Breaking the Missional Code

A few days ago another church planting pastor, and a friend of mine, Joe Thorn posted a link to this article on his blog (www.joethorn.net). What drew me into reading it was that Joe was actually quoted in it and I wanted to see what he said.

After reading the article however, I thought that it was worth posting in my own blog because it is so closely related to some of the struggles that our church plant, Shadow Cross, has experienced and is going through.

You can read the article ‘Breaking the Missional Code’ Sees Churches as ‘Missionaries’ here.

Mark Kelly, the author of the article, explains that Southern Baptist churches have lost their effectiveness in outreach and are now, “struggling because their evangelism techniques no longer connect with communities whose culture has fragmented and radically changed.”

Kelly suggests that “Southern Baptists need to adopt the process used by their missionaries in seeking to be an incarnation, loving presence of Christ on their mission fields.”

Quoting from Ed Stetzer and David Putnam, the authors of the book, Breaking the Missional Code, Kelly writes, “The missionary studies the culture, looking for ways that God is already revealing Himself to the people. When that ‘bridge’ is found, the missionary can express the eternal truth of the Gospel in a way that is indigenous to the culture. People respond with joy and the Gospel spreads like wildfire through the network of their relationships.”

Stetzer and Putnam explain that “a missional church is one that acts like a missionary it it’s community.”

The problem, as Kelley continues to explain is that most North American churches do not view “missions” as something that happens here. Missions is takes place overseas.

In my opinion, if North American churches are going to recapture the attention of our lost communities and cultures we must become missional, gospel-centered, embody Christ, and discover new ways to connect with our Post-Modern, Post-Christian North American world.

The strategies of 50 or 100 years ago have not evolved with the changing worldviews of those we are trying to reach. It is not that they are wrong, per se, they just no longer speak the language of a Post-Modern worldview.

When we send missionaries to Africa or China surely we don’t expect for them to use the same model that they would use here in the United States. We don’t go to a foreign country and teach them English so they can read the bible and understand what we’re saying. We learn their language, and their culture and their worldview in order to reach them with a biblical worldview.

Kelly quotes Stetzer saying, “It’s funny we require international missionaries to do the very thing we often forbid North American churches – to contextualize their approach to their culture.”

Stetzer says, “It’s time for us to stop thinking attractionally –- ‘Come see our show’ --– and start to think incarnationally -– ‘Let’s go among them and tell them of this Savior who transformed our lives.’”

I agree...