I had the pleasure of sitting and learning from Reggie McNeal. He is a missional leadership specialist for Leadership Network. He has served in denominational leadership and been an adjunct professor for multiple seminaries etc.
He led a session today on what he calls “the biggest re-alignment since the Reformation”! He calls it the Rise and Emergence of the Missional Church.
He said the center of the movement is not in the United States but rather taking place in China and India, where tens of thousands are turning to Christ on a daily basis through the house church movement. This is absolutely amazing.
Reggie McNeal said there are ways that we can “paddle out to ride this wave that will become a Tsunami”.
He challenged us first to consider the ways we look at the church:
- It is a place or building where things happen. Maybe a service takes place there.
- Religious Vendor
- Group of people on mission with God! (This should be the right answer.)
To catch the wave we must paddle toward these shifts:
- Shift from internal to external
We have a church-centric view of the world. We should have a Kingdom-centric view of the world. We have made the church a silo unto itself. We tend to shrink-wrap God’s activity. The Spirit of God has gone out and run rampant through the streets and the church is missing it because they have shrink-wrapped God’s activity. We must be aware of and move toward where God is at work.
- Shift from Program Driven to People Development
We must create space for life-coaching. We must create White Space for people to engage people in a personal manner to do life.
- Shift from Church Based Leadership toward A.D. 30 Leadership–Which means you become a missionary to an unreached people group.
This shift moves from “Read my book” or “Listen to my sermon” to “Watch my life and imitate me”.
Leaders must move off the pulpit and platform and engage people for the purpose of lifechange. They need to see leaders modeling what it means to follow Jesus and live a missional life. Engage with people for the purpose of helping them engage others.
I love these principles and concepts and my desire is for CATGrove to be a missional church with missionaries being sent out to impact our neighborhoods and community.
What are your thoughts about this?
