christians. There are enough visiting or disgruntled Christians, who shop around, that these churches continue on without asking "who is finding Jesus for the first time?" They try all sorts of ways to attract new people, from fairs to fates to coffee lounges to visitor corners; they attempt to bring "the worldly person" into the church. No matter how well they greet and guide people, the cultural gap between the average person and the church is enormous. The American Church simply believes the average unchurched person wants their message.

The missional church goes back to the life of Jesus. It submerges itself into the culture it is reaching. He did not construct a building or start a service. Rather he walked among the poor and hurt and lost. He incarnated himself. He became flesh; God came down from heaven and lived among us. He was born poor and grew up in a despised town called Nazareth. He had a questionable birth and in all likeliness lost his earthly father at an early age. He became close friends of sinners.

This was the only model the early church knew. Those that had been his disciples saw how he pulled away from the crowd and wanted no fame or fortune for his ability to lead and heal. His purpose was to build into the lives of a small group of people so that his mission to bring the kingdom would be carried on their shoulders.The missional church understands that it is primarily a missional community of people being trained and equipped to live among the world as missionaries. The same principle as oversees missions is applied in the first world. We speak the language, wear the clothes and submerge into the culture we want to reach.

Author Unknown