Missional church is definitely a popular saying that is anywhere you look these days. the notion that we have to categorize places of worship, missional, has for eternity been a tiny bit different to me. please, shouldnt all places of worship be missional in their very essence? why cant a church, at its very essence, desire to meet their culture and city with the good news as a missionary would in a overseas country? Isnt this what the church buildings is challenged to do in the great commission in Matthew 28:19? Our own hometown deserves this brand of church. Churches in Austin is slowly going to what Jesus instructed in the Bible.
Jesus gives the challenge in Acts 1:8 saying, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Acts 1:8 personifies this subject as, right before Jesus Christ leaves to go to Heaven, He sends the disciples on a exploration that would initiate right in their individual community. He begins with their local place of Jerusalem, and then enlarges the call to the uttermost parts of the earth.
As Christians, we are not moved to privacy, but to be missional believers who are passionately going out and finding communities right where they are with the story of Christ. We have noticed this throughout history: God urges Abraham on a mission to go out of his country and his people and go to the place that God would show him (Gen. 12:1), God urges Moses on a journey to renew an enslaved people and lead them to freedom (Exodus 3:8-10), God urges Jesus on a mission to world to pull all things to Himself through the cross (Colossians 1:20). And now God is sending people on a story to engage homes, cities, people groups, and even nations with the message of Jesus (Matt. 28:19 Mark 6:7 Luke 10:1 John 20:21 Acts 1:8). If we abandon this motivation and continue to see the places of worship like a members only country club ” demanding that people clean up their talents, pay their money, and drive to our building God will continue His exploration without us.
