The Church Is Missional Series

We have been going through a six-part series called The Nature of the Church. You may recall when I started the series I said that there were basically three aspects that help give definition to the church. I said the church was Christ initiated. The church is a spiritual community. The church is missional. Then I took it and made one definition of the church. The church is a Christ-initiated, spiritual community on a mission with God to reconcile all of his creation back to him. A quick refresher for those of you who weren’t here and missed some of the series. When I speak of the church being Christ initiated, it means exactly what it says. It means that Christ initiated the church. After Peter had spoken those great words of faith where he said “I believe Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God”, Jesus looked at him and said “You are Peter and on this rock I will build my church.” The main takeaway being that it wasn’t our church. It is not any denominational church. It is Christ’s church. Then I talked about the idea that the church is spiritual. The church was created by the spirit 2,000 years ago in that house where the spirit showed up and filled the disciples with a feeling of himself and then went out into the streets in boldness proclaiming the word of God. The church was created by the spirit. Last week, I talked about the church as a community, a really unique community, unlike the community you would find around here or online. A community of called-out people that have been called out to the world called together into relationship and called to be the body of Christ on earth.

Today, I want to address the idea that the church is missional. I imagine that most of you have heard the term missions. The idea of missions is just the idea of sending people out with the good news of Jesus Christ. Historically, this means sending people out that have abandoned their homes and lifestyles in America or wherever and going off to foreign and desolate places. Over the years, missions has expanded to include a variety of things. Things like medical missions, missions to the poor, missions to the homeless, missions to schools and universities, and all sorts of local, regional, and global missions. Although the face of missions has changed, one thing really hasn’t changed and it is the belief that all churches should really be involved in missions in some degree. Thankfully, as many of you know, we belong to a church, Bellevue Christian Church, that is a big supporter of missions. Some of you may have seen those blue laminated cards in your pew. Those are the missionaries we support. In fact, 25% of every dollar you give goes to some form of missions. We can be proud of that. Not only do we support missions with finances, we also support the sending of short-term mission teams. Over the past ten years, we have probably sent about a dozen different short-term mission teams. Many of you have been part of those mission teams that have really been life changing for the people that went. Not only do we send missions out, we also give what I would say pulpit time to the various missionaries who come and visit. Three weeks from now, we will be hearing from Mike and Joanne Noel who will share about their ministry in Tanzania. You can say that the church supports missions. We manage that support through a group that we call the Missions Committee. It is a group of people that meet about once a quarter to share updates about the missionaries in the field, to talk about their needs, or just simply to pray over the missionaries. If missions is something that the church does, and Bellevue Christian Church does missions, then missions is something that we can basically check off our church to-do list. Unfortunately, that is the way many churches view missions.

But our idea is not simply to be a church that supports missions but rather to be a missional church. A missional church understands that although all those things I just mentioned are good, the financial support of missionaries, giving them time up front, and sending out short-term teams, but really a missional church understands that missions is not something that you just check off the church to-do list. Missions should lie at the very heart of a church. In many ways, the church exists for missions. A missional church understands that being a missionary is not confined to a specialized person who goes off into a foreign country to convert the heathens. They understand that everyone in the pew is a missionary. Everybody in the pew has a responsibility for carrying the good news of Jesus Christ in the world whether it is overseas or our own back yard. In case you think I am making up this idea of missional, if you have some time just go on the internet and type in the word missional and you will get bombarded with all sorts of websites that support this idea of the missional church. This has been going on for about ten years or so. It is the idea that somehow the church has lost its missionary focus. The central idea that supports this notion is that God himself is a missional God. If we serve a missional God, then the church should be missional. If God’s will is to reach all the world, then we as the people who carry out God’s will should also be missionary. We could go through scripture after scripture in both the Old Testament and the New and see all these passages that support the idea that we serve a missional God.