Introduction

A district superintendent wrote me recently. "If I desire our pastors to be missional pastors, have missional churches . . .what are the criteria? Help me so I can help them."

This compilation of articles from key writers is a response to that kind of request.

A new sense of urgency is spreading through the church in the United States and Canada.

It has become abundantly clear that although Christianity the surrounding has influenced our societies culture is no longer conducive to Christian living and church loyalty.

There is new competition for the hearts of souls of people. Secularism ridicules belief and commitment. Religious pluralism undermines the claims of the Gospel.

In this environment it takes courage to be a follower of Jesus.

Without a doubt this is a mission field. Pastors are missional leaders. Churches are mission outposts. Neighborhoods are mission fields.

The missional challenge is for the local church to do more than support missions. It does missions. A missional church is not content to just send others. As God's missionary people the local church itself is sent.

There are four words that define a missional church: Evangelistic, Inclusive, Compassionate and Reproductive.

As the quotes from the articles in the following pages indicate, there is much more to be said. A missional church must be among others things a praying church. The missional church must understand that it is comprised of God's missionary people and that God is a missionary God.

The description of a missional church must come from those engaged in God's mission. Missional churches come in all sizes from the smallest to the largest. They can be found in the small towns, suburbs and inner-city ghettos. They speak many languages and communicate the Gospel through a variety of cultures. They worship at various times of the week. There are as many sounds of worship music as there are styles of preaching in missional churches.

Missional churches everywhere have these things in common. They are Evangelistic, Inclusive, Compassionate and Reproductive.

Evangelistic

The words missional, missionary, missions imply a driving commitment to go beyond the faith community. The Christian mission is to persuade people to become followers of Jesus. Evangelism and missions are one and the same, spreading the good news of the kingdom or reign of God on earth.

Evangelism is the announcement or proclamation of the good news. Missions is obedience to the great commission to carry the Word to the ends of the earth - beginning across the street and around the corner.

This is much more than simply multiplying converts or even adding members to our church roles or more people in worship. That will follow.

Missions is about making disciples, or, as the first disciples were referred to-followers of Jesus. It's about making a difference in the world. Visit our site: http://www.missionevangelism.org

Inclusive

There is nothing that characterizes missions as much as the willingness to cross cultural and language barriers to communicate the Good News. Missionaries are known for their willingness to give up their own culture. They are expected to cross oceans and boarders to reach lost people. For a missionary communicating the gospel through the language and culture of others is more important that holding onto one's own traditions.

It follows that a missional church not only welcomes and includes people from different cultures - it intentionally seeks out those who may be seen as different from the majority. A missional church is willing, if not anxious to make cultural adaptations in order to lead people to Jesus and develop an inclusive faith community.

In multicultural American and Canada this means learning and listening to voices from many nations. Multicultural missions means receiving people from around the world as well as going around the world.

This may be the greatest challenge for the church in the 21st Century. In a culturally divided and racially hostile society every local church must be a missional community where people from any and every nation and race are welcomed and encouraged to worship and serve the Lord together. Visit our site at: http://www.multiculturalministries.org

Compassionate

Missionaries sent around the world in the 19th and 20th centuries included medical doctors, nurses, teachers-even farmers and builders as well as preachers and theologians. The missional outreach of the church has always been holistic, that is, concerned about the physical and social needs of people as well as their spiritual needs.

One cannot make a credible case for the Gospel without responding to the critical social and tangible needs of a hurting world.

Compassion evangelism is reaching out to needy people with the compassion of Jesus and inviting them to become followers of Jesus.

Particularly in the Wesleyan-Holiness movement there is a Biblically based tradition of seeking out and serving poor and needy people.

For the missional church responding to people in need is more than an obligation, it is an opportunity to serve. Through compassionate evangelism the church not only shares and proclaims Jesus, it finds Jesus as Mother Teresa said, in the distressing disguise of the poor. Visit our site at: http://www.nazarenecompassion.org

Reproductive

A missional church seeks to reproduce itself by helping start new congregations.

This new understanding of a missional church has ignited interest in starting new churches.

It comes as a surprise to many people to learn that most churches have life cycles. The landscape is dotted with church buildings that have outlasted the people. In order to preserve the Christian faith it is necessary to start new congregations simply to replace those that die and are disorganized.

Starting new churches is the most effective way to make disciples of lost people. While older congregations can and should renew themselves and continue to effectively reach their neighbors with the Gospel message, they can also expand their mission by sponsoring new satellite congregations.

A missional church understands that God's mission is to bring people into the body of Christ. The goal of missions is not just to build up a single congregation, but through many congregations to reach as many people as possible.

A missional church encourages believers to respond to God-called missional service-to become missional leaders of new faith communities. Visit our site at: http://www.nazarenenewchurches.org

Conclusion

A 21st Century missional church in the United States and Canada will be even more effective in its global mission mandate. In a way that no one could have predicted the United States and Canada has become a gateway to the world.

One million immigrants a year from all the nations come to our countries. Most of them retain connections with their country of origin. Additional thousands of students and people on business pass through.

This opens an unprecedented opportunity to spread the good news of the Gospel. With globalization the entire world can be evangelized from any major city in the United States and Canada.

Missional Christians are global Christians. Members of even a remote missional congregation can now at the same time reach lost people down the street and around the world.

It's a great time to be on a mission for Christ and the Church of the Nazarene!


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