Key Transitions for Missional Leaders
Key Transitions for Missional Leaders
I often have this conversation with students: I am not planting a new church. God has called me to serve in an established congregation. How can I lead my church to transition from a maintenance mindset to a missional culture? This may be the key question for the West. The West needs to be re-won for Jesus Christ, but the good news is that there are footholds and resources already in place from which to begin. But transitioning established congregations is not an easy task-but it is an essential one as we seek to be faithful stewards of all that God has given.
Here are some thoughts:
The key is to create a new culture. I have written elsewhere about envisioning leadership in the 21st century in terms of shaping ethos. The following a key transitional points that push this along:
1) Reintroduce the Apostolic story of Acts.
At the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2), the world began to be turned upside down and shaped by a small group of persons whom God filled with the Holy Spirit. The Church launched that day in fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy as a movement of “dreamers and visionaries” empowered by the promised Holy Spirit from God.
Don’t pass over the phrase “dreamers and visionaries” too quickly. In many struggling churches, the people of God have lost the capacity to dream of what God might do in and through the community. One of the first steps in transitioning to a missional model is to help followers of Jesus Christ to begin to dream again dreams shaped by the Scriptures.
2) Move from Surviving to Living.
Struggling churches are merely seeking to survive. When followers of Jesus Christ under the guidance of the Spirit begin to dream again, they slowly begin to realize that survival isn’t a goal. Survival is a prison that keeps a group from living. The goal of the Church of Jesus Christ is life in relationship to God. Living may sometimes means dying. Following Jesus Christ involves living as though you have already died (Matt 16:24). A vital relationship with Jesus moves us beyond fear of failure to following Jesus into the world on mission. This is the source of life. Apostolic dreams lead to apostolic action.
3) Move God’s people from consuming to becoming collaborative influencers for the Kingdom of God.
Missional churches are not about providing programs/resources to meet “felt needs” as ends in themselves. Missional churches call people to convert to the Gospel. This involves a reorientation from a life focused on self to a life centered on following Jesus Christ. The people of God shift from consuming to becoming Kingdom-rooted entrepreneurs who seek to extend the influence and reign of God to the ends of the earth. Congregations shift from inviting people to have their needs met to unleashing people to change the world.
4) Shift from Attractional Methods to Interactive Engagement.
Too many churches wait for people to show up at the door. Missional churches are not opposed to advertising or raising awareness of the community of faith, but they do not sit round waiting for the World to show up. Instead, missional churches collaborate and envision ways to engage new Social networks. This is a key shift. The World no longer serves as a threat from which followers of Christ flee. Instead, the World becomes the venue for life and service in God’s mission.
What are your thoughts?
© 2007 Brian D. Russell
“Missional churches call people to convert” amen. It is through that new life and energy the church community stays missional and has the power of the spirit to constantly generate visions of service and sharing. When that activity (calling people to convert to the gospel) is missing or restrained, the survival or maintenance attitude is all that is left and that is a dead end for the community.
Brian, thanks for this as from 1st September I will be taking up leadership of a small Salvation Army corps in the UK, which appears to be in maintenance mode with a very small congregation. I’ve been praying for some insight into how to move things forward into a missional focus, so this post was extremely timely.
One of the biggest problems, certainly in the UK, with a church in maintenance mode is that it is predominantly made up of people over retirement age, many of whom feel they are incapable of the work required. The call in your first point to help followers of Jesus dream dreams again serves as a wonderful reminder that Joel’s prophecy included both the young and the old as being conveyors of God’s will.
Thanks for this!
[...] Brian at realmealministries.org has some really good suggestions. [...]
[...] Brian Russell wrote Key Transitions for Missional Leaders on the Real Meal blog. In this essay, Brian describes key shifts that communities of faith need to make to embody a missional mindset in the 21st century. [...]