1. Introduction to Church Growth
Missional Church

2. Missional & Incarnational
What is Missional?
The missional church is a church that sees its mission to represent Christ and operates as being sent into the world to reach the lost. OR
“A community of God’s people that defines itself, and organizes its life around, its real purpose of being an agent of God’s mission to the world.”
Alan Hirsh, The Forgotten Ways

3. Missional & Incarnational
Missional Church
Community centered on God’s mission
Outward focused community of believers
People centered
Culture engaging
Incarnational in nature

4. Characteristics of Missional Churches
Missional & Incarnational
Characteristics of Missional Churches
Evangelizing is not something we do it is what we are.
Contextual - Attempts to make Christianity meaningful in peoples’ cultural context
People recognized as created in the image of God
Not just prospective members
People of worth even before saved
Incarnational for attraction & Communication
Living and sharing the gospel where life is taking place for people
Involved in life’s communities
Church Planters Pt. 2 – Tim Keller

5. Missional & Incarnational
Contextualization -- communicating the gospel in a new context in a way that is understandable to the recipients in order for them to do theology, develop church life, be involved in ministry that is biblically based and culturally appropriate.

6. Characteristics of Missional Church
Missional & Incarnational
Characteristics of Missional Church
Incarnational for attraction & communication
Incarnational – refers to missionaries’ (Christians) practice of missions as Christ was incarnate as a person by incarnating themselves in the new cultural context by identification with the people through personal interaction by learning the language and culture to better proclaim the gospel.
What is incarnational mission? – Alan Hirch

7. Characteristics of Missional Church
Missional & Incarnational
Characteristics of Missional Church
Incarnational for attraction & communication
Attraction – refers to the Christians and the church body worshipping in a community and finding ways to draw people into the church community rather than the church going into the community.

8. Foundation of Missional Church
Missio Dei
God’s Mission provides the foundation for why the church exists and how it defines its purpose.
Mt. 16:16-18

9. Missio Dei (Mission of God)
Why was humanity created?
Accident
God was lonely
Needs to be worshipped
To glorify God
God of love (relationship)

10. Missio Dei (Mission of God)
Mission began by God
Mission continues with God’s reconciling work
Mission ends with God

11. Missio Dei (Mission of God)
What are the challenges in the world?
Pride, hatred and power
Wars, Genocide, Terrorism
Immorality and self-centered desires
Amoral lifestyle, Life unrelated to God, poverty
Disease and natural disasters
Cancer, AIDS, Earthquakes, Sunami
Worldview differences
Pluralism, Secularism, Materialism, Consumerism

12. Missio Dei (Mission of God)
How does God view His creation?
Communicates and interacts with His creation
Provides guidance
Provides means to approach Him
People in need of knowing God and reconciliation
God so loved the world that …..
How should Christians view the world?

13. Missio Dei (Mission of God)
How should Christians view the world?
World created by God
People created in God’s image
People loved by God
Sin is a problem for all cultures of the world
People are worth redeeming
Reconciliation to God is God’s desire
Believers are sent into the world as Jesus was

14. Missio Dei (Mission of God)
What are believers responsibility to the world?
Practice the two greatest commandments
Represent God’s love in the world
Represent God’s life style in the world
Share God’s truth in the world
Share God’s answer to people in the world
Work to do good for greater justice and people’s wellbeing

15. Missio Dei (Mission of God)
“It is not so much the case that God has a mission for his church in the world, as that God has a church for his mission in the world. Mission was not made for the church; the church was made for mission – God’s mission.”
---Christopher Wright, The Mission of God, p. 62)

16. Missio Dei (Mission of God)
The Bible displays the story of God’s mission. A story of God’s work in the world to reconcile humanity to Himself.

17. Implications of the Missio Dei
Mission Terminology
Implications of the Missio Dei
God is the theological foundation
God is the source of power
God provides the message
God provides the means of salvation
God defines the mission

18. Missio Dei (Mission of God)
Why study the mission of the church and its growth?
Mission is God’s action in this world
People are the center of God’s concern (mission)
His followers are participants in His mission
The church’s role is to be missional as God is
Entering God’s mission is central to who we are as Christians

19. Implications for missions
Mission Terminology
Implications for missions
God’s people enter the mission of God
Believers live and share the message
Believers strive to see the world as God does, in need of reconciliation
Going and being sent (Mt. 28:18; Jn. 17:18; 20:21; Rom. 15:20)
Ambassadors of Christ (2 Cor. 5:18-21)

20. Missionary Mission Terminology
The term missionary comes originally from the Greek word “apostles” through Latin “missio” to English meaning sent ones.

21. Biblical use of apostlos (missionary)
Mission Terminology
Biblical use of apostlos (missionary)
Used to describe the twelve selected from Jesus’ disciples
Used of Paul
Other people in N. T. sent out by churches
Barnabas (Acts 14:14)
James, the Lord’s brother (1 Cor. 15:7; Gal. 1:19)
Janias and Andronicus (Rom. 16:7)
Epaphroditus (Phil. 2:25)

22. Mission Terminology Missionary today
Generally used for Christians sent out cross-culturally
It is a term that can apply to any Christian sent out for ministry
Types of missionary
Cross-cultural
Domestic
Non-resident
Vocational (tent-making)

23. Ten misunderstandings about missionaries
Mission Terminology
Ten misunderstandings about missionaries
Super spiritual
Misfits in their own cultures
Adventure seekers
Always good with languages
Always of a strong calling from God
Bigoted, cultural imperialists (Poison Wood Bible, Mitchner - Hawaii)
No longer needed
Always go overseas
Live in the bush
Sign their lives away

24. Missiology Mission Terminology
“The formal study of Christian mission in its theological, biblical, historical, cultural, and strategic dimensions as well as it present and future aspects” (Kaiser).

25. Elements of Missiology
Mission Terminology
Elements of Missiology
Biblical – the biblical foundation and mandate – reveals God’s mission
Theological – understanding the word & applying it
Historical – history of it practice
Cultural – the context in which mission takes place
Strategic – principles, strategies, methods used
Present and future oriented – present & eternal dimensions

26. Mission Terminology
Theology – The “discipline which strives to give a coherent statement of the doctrines of the Christian faith, based primarily on scripture, placed within the context of culture in general, worded in contemporary idiom, and related to issues of life.” (Erickson, 1985, p. 21)
Faith seeking understanding (Anselm of Canterbury ; Bevans argues this is theology)

27. Missional & Incarnational
God
Church growth takes place within this dynamic of cultural engagement as missional, incarnational and attractional
Missio Dei
Holy Spirit & Disciples
WORLD
Church
Church
Missional
Incarnational
Church
Video – Missional Community
Attractional

28. Mission Terminology
Church growth takes place within this dynamic of cultural engagement as missional, incarnational and attractional in displaying the Lordship of Christ, making disciples and planting churches.