I have been reading “Missional Renaissance: Changing the Scorecard for the church” by Reggie McNeal. It is really resonating with me. Here are quotes that spoke to me as I have been reading.
The perception of outsiders will change only when Christians strive to represent the heart of God in every relationship and situation.
They (churches) don’t focus beyond the church to be culturally hip. They make this shift because the new direction defines who they are.
Much of their calendar space, financial resources, and organizational energy is spent on people who are not a part of their organization.
Today, people learn at their own speed, on their own time, at their own convenience.
These assumptions (held by churches for eons) are that people will be better off if they just participate in certain activities and processes that the church or organization has sanctioned for its ministry agenda.
The answer is that achieving abundant life will require intentional personal development.
We must change our ideas of what it means to develop a disciple, shifting the emphasis from studying Jesus and all things spiritual in an environment protected from the world to following Jesus into the world to join him in his redemptive mission.
…realizing that there is no such thing as spiritual growth apart from relationship health…
… church membership or some level of involvement in a local congregation will no longer be the primary spiritual expression of missional followers of Jesus.
No one can legitimately claim that our current model produces vibrant disciples. North American church attendees lack the caliber and character of disciples that we see in many other parts of the world.
Clearly, the move away from affiliation is not a move away from God. It does signal a disaffection for the institutional church that is changing the spiritual landscape drastically—and quickly.
The movement founded by Jesus was largely a marketplace phenomenon, an organic connection among people who were experiencing a way of life together. The early days of the movement focused on simple teachings of Jesus, with particular attention to living lives of sacrifice and service to one another and to one’s neighbor.
The spiritual expression of Jesus followers was not characterized by a set of religious activities layered on top of other interests. Jesus invaded all areas of life. Church was not an event or a place; it was a away of life.
The spirituality the world needs must be robust enough to engage people where they live, work and play.
Their devotion to God is lived out in their determination to bless and to develop people who are made in his image.
…they will also have to demonstrate in their lives what it is they want people to do.
But be careful—once you start down this path, it will ruin you to the old world (way of doing things.)
Missional followers of Jesus don’t belong to a church. They are the church. Wherever they are, the church is present. Church is not something outside of themselves that they go to or join or support; it’s something they are.
Thinking about church in who mode focuses on what it means to be the people of God. The central task is developing great followers of Jesus, believing that God has created people to demonstrate his redemptive intentions to the world in and through them. This perspective frames an agenda so that the community of faith may encourage all its members to be faithful to God and to his mission as they live out being the church in the world.
Congregations often wind up inventing something that does not reflect the heart of God. Then they ask God to bless them in their efforts, a mission that he had no hand in framing and has no heart for.
The missional church is the people of God partnering with God in his redemptive mission in the world.
Our job is not to “do church” well but to be the people of God in an unmistakable way in the world.
We are to be different in the hope we offer, in the grace we exhibit and in the obvious sacrifice of love we display in dealing with others.
Our “thereness” is what the world needs. It needs the church to be there, addressing every brokenness caused by sin, reflecting the heart of God to the world as partners in his redemptive mission.
Still other missional Jesus followers will live out their missional expression in the marketplace of in some life hobby where they spend a good deal of time and have built significant relationships.
The missional follower of Jesus cannot conceive of their spiritual identity outside of being in accountable and encouraging relationships with other Jesus followers. Church is not a part of life for the missional Jesus follower; it is a way of life with others who are on a similar journey.
It is a way of seeing oneself as partnering with God in daily life, executing the mundane as well as pursuing the sublime, with an intentionality of blessing people and sharing the life of God with them.
God chose to embody his blessing in a people who were to show the world who he is and what he wants them to enjoy.
God’s people reveal his heart to the world by declaring God’s person and story to the world and by demonstrating a way of life he intended people to enjoy.
Jesus can’t describe his mission any plainer that this. He wants to help people get a life!
His kind of living substituted service for self-aggrandizement and trumped self-absorption by paying attention to others’ needs.
Not telling people the truth doesn’t serve them fully even if you love them. Telling people the truth without loving them hardly encourages them to embrace it.
When the people of God act like the people of God, we actually help people see God.
People deserve to be blessed simply because they are people, not just so we can “witness” to them.
God’s mission is redemptive. The welfare of people created in his image captures the heart and imagination of God.
Ever since the Word became flesh, the conversation about God has never been the same. He is now having a new conversation with the church.
The popple of God play an important role in the mission of god.
God created a people to be his partner in his redemptive mission. In that exchange, God initiates a covenantal relationship, meaning that the people of God have responsibilities to be the people of God.
The church that claims to be the people of God must submit itself to the role of participating in the mission of God in the world.
They are creating other ways of living their faith, some in missional communities and others in marketplace expression.
Missional is not a place you arrive at but a direction in which you are moving. It is a way of being in the world.
…their church’s vision is to love God and love others in profound ways. They were willing to stake the “evidence of this vision” as being “seen through our demonstrated acts of service.”
I will continue to pass on more as I read.
(Note: I’m reading on my Kindle and it doesn’t have page numbers. These quotes are in the order they are presented in the book.)
Tags: blessing · God's heart · mission of God · Missional Renaissance · partnering with God · people of God · scorecard · spirituality1 Comment