|
|
McnMiss 09-11-164 |
|
|
Missional
Renaissance Changing
the Scorecard for the Church Reggie
McNeal Jossey-Bass,
2009, 193 pp. ISBN 978-0-470-24344-2 |
|
Reggie McNeal is the Missional Leadership
Specialist for Leadership Network and the author of several popular books on
the church. Becoming a missional
church requires three shifts: from an internal to an external focus, from
running programs to developing people, and from church-focused leadership to
community-engaged leadership. The
chapters describe what these shifts mean and give some suggestions for how to
measure progress. [See my observations and questions at the end. dlm] Introduction "Missional is a way of living, not an
affiliation or activity.
To think and to live missionally means seeing all
life as a way to be engaged with the mission of God in the world." Missional renaissance is reshaping the landscape
of what church can and should be. 1. The Missional Renaissance Altruism and a hunger for spiritual growth and
vitality are giving rise to increased charity and voluntary entrepreneurship
in communities. Churches must move out
of the institutional paradigm and focus on the community, on developing
people, and acquiring a Kingdom mindset.
A growing number of people, both Christians and
non-Christians, are able and willing to take on social issues and engage
human need. A church should monitor
its positive community impact. "The missional church engages the community
beyond its walls because it believes that is why the church
exists." (6) "They look for
ways to bless and to serve the communities where they are located." (7) The missional church works to "help people
shape their path for personal development," shifting the emphasis to
"following Jesus into the world to join him in his redemptive
mission." (10) Innovators see the church as a catalyst to
mobilize all the community "to work on the big things God cares
about." (15) 2. Missional Manifesto God's people must be on mission with him to
"restore and heal creation," intentionally "blessing people
and sharing the life of God with them."
"...both truth and love must be present to reflect the whole
heart of God for people." (32) The welfare of people captures God's heart, both
the restoration in his relationship with them and the benefits of that
relationship. Jesus followers work to
enhance life and oppose things that steal life. 3. Missional Shift 1: From an Internal to an External Focus Church groups and individuals serve in the
communities and with the people where they live and work. The church converts members to missionaries. It is not a destination but a
"connector," not attractional but incarnational. It focuses on service, humanitarian efforts
and public service more than proclamation, teaching and evangelism. It deploys people rather than assimilating
and separating them. It helps people
integrate their life and mission. "They live their lives with the idea that
they are on a mission trip. On mission
trips, people focus on the work of God around them, alert to the Spirit's
prompting, usually serving people in very tangible ways, often in ways that
involve some sacrifice or even discomfort." (54) "Once we see what God is doing 'out there'
in the world, it changes everything we do 'in here' in the church." (65) 4. Changing the Scorecard from
Internal to External Focus The chapter is chock full of possible avenues of
service. The church evaluates itself
not by internal statistics of giving and attendance but by the quality of
life of the members and those they serve.
The calendar, schedule, facilities usage, finances, and people
resource indicators track whether key community initiatives are more
important than building larger church buildings, that the church is not a
club but a mission post. Church people may be assigned, and supported
financially and with personnel, as missionaries to various apartment
complexes or other housing communities.
The church may adopt a school or some other community
institution. "North America is the largest
English-speaking mission field in the world." (80) [It is also the "mission field'
with by far the greatest concentration of Christian resources. dlm] 5. Missional Shift 2: From Program Development to People
Development Moving from programs to people development means
focusing on maturation more than participation in church, application and
debriefing life events more than didactic teaching, dealing with behaviors
and outcomes as well as knowledge, growing through serving, and integrating
versus compartmentalizing life.
Developing people is a labor intensive, highly-relational, long-term
process. "We have operated off the faulty assumption
that if people participate in our church programs, they will grow and develop
personally." "Developing
people requires building relationships, not just delivering a product or
service." (90) "We do not share the heart of God with the
world because we do not have the heart of God. This heart transplant does not occur by
participation in church activities. It
comes from being in a vibrant, growing relationship with God." [This seems to be the crux of the issue. dlm] Americans have outsourced spiritual formation to
the church. "Everyday living is
where spiritual development is worked out." "Loving God and our neighbors cannot
be fulfilled at church."
"
church activity is no sign of genuine spiritual vitality. The lifestyles and values of church members
largely reflect those of the culture."
(92-93) [Genuine spiritual vitality grows
through exercise, for example, in community service. But if we do not have it at the outset,
does service generate it? How do we get the heart of God that works itself
out in the world?] "Just as people are taking greater roles in
choosing their educational pursuits, designing their workplaces, and managing
their health care, they feel increasingly qualified to craft their own
spiritual quests." "But what
if we actually begin to see ourselves as responsible for creating a culture
where people get to participate in customizing their spiritual journeys based
on their spiritual appetites and ambitions?
(97-998) [Of course people should participate in their own
spiritual growth goals, etc. But there
are two obvious dangers here. One is
the consumer approach and the other is people acting as their own judge and
god, both big problems we are trying to overcome. I'm sure the author would agree that
outside guidance is still needed.] "In a people development culture, the key
issue is maturation. Are people
growing in every aspect of their life?
Are they becoming more like Jesus?
Are they blessing the world as the people of God?" (100) People need help debriefing their lives. Rather than simply teach in a classroom and
let people figure out how to apply it, stimulate life discussions and
undertake intentional debriefing to unpack their lives and experiences and
issues in light of Scripture. Help
people address their behaviors. [This is an excellent application.] 6. Changing the Scorecard from
Measuring Programs to Helping People Grow This is the most challenging shift. It requires reallocating every
resource. However, a variety of
indicators can be monitored in the areas of prayer, people, resources,
finances, facilities, and technology. Identify
specific results in people's lives that signal genuine progress for
them. "To change a culture, you have to change the
conversations." "This
reality should cause spiritual leaders to think long and hard about the
culture we are creating by what we say and how we say it." (122-123) 7. Missional Shift 3: From Church-Based to Kingdom-Based
Leadership Kingdom-oriented leadership is organic, personal,
prophetic, empowering, and focused on leading a movement rather than an
institution. The leader is a viral
agent that infects the culture with God's love and creates a culture of
ministry in the community. Leadership
is not restricted to clergy. Leaders
are focused on their Kingdom assignment rather than their church job. They are focused on being missionaries in
their sphere of influence. "The challenge is to connect with a culture
that is unacquainted with the good news of Jesus." (137) "These leaders create a culture of
ministry and leader incubation that multiplies everyone's efforts."
(140) Train like Jesus did. Deploy and then debrief. Learning comes through debriefing life experiences
rather than teaching. It is relational
and intensive on-the-job training, up-close and personal. Leaders may well need to become bi-vocational in
order to shed some church responsibilities and to provide income for their
ministry. [I understand the need for leaders to
model what they want to see in their followers. Jesus led his followers in ministering to
people. At the same time, in Acts 6,
the leaders thought it would not be right to neglect the ministry of the word
of God to serve widows and they assigned this work to others. Where is the balance?] 8. Changing the Scorecard from
Church-Based to Kingdom-Based Leadership Leaders must consider four areas: perspective,
skills development, resource management, and personal growth. "I recommend recruiting a personal prayer
support team and then figuring out how to update these helpers on your
personal and leadership needs. When
recruiting this team, you may even want to ask people to focus their prayers
on specific aspects of your life and ministry
." (165) [I like this idea and intend to do it.] "Leaders have to live the change they
seek." (157) "You view life
as a mission trip, and order your own life around that view." (159) Conclusion A few of the things we may expect: "An explosion of missional communities (MC) will occur. These will be groups of believers and
nonbelievers who will operate in non-institutional settings.
Their community life will center on an
intense desire to grow spiritually and to aid the community. Some MCs will be connected to churches;
many will not be." (179) "Increasing numbers of Jesus followers will live out their
missional expression in the context of their family
attending church
services on special occasions."
(180) "Many clergy will not be able to make this transition in their
current church roles. Consequently,
they will move into the marketplace for employment in pursuit of their call
to be missional leaders." Additional
Observations, Thoughts and Issues
I believe the
missional concept is biblical and churches should pursue it. I believe Christians have largely failed to
be salt and light in their spheres of influence.
The book is
highly application oriented with many very specific suggestions and examples.
I would have appreciated
more emphasis on the spiritual dimension, how we get the "heart of
God," how spiritual development takes place in the missional church. In the book of Acts, while acts of service
are mentioned, the overwhelming emphasis is on the disciples teaching and
preaching the Word.
I would like to
have seen more attention and suggestions for what we could be doing in the
rest of the world beyond our community.
While the world is not excluded, the suggestions for the community
predominate by an overwhelming margin.
It might also
have been helpful to make a larger issue out of living a life of love,
obedience, integrity, and other centeredness in our regular job roles where
we can have influence for Christ within the context of our regular daily
activities among people like us.
The idea that
Christians should be ministers in the community and that church leaders
should equip them for that role is, of course, both historical and biblical. Does this book make service too
central? Is the church more than
service? Is worship more than service?
Is blessing more than service?
Church leaders
will applaud the thrust to spend more time in the world and less time in
church - in principle - but the suggestions that people meet for growth and
serve elsewhere on Sundays instead of attending church will feel very
threatening. It will be very difficult
for leaders to feel good about falling numbers that previously indicated their
success and significance.
This model
requires many more leaders to equip, mobilize, and debrief the people in our
churches. However, we are in a hole of
having few leaders and many "consumers" because that is what the
program model has produced. We lack
leaders because we lack disciples.
Programs are the
"levers" that allow a few leaders to "lift" many people
rather than a few. The downside is
becoming apparent: programs don't lift them very far. Doing away with the lever reduces the
capacity of leaders to relate to the many.
If leaders get rid of programs and focus on the relational,
labor-intensive discipling of a few, many current church attenders will be
left out. Church leaders will find it extremely
difficult to consider leaving people out.
Leaders are
being asked to take on the additional job of serving outside the church. Will overloaded pastors be able to give up
what appear to be major important responsibilities to do this? Does Acts 6, the ministry of the Word and
the serving of widows have any input here?
Because we have
learned to think and act in "programs," it is very difficult to
deploy people in large numbers without programs. How would you adopt a school, for example,
without it being a program? How would
you help leaders debrief life experiences without a program to teach them how
to do it? How would you disburse funds
and resources to a "missionary" assigned to a housing community
without a program or committee to oversee it and make the decisions? It will be very hard to stay out of the
box.
It would seem
that the younger the church and the younger its leaders, the more likely the
model will be adopted. It may be quite
difficult for large, indebted, "successful" churches to promote
this perspective beyond a safe, surface level.
To what degree
is this happening in younger missional communities that are flying under the
radar screen? What are they doing well
and how are they struggling? What
will happen if churches adopt the missional model on a large scale?
Will families
and small missional communities that meet together in place of church experience
real, ongoing spiritual growth or tend to drift away?
To what degree will
ministry efforts to serve the community continue to include spiritual
transformation? Will the culture's
applause for help and condemnation of absolute truth affect Christians
ministering in the community? Will
community service come to mirror the non-verbal service of mainline churches?
What will happen
to local church support of global missions?
If it declines what will take its place? |
|
*
* * * * *
Your comments and book
recommendations are welcome.
To discontinue receiving
book notes, hit Reply and put Discontinue in the text.