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Missional Renaissance
Changing the Scorecard for the Church
Reggie McNeal
Jossey-Bass, 2009, 193 pp. ISBN 978-0-470-24344-2
Reggie McNeal is the Missional Leadership Specialist for Leadership Network
and the author of several popular books on the church. Becoming a missional
church requires three shifts: from an internal to an external focus, from
running programs to developing people, and from church-focused leadership to
community-engaged leadership. The chapters describe what these shifts mean
and give some suggestions for how to measure progress. [See my observations
and questions at the end. dlm]
Introduction
"Missional is a way of living, not an affiliation or activity. . To think
and to live missionally means seeing all life as a way to be engaged with
the mission of God in the world."
Missional renaissance is reshaping the landscape of what church can and
should be.
1. The Missional Renaissance
Altruism and a hunger for spiritual growth and vitality are giving rise to
increased charity and voluntary entrepreneurship in communities. Churches
must move out of the institutional paradigm and focus on the community, on
developing people, and acquiring a Kingdom mindset.
A growing number of people, both Christians and non-Christians, are able and
willing to take on social issues and engage human need. A church should
monitor its positive community impact.
"The missional church engages the community beyond its walls because it
believes that is why the church exists." (6) "They look for ways to bless
and to serve the communities where they are located." (7)
The missional church works to "help people shape their path for personal
development," shifting the emphasis to "following Jesus into the world to
join him in his redemptive mission." (10)
Innovators see the church as a catalyst to mobilize all the community "to
work on the big things God cares about." (15)
2. Missional Manifesto
God's people must be on mission with him to "restore and heal creation,"
intentionally "blessing people and sharing the life of God with them."
"...both truth and love must be present to reflect the whole heart of God
for people." (32)
The welfare of people captures God's heart, both the restoration in his
relationship with them and the benefits of that relationship. Jesus
followers work to enhance life and oppose things that steal life.
3. Missional Shift 1: From an Internal to an External Focus
Church groups and individuals serve in the communities and with the people
where they live and work. The church converts members to missionaries. It
is not a destination but a "connector," not attractional but incarnational.
It focuses on service, humanitarian efforts and public service more than
proclamation, teaching and evangelism. It deploys people rather than
assimilating and separating them. It helps people integrate their life and
mission.
"They live their lives with the idea that they are on a mission trip. On
mission trips, people focus on the work of God around them, alert to the
Spirit's prompting, usually serving people in very tangible ways, often in
ways that involve some sacrifice or even discomfort." (54)
"Once we see what God is doing 'out there' in the world, it changes
everything we do 'in here' in the church." (65)
4. Changing the Scorecard from Internal to External Focus
The chapter is chock full of possible avenues of service. The church
evaluates itself not by internal statistics of giving and attendance but by
the quality of life of the members and those they serve. The calendar,
schedule, facilities usage, finances, and people resource indicators track
whether key community initiatives are more important than building larger
church buildings, that the church is not a club but a mission post.
Church people may be assigned, and supported financially and with personnel,
as missionaries to various apartment complexes or other housing communities.
The church may adopt a school or some other community institution.
"North America is the largest English-speaking mission field in the world."
(80)
[It is also the "mission field' with by far the greatest concentration of
Christian resources. dlm]
5. Missional Shift 2: From Program Development to People Development
Moving from programs to people development means focusing on maturation more
than participation in church, application and debriefing life events more
than didactic teaching, dealing with behaviors and outcomes as well as
knowledge, growing through serving, and integrating versus
compartmentalizing life. Developing people is a labor intensive,
highly-relational, long-term process.
"We have operated off the faulty assumption that if people participate in
our church programs, they will grow and develop personally." "Developing
people requires building relationships, not just delivering a product or
service." (90)
"We do not share the heart of God with the world because we do not have the
heart of God. This heart transplant does not occur by participation in
church activities. It comes from being in a vibrant, growing relationship
with God." [This seems to be the crux of the issue. dlm]
Americans have outsourced spiritual formation to the church. "Everyday
living is where spiritual development is worked out." "Loving God and our
neighbors cannot be fulfilled at church." ".church activity is no sign of
genuine spiritual vitality. The lifestyles and values of church members
largely reflect those of the culture." (92-93) [Genuine spiritual vitality
grows through exercise, for example, in community service. But if we do not
have it at the outset, does service generate it? How do we get the heart of
God that works itself out in the world?]
"Just as people are taking greater roles in choosing their educational
pursuits, designing their workplaces, and managing their health care, they
feel increasingly qualified to craft their own spiritual quests." "But what
if we actually begin to see ourselves as responsible for creating a culture
where people get to participate in customizing their spiritual journeys
based on their spiritual appetites and ambitions? (97-998) [Of course
people should participate in their own spiritual growth goals, etc. But
there are two obvious dangers here. One is the consumer approach and the
other is people acting as their own judge and god, both big problems we are
trying to overcome. I'm sure the author would agree that outside guidance
is still needed.]
"In a people development culture, the key issue is maturation. Are people
growing in every aspect of their life? Are they becoming more like Jesus?
Are they blessing the world as the people of God?" (100)
People need help debriefing their lives. Rather than simply teach in a
classroom and let people figure out how to apply it, stimulate life
discussions and undertake intentional debriefing to unpack their lives and
experiences and issues in light of Scripture. Help people address their
behaviors. [This is an excellent application.]
6. Changing the Scorecard from Measuring Programs to Helping People Grow
This is the most challenging shift. It requires reallocating every
resource. However, a variety of indicators can be monitored in the areas of
prayer, people, resources, finances, facilities, and technology. Identify
specific results in people's lives that signal genuine progress for them.
"To change a culture, you have to change the conversations." "This reality
should cause spiritual leaders to think long and hard about the culture we
are creating by what we say and how we say it." (122-123)
7. Missional Shift 3: From Church-Based to Kingdom-Based Leadership
Kingdom-oriented leadership is organic, personal, prophetic, empowering, and
focused on leading a movement rather than an institution. The leader is a
viral agent that infects the culture with God's love and creates a culture
of ministry in the community. Leadership is not restricted to clergy.
Leaders are focused on their Kingdom assignment rather than their church
job. They are focused on being missionaries in their sphere of influence.
"The challenge is to connect with a culture that is unacquainted with the
good news of Jesus." (137) "These leaders create a culture of ministry and
leader incubation that multiplies everyone's efforts." (140)
Train like Jesus did. Deploy and then debrief. Learning comes through
debriefing life experiences rather than teaching. It is relational and
intensive on-the-job training, up-close and personal.
Leaders may well need to become bi-vocational in order to shed some church
responsibilities and to provide income for their ministry. [I understand the
need for leaders to model what they want to see in their followers. Jesus
led his followers in ministering to people. At the same time, in Acts 6,
the leaders thought it would not be right to neglect the ministry of the
word of God to serve widows and they assigned this work to others. Where is
the balance?]
8. Changing the Scorecard from Church-Based to Kingdom-Based Leadership
Leaders must consider four areas: perspective, skills development, resource
management, and personal growth.
"I recommend recruiting a personal prayer support team and then figuring out
how to update these helpers on your personal and leadership needs. When
recruiting this team, you may even want to ask people to focus their prayers
on specific aspects of your life and ministry.." (165) [I like this idea and
intend to do it.]
"Leaders have to live the change they seek." (157) "You view life as a
mission trip, and order your own life around that view." (159)
Conclusion
A few of the things we may expect:
. "An explosion of missional communities (MC) will occur. These will be
groups of believers and nonbelievers who will operate in non-institutional
settings. . Their community life will center on an intense desire to grow
spiritually and to aid the community. Some MCs will be connected to
churches; many will not be." (179)
. "Increasing numbers of Jesus followers will live out their missional
expression in the context of their family . attending church services on
special occasions." (180)
. "Many clergy will not be able to make this transition in their current
church roles. Consequently, they will move into the marketplace for
employment in pursuit of their call to be missional leaders."
Additional Observations, Thoughts and Issues
. I believe the missional concept is biblical and churches should pursue
it. I believe Christians have largely failed to be salt and light in their
spheres of influence.
. The book is highly application oriented with many very specific
suggestions and examples.
. I would have appreciated more emphasis on the spiritual dimension, how
we get the "heart of God," how spiritual development takes place in the
missional church. In the book of Acts, while acts of service are mentioned,
the overwhelming emphasis is on the disciples teaching and preaching the
Word.
. I would like to have seen more attention and suggestions for what we
could be doing in the rest of the world beyond our community. While the
world is not excluded, the suggestions for the community predominate by an
overwhelming margin.
. It might also have been helpful to make a larger issue out of living a
life of love, obedience, integrity, and other centeredness in our regular
job roles where we can have influence for Christ within the context of our
regular daily activities among people like us.
. The idea that Christians should be ministers in the community and that
church leaders should equip them for that role is, of course, both
historical and biblical. Does this book make service too central? Is the
church more than service? Is worship more than service? Is blessing more
than service?
. Church leaders will applaud the thrust to spend more time in the world
and less time in church - in principle - but the suggestions that people
meet for growth and serve elsewhere on Sundays instead of attending church
will feel very threatening. It will be very difficult for leaders to feel
good about falling numbers that previously indicated their success and
significance.
. This model requires many more leaders to equip, mobilize, and debrief
the people in our churches. However, we are in a hole of having few leaders
and many "consumers" because that is what the program model has produced.
We lack leaders because we lack disciples.
. Programs are the "levers" that allow a few leaders to "lift" many
people rather than a few. The downside is becoming apparent: programs don't
lift them very far. Doing away with the lever reduces the capacity of
leaders to relate to the many. If leaders get rid of programs and focus on
the relational, labor-intensive discipling of a few, many current church
attenders will be left out. Church leaders will find it extremely difficult
to consider leaving people out.
. Leaders are being asked to take on the additional job of serving
outside the church. Will overloaded pastors be able to give up what appear
to be major important responsibilities to do this? Does Acts 6, the
ministry of the Word and the serving of widows have any input here?
. Because we have learned to think and act in "programs," it is very
difficult to deploy people in large numbers without programs. How would you
adopt a school, for example, without it being a program? How would you help
leaders debrief life experiences without a program to teach them how to do
it? How would you disburse funds and resources to a "missionary" assigned
to a housing community without a program or committee to oversee it and make
the decisions? It will be very hard to stay out of the box.
. It would seem that the younger the church and the younger its leaders,
the more likely the model will be adopted. It may be quite difficult for
large, indebted, "successful" churches to promote this perspective beyond a
safe, surface level.
. To what degree is this happening in younger missional communities that
are flying under the radar screen? What are they doing well and how are
they struggling?
What will happen if churches adopt the missional model on a large scale?
. Will families and small missional communities that meet together in
place of church experience real, ongoing spiritual growth or tend to drift
away?
. To what degree will ministry efforts to serve the community continue
to include spiritual transformation? Will the culture's applause for help
and condemnation of absolute truth affect Christians ministering in the
community? Will community service come to mirror the non-verbal service of
mainline churches?
. What will happen to local church support of global missions? If it
declines what will take its place?
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