Together these three ‘moments of reflection’ form the basis for each missionary activity. All three moments encourage you to have a discussion and are suitable to begin a discussion in church and at a church leaders meeting.
- Why missionary?
- Prayer and openness to the Spirit
- Relationships are the key
1. Why missionary?
“Do we have to go knocking on doors and delivering brochures?”
“Is missionary not too pushy and pedantic?”
“Why should we bother? If people do not want to know about church then that is their choice?”
“We are too busy already, are you saying that we not doing it right?”
“The church is on the way out anyway, we should not try so hard to stem the tide.”
To be a missionary congregation is really important but what exactly does ‘missionary’ mean?
Missionary has to do with ‘mission’. We have been sent. The church‘s existence is not an end in itself, but was sent into the world. It is not a closed circle but a community that is inviting. The church needs to be outward looking, in witness and service, in word and deed.
The good news of Jesus Christ is too precious to keep it to yourself and so the church is inspired to pass on that good news.
At the same time we realise sharing the good news does not happen automatically. Many people are leaving the church. As the church we experience both powerlessness and pain. The churches are emptying. Are we not shouting too loudly?
An attitude
This is important is not additional activities but an attitude - a generous and guest-centred attitude. Would it be possible for others to hear and be moved by the gospel, again or for the first time? The missionary congregation knows about the source of its very life that is the Gospel and this is demonstrated in its life and witness.
Missionary work is based on the presumption that telling people about the Gospel will achieve something. Mission can be communication in which the good news has the opportunity be heard by others and received as a new life orientation. That mission drive is important.
Whether we want it or not, we are called to be a witness to the good news. People around us see church buildings and meet people who believe. That makes an impression - positive or negative. This means that you do not need to wonder whether or not you are a missionary congregation, you are already one. That may come as a relief, but the question remains: but how?
The approaches in this resource help to make this more concrete. The approaches are not new inventions, but describe what we have come across in everyday life. What is at the heart of our own motivation, our hope and longing: to communicate so that others will really be able to hear and understand the Gospel.
Discussion starter
What is your longing and motivation with respect to being a missionary congregation? What do you want to pass on to people in your community, to people around you? Can you describe that in a few sentences?
2. Prayer and openness to the Spirit
The life of the church is not possible without openness to the Spirit of God. In all communities where there is a blossoming in the life of the church you will hear new words such as “inspiration”, “openness,” “amazement”, and “astonishment.”
You cannot organise growth. Growth is a gift from God, but what you can do is look for vision, dream dreams and see visions. You can have new longings and expectations, find hope again and pray together.
When we pray we realise that the growth of the church does not depend on us. Our ideas and wishes are not important. The Spirit is greater than our ideas, gifts or limitations and may have other ideas in mind for your local church.
“To him who by means of the power that is working in us is able to do so much more than we can ever ask for, or even think of.” (Ephesians 3:20)
Praying creates unity; we do not pray “My” Father but ‘Our’ Father. When we pray our ideas and those of others are brought before God. Our agenda is open to surprises, to people, to inspirations from the Spirit of God.
The life of the church cannot do without this openness to the Spirit. This means that attention has to be paid to the process and to the spontaneity of the idea; we need to create space to ask “what is God saying to us?” Sometimes it means that you have to set out without knowing exactly where you will end up, making adjustments as you go along. Other times our task is to wait and be still before God.
‘Do not keep staring at what used to be, do not stand still in the past. See, I am going to start something new, can’t you see?’ This song by Huub Oosterhuis (231 from Liturgical hymns) is a text from Isaiah 43. The text invites you to look at what God is doing. He has been at work in people’s lives throughout history.
Discussion point
Copy this paper and distribute it. Ask people to respond.
What do they remember? What encourages them? What challenges them?
Compare your answers
3. The importance of relationships
Consider for a moment how people get involved with the church, how are they moved by the Gospel for the first time or time and again?
When you ask people who have joined the church what was crucial for them, the reply is always: relationships. Regardless of how attractive courses or lovely programmes are, nor are low-threshold events or distributing booklets, they are not the deciding factor. Valuable though these things are they only play a part in the forming of relationships.
The heart of the missionary congregation beats in the networks to which congregations members belong. In these relationships the Gospel can be mentioned as a possible life orientation in an attractive, hospitable and generous way, but never forcibly.
“Every Christian has neighbours and friends. These contacts are important. This is not to say that you have to play at being a missionary, but at a suitable moment you may be able to mention God. Or invite them to a church service. That is where people get together, that is where they can get a glimpse of another reality. That will have an effect; that is something I believe in.”
Dr. Arjen Plaisier, General Secretary of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands.
When stimulating a renewed meeting with God you need more than just words. In relationships our whole person is involved. What is involved is meetings where people share their lives. At mealtimes, in the home, in real contact about everything that is important to you.
Paul and the Thessalonians knew this: “Because of our love for you we were ready to share with you not only the Good News from God but even our own lives. You were so dear to us!” (1 Thessalonians 2:8)
Personal encounters where you can be open about your feelings, having the courage to share what is important to you, your questions, joys and concerns. This reciprocity can lead to meaningful discussions and in that context you could introduce a conversation about your faith.
Discussion point
“Every Christian has neighbours and friends. These contacts are important. This is not to say that you have to play at being a missionary, but at a suitable moment you may be able to mention God.”
How do you see that? Can you give examples?
Four preliminary questions - to make choosing easier
This resource offers all sorts of ‘approaches’ to mission. They are not ‘ready to wear’; each model can and should be adapted to suit your situation and possibilities. This resource was made for you to browse through, but it is easy to become overawed by the multiplicity of choices.
The questions below will help you make a choice from all the possible options. The order you consider these questions in is not important. We hope that these questions will create a buzz in the leaders meeting and the congregation. Sometimes one question will stand out, sometimes another one. The answers affect each other, but together they will indicate a direction that will help you whilst browsing through the 30 approaches to mission. When you have formulated answers to these questions it will be easier to make a choice. “This is the model we want to choose, this is the best one for us!” See also model 24 and 28 for more help in answering the questions.
1. What are we doing already, what are our strong points?
You do not start from nothing. There are already all sorts of activities that are suitable for adherents and non-members of the church. The question is: do people know about them? Do you promote them adequately? How do we invite people? To be missionary is first and foremost an attitude. It does not mean starting all sorts of new activities, but to do the existing ones differently, to make more them inviting, aiming activities at those around you or who are not yet part of the church community. Make an inventory of the activities that are suitable for or deliberately aimed at guests. Are there several possibilities? Where are your strong points? And how can you make that more intentionally missionary, or to use it for the benefit of your environment?
2. What does our environment look like?
What is a good idea in one congregation may not work at all in others. If you want to make young people your target group but live in a village full of elderly people, you have a problem! Have a good look at your neighbourhood, your district, your village or town. What is going on there? What sort of people live there? Start with a simple sharing of ideas. Get hold of a flipchart and ask: What are the characteristics of our environment.
You can also look at yourself through the eyes of others, consider “What is the impression we make on our environment?”
3. What is our blind spot?
What does your congregation fail to do? This is a difficult question, because we usually do not recognise a blind spot. If somebody or something is in your blind spot it is overlooked. It is also true that not everybody can do everything. There are people in the neighbourhood that you as church community cannot reach. There are activities that are not suitable, that your congregation do not find easy. It is possible that you come to the conclusion that a lot of learning goes on in your congregation, a lot of education and equipping, but not much community participation? You can do something about this yourselves, but you can also ask the question:
4. What do others do?
Are you the only church community in your neighbourhood or village? Are you part of a larger congregation with a number of districts? What do these districts specialise in? Are there other churches nearby? What do they do? Peeking to see what the neighbours are up to can be instructive for your decision making. Is there something you can learn from them? How can you strengthen each other? Are there possibilities to co-operate together?
A Fictitious Example.
Just imagine congregation that gave the following answers to the preliminary questions:
1. What do we already do?
“We are a village congregation with a faithful core of people who are very active. Our church has members who are not so involved and who only attend on a Sunday. We no longer see many young families. Our monumental building has atmosphere, but if there are not many people you can feel rather lost. Our theological ‘colour’ is moderately orthodox, perhaps it would be more accurate to say ‘pluriform,’ that is we have a number of different streams in our congregation. There is room for everyone. We try to have a presence in our environment, participating in the annual market with a stand. We also organise evenings and courses that are suitable for interested people outside the church which our minister works on. He enjoys literature and films and enables others to share this enjoyment. We have a very hospitable caretaker. She really radiates a welcome to people who come.”
2. What does our environment look like?
“Our environment is diverse, but the village is no longer growing. It is not ageing any more either, in part this is because the village is now a commuter community. There is a lot of turnover, because people move elsewhere for work. There are a relatively high number of people with higher education in our village. The rest the surrounding area is agricultural, adjacent to a big city.
And what is the impression we make on our environment? Many people know the minister and everybody knows the building: it is the church in the centre. At the annual market we chat to people. Many people know who the committed members of our church are.”
3. What is our blind spot?
“What do we fail to do? We do not have enough people to do what we would like to do. We are in particular short of elders/deacons and those willing and able to visit. This means that building relationships is problematic. We would like to have more contact with young families; in the past few years quite a few young families moved into our village. There is a small new estate where we have not yet many contacts. Another thing we find difficult is to introduce our faith into conversations. This is something that those who visit find very difficult. How do you do that? The visits are enjoyable, but we seldom have discussions about our faith.”
4. What do others do?
“Congregations in neighbouring villages have different priorities. They also have a different theological ‘colour’. There is a small evangelical congregation that meets in the primary school; it is attended by many young people.”
Question: which models might inspire this congregation?
“This congregation might like to start browsing in model 2, 7, 8, 15, 19 and 24, about the inspirational congregation, the learning congregation, the congregation with a faith course, the congregation for the village, the congregation with an eye for target groups and the congregation with the church building as missionary point of departure. Which inspiration and examples can be found in these models? How can we apply them to our own situation?”
TWO TIPS:
- Make a clear choice for one missionary approach as focal point for the coming years.
- Identify the strength of the congregation as your starting point and aim outwards, unless the context clearly requires the opposite.
A Mission Project Team, Mission elder, deacons and the Mission Budget
Each local congregation have structures and leaders, albeit in different shapes and structures. But who is responsible when we speak of the churches core mission task? Who puts up their hands when the church secretary or leader suggests a new web-based resource or an invite to mission work? Who will take the 30 approaches to mission and monitor what progress the congregation makes?A missionary congregation needs to form a mission project team. This team must also be linked directly to the church leadership i.e. the leader of the mission project team is a member of the church leadership.
“But we have already a shortage of volunteers. How will we ever be able to find the people for this new team?”
Not more but different
When your congregation decides that they need to become more “missionary” what you need is not more money or more volunteers. What is needed is not more, but a difference: a different way to deploy volunteers that are already available, a different way to use the finances that are already in the budget. This ‘thinking differently’ begins with the church leadership discussing whether you really want to turn into a missionary congregation. Such a basic decision also means that there must be willingness from the church leadership to make people and resources available and that will mean that there are other things that will have to be stopped or done less intensively. In other words: choices will have to be made.
Nationally the Protestant Church in the Netherlands had to make economies because of falling numbers and dwindling financial resources. A principled decision was taken to economise more than was necessary and to use this extra capacity to begin mission work. This process was given a label: ‘(G)rowing with the oars you have got.’
We use the word ‘principled’ on purpose, because such a decision is fundamental: to make new choices means breaking out of old ways to create space for the new initiatives to develop. At the same time it is important to opt for a brief and clear decision making process so that the new discussion about a new missionary approach does not get stuck in endless talk about priorities.
Important
Make sure that your missionary project team does not become an island. Also try to ensure that a new mission project team don’t allow the remainder of the congregation to forget about mission. The church leaders provide leadership and set the mission policy. The mission project team reflect, comes up with ideas, delegates and (in part) executes.
People find it difficult to commit themselves to structures, but are willing to contribute to projects. To recruit volunteers it is important to invite them on the basis of a project. “We ask you to volunteer for this one new project in our church.”
A Possible approach
- Who are the church leaders that can be made available to provide leadership in this process?
- Which members of the congregation are willing to become part of this project team?
- If there is a existing mission or evangelism committees in the church, consult with them carefully. Which members will be able or willing to become a member of the new team? Will the existing committee be able to take on this task? That will often mean that the committee must be willing to follow new roads. Very often these committees have been in existence for years. The members are very faithful in carrying out all sorts of activities. The distribution of magazines, organising welcome services… all very good work. The question is if this is the most beneficial way of working? Is there any room for something new? Is it possible to start thinking about new models as the ones that are presented in the 30 approaches? Are newcomers allowed to present their ideas?
- In the leaders meeting take the fundamental decision to make financial resources available in the next budget.
- The missionary project team comes with a plan to be discussed by the church leaders/ church meeting.
- Carry out a small missionary activity whilst this process gets underway. Getting active and not just talking will engender enthusiasm
