A balanced understanding of a missional church

Recently I’ve been searching for a direction that will inspire our church towards serious discipleship – a discipleship that results in reaching and transforming our surrounding community. This direction needs to inspire church planting as well as leadership development from within the congregation.

When visiting churches that were making disciples and teaching them how to reach and transform their communities for Christ, I was repeatedly referred to the book, Shaped by God’s Heart by Milfred Minatrea (Jossey-Bass, 2004).

I recognized that the missional DNA I had seen meant shifting from a mainly inward focus to at least half the focus turned outward. An outward-focused DNA meant making disciples that consistently grew and cared for the family in the church, but also made and multiplied disciples in the community. And I realized that if a multiplying church movement (such as our national MB conference envisions across this country) is going to be viable, this type of disciple will be at its heart.

Shaped by God’s Heart has provided a number of stretching points for me:

1. A re-focused understanding of the passion of God’s heart for his church to not only look after itself but also be prepared to transform the world around it.
2. An invitation for God to work through me, expecting him to bring life-changing God moments as I reach into my community to make multiplying disciples.
3. Discovering what it means to move beyond contentment as an inward-focused church catering to consumers and into “community-relationships” growth.
4. A challenge to revamp my view from churches sending missionaries to all individuals in the church being sent missionaries with a transforming influence.
5. A tension as the church is prodded to move to a more missional emphasis; a gracious spirit will be needed if this transition is to happen.

Minatrea recognizes the stretch these shifts will be for most churches and gives room for dialogue.

This book is a keeper – for understanding a missional direction, and as an example of an engaged and gracious spirit. I’ve used this book as a text in a Bethany College class I teach, in our staff discussions, for leadership team training, and now in our Harvest Saskatchewan team as we hone a direction for our provincial conference Key Communities Initiative. We wrote study questions for each chapter to help us process the material.

I recommend Shaped by God’s Heart as a solid overview of how missional passion and practice intersect.

Dwayne Barkman is pastor at West Portal MB Church, Saskatoon, and chair of the provincial MB conference’s Harvest Saskatchewan team.