Difference between a Missional Church and a Church with a mission program?

A church with a mission program usually sees mission as one activity alongside many activities of the church – Christian education, worship, acts of service, hospitality and other programs. A missional church focuses its activities around its participation in God’s mission in the world. That means, it trains people for discipleship and witness; it worships and practices mutual support before the watching world. A church with a mission sends others to witness on its behalf. A missional church understands that the congregation itself is sent by God to proclaim and to be a sign of the reign of God. Just as God sent Jesus, now Jesus sends the church (Jn..20:21).

Missional Church Hallmarks

Here are some of the hallmarks of the missional church (certainly open for discussion):
• The missional church proclaims the gospel
• The missional church is a community where all members are involved in learning to become disciples of Jesus
• The bible is normative in the Missional churches life
• The missional church understands itself as different from the world because of its participation in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ
• The missional church seeks to discern God’s specific missional vocation for the entire community and all of its members
• A missional church community is indicated by how Christians behave toward one another
• A missional church is a community that practices reconciliation
• People within the missional church community hold themselves accountable to one another in love
• The missional church practices hospitality
• Missional church worship is the central act by which the community celebrates with joy and thanksgiving both God’s presence and God’s promised future
• The missional church community has a vital public witness
• There is a recognition that the missional church itself is an incomplete expression of the reign of God

Missional Q & A

What is the difference between a missional church and a church with a mission program?
A church with a mission program usually sees mission as one activity alongside many activities of the church – Christian education, worship, acts of service, hospitality and other programs. A missional church focuses all of its activities around its participation in God’s mission in the world. That means, it trains people for discipleship and witness; it worships and practices mutual support before the watching world. A church with a mission sends others to witness on its behalf. A missional church understands that the congregation itself is sent by God to proclaim and to be a sign of the reign of God. Just as God sent Jesus, now Jesus sends the church (Jn..20:21).

Is “missional” a real word?
Yes. It may not be in every dictionary. But the Oxford English Dictionary says the word has been around for almost 100 years. Missional is an adjective that describes the way in which we do all of our activities, rather than identifying any one particular activity. Within the last few years, it has come into more common use. To be missional is to align all of the program, function and activities of the church around the mission of God in the world.

Does being a missional church mean starting a lot of new activities? People in our congregation are already so busy.
A missional church does not necessarily do more outreach activities. In fact, a missional church may do fewer things better. To be a missional church means to discern how this particular congregation’s calling is aligned with God’s mission in the world. To be a missional church means to orient all of the life of the church around God’s mission.

Missional Characteristics

The Missional Church:

• understands the centrality of the Gospel
• embraces the calling of God to act as a missionary to its own culture
• acknowledges its purpose is to glorify God by taking Christ into the irreligious world
• boldly and intentionally encounters unbelievers
• actively seeks to be trained and equipped as a missionary through its Gospel community
• is deeply dependent upon the Holy Spirit as agent for evangelizing the lost world
• commits to the authoritative, infallible, inerrant, inspired, and all sufficient Scriptures
• develops relationships with the lost for the purpose of sharing Christ
• uses sacrificial love as its means of witness
• is an instrument in helping others discover Jesus
• is affected in every area of its life through a calling by God to be an agent for the Gospel
• practices its faith in communities of people – together
• worships God in an authentic, personal and evangelistic way