Before Christmas, the New Year, before getting bombarded by the
relentless flu, and before my good friend's incredibly devastating loss of his
son, I had begun a series of 3 posts on some common buzz words within the
church: community, missional, and relevant.
I posted my take on the difference between Community versus Commonality here. Continuing in this series, let me offer my
thoughts on the difference between missional and attractional.
It might seem pretty obvious what "attractional" means. In our consumeristic culture, it's all about
getting more business and customers, and oftentimes, the church seems to fall
into step with similar practices. Just
like brand allegiance has grown less and less, so have people's allegiance to
the local body of which they are part.
It seems to be about the latest and greatest, the biggest and the
best. Who offers the best programs for
my kids and my family? What will we get
out of it when we gather on Sunday morning?
Can I hear good music, a good message, and feel blessed and ready to
face the week ahead after spending my one hour in church on Sunday morning?
If people are easily attracted to churches, they will be just as
easily unattracted to churches.
"Brand loyalty" is something that is becoming less and less
prevalent as people who fall into the consumer mindset will easily abandon
their practices when they find something better. Joshua Harris wrote an informative and
thought-provoking book a few years back called "Stop Dating the Church." While I don't agree with everything he says,
he articulates well the shift that has taken place within our churches from
commitment to consumerism.
Not only will some people hop around from church to church to find
everything that they are looking for, but in this digital society, it seems
perfectly legitimate for us to "have church" while sitting in front
of our computer and watching someone hundreds or thousands of miles away. This is missing the point as to why we
gather. Just as the author of Hebrews
wrote that we shouldn't forsake assembling or gathering together, the
fellowship and community formed when we do gather is an important factor.
The word missional has become somewhat of a buzzword in Christian
circles. It seems that we sometimes
throw it around without a good definition or description of what it means. Ironically, the idea of being missional is a
concept that we have trained foreign missionaries in for years. They are trained to exegete the culture and
to understand the language that is used among the people to whom they minister. They understand that they need not wait for
people to come to them but that instead, they need to go be among people.
The idea of missionality seemed to get lost during the time in our
culture when people still maintained some type of respect and appreciation for
religion. Back then, it was easy to just
invite people to come to church and expect that they might show up. Many embrace what I call a "Field of
Dreams" mentality, "If you build it, they will come." Sadly, many churches never moved past that
mindset.
The idea of being missional is an intentional awareness of the places
that we go, the people we meet, and the culture that surrounds us. It's about being the hands and feet of Jesus,
not by thumping people over the head with the Bible and playing Holy Spirit to
them, but by serving them and seeking opportunities to share as to why that
service is important.
Evangelism seems to have become a four-letter word among some in the
church. I am probably among them. Unfortunately, evangelism has come to mean
standing on a street corner, handing out tracts. But the origin of the word
"evangelism" is from the Greek word "euangelion" which
means, "Gospel or Good News."
Evangelism is sharing God's story in our lives, not beating people over
the head with the Bible and trying to "seal the deal" to get them to
pray a prayer.
When we live intentionally missional lives, we don't simply surround
ourselves with people who think, talk, and believe what we believe. In fact, if those are the people that we are
spending significant time with, we need a change. I have felt this tension for years now. It's ironic that one whose profession is to
minister to people and reach people for Christ ends up being surrounded by so
many Christians. If we look at who Jesus
was surrounded by, it was more often than not the ones who needed to hear the
"euangelion."
I have seen how difficult it is to make this change among the culture
of a church and to change within myself.
It is not something that happens overnight. It is something that needs to be modeled and
lived out in order for it to really took root within people. Like most things though, it has to start
small. Too much, too fast can just leave
to frustration and cause people to want to give up. My experience of late has been to take
advantage of opportunities that God puts before me, feeling a sense of urgency
and yet not allowing that urgency to play "Holy Spirit" within me.
We can continue to be attractional in the way that we do church and we
will probably be mostly "successful" from a worldly perspective. But we shouldn't be surprised when something
else comes along that draws people away.
If we seek to be missional, to reach people where they are with a
message of hope and Good News, we can be a church who grows and trains
disciples. It won't happen overnight,
but we can start with one person at a time.
