Grace and peace.

There were a couple instances where I thought the language got a little snarky. “Consumerist capitalist assumption” seems both jargon-y and condescendingly superior. It sounds like something used to dismiss others, as in, “you just say that because of your consumerist capitalist assumptions.” But the second sentence is awesome! If I were to suggest a rewording, it might be “Should not expect that Jesus will fit in with every ambition, lifestyle, schedule or accoutrement you may have adopted before coming here.” I also thought the digs at church building campaigns was a little too specific.

The reason this matters is that the quickest way for the missional conversation to die is for us to start thanking God that we are NOT like those attractional folks. I’ve seen this happen with much of the emerging church dialog, where it has become all about what we are NOT, and how the mainstream church SUCKS, instead of trying to lead by example with humility and forgiveness.

I also think it would help to clarify point #5, especially about what one SHOULD expect. Maybe this is something you could talk about in a future post, David. The question of children and youth is a huge issue in my own context. How do you keep children a central part of the life of the church gathering, without losing the attention of either them or the adults? If the gathering is about spiritual formation, then it makes sense to tailor a program (oh no! not THAT word!) of some sort for children, because their needs are different from adults. Right?

M Leary,

I would suggest that the only thing keeping your church from maintaining the missional ethos at a larger size is the insistence on certain forms of centralization (perhaps preaching by a certain limited group, perhaps a salaried staff, perhaps a value for certain forms of childcare..?). Size alone is no inhibitor. Alcoholics Anonymous is much bigger than your church by far and yet remains fundamentally missional to the core.

We attend a church that describes itself as missional and experienced even more growth than that in a three year period. It may once have been a missional community, and still retains some of this ethos in its community group system and preaching. But as it grew so quickly it had to develop a number of exterior programs designed to take keep up with its missional goals to artists, inner city development projects, and the pastoral care of its own flock.

We all attend the weekly services in great numbers, and many may participate in one of these exterior programs in a cursory way over the course of a year. But by and large, these programs are taken care of by a very small fraction of the overall church such that the entire body has become missional-by-proxy.

It has done well at maintaining a missional vibe across its large multi-campus membership, but the actual external missional embodiment of the gospel in our local context happens mainly through these proxy channels. I don’t see how a church of this size could do it any differently.