A friend's blog: Missional Church

Our great friend Angela Hamm is a deep thinker. She's not satisfied with status quo and she is BIG on seeing real spiritual transformation occur in peoples' lives. That jives (don't you love that word) so much with Vicki and me.

Last Monday she posted the following:

Characteristics of a missional church:

1. Looking outward.
2. Changing as culture continues to change.
3. Faithful to the word of God.
4. Going into the community.
5. Incarnational rather than attractional.

We have talked a little about the "missional church" here and so, when I saw her posted I spent a little while reading it and letting it soak in (really I've been thinking about it since then).

Sometimes we are pretty quick to evaluate the companies or organizations...the structures we find ourselves in. There's nothing inherently wrong with that. However, what we sometimes forget is that we are a living part of those structures.

Thinking specifically about the Church...what we're really evaluating is ourselves. We are the Church! So, as we read those characteristics above we should give evaluating ourselves a shot.

Let's think about these questions:

1. Am I looking outward?
2. Am I changing as culture continues to change (or am I stuck in the past and fight change?)
3. Am I completely faithful to the Word of God?
4. Am I going into the community (not spending all of my time in church circles)?
5. Am I being incarnational rather than attractional? Do I seek opportunities to "be" the Gospel - through personal ministry - or do I just wait for people to come to me with questions?