What is missional?
Sometimes when we talk about being missional at Christ Community Daytona folks ask if that’s the same as “seeker sensitive”. That’s not what we mean by it. Here’s an interesting comparison from Mark Driscoll. This was posted by John Piper for a Desiring God conference and it’s the first of several in a series of short clips on this issue. Check it out and let me know if it helps. I’ll follow up with more! This is an important issue not only for Christ Community Church but also with respect to our plans to launch the new church plant: Restoration in Port Orange in 2010
Larry is the senior pastor at 
I heard about two salesmen who were sent to a place in Africa to sell shoes. When they arrived they noticed that everyone was walking about barefooted. Both called back to the home office to report. One said, “I’m coming home, there’s no use opening a store here, they don’t even wear shoes.” The other one practically shouted, “Send me everything you’ve got, this is a perfect place, we’ll be the first shoe store here!”
Perspective on a situation makes a huge difference. In the book “Lost in America,” by Tom Clegg and Warren Bird write “The un-churched population in the United States is so extensive that, if it were a nation, it would be the fifth most populated nation on the planet after China, the former Soviet Union, India, and Brazil. Thus, our un-churched population is the largest mission field in the English-speaking world and the fifth largest globally.”
This may be little bit everywhere but I guess what I want to say is being missional is not an option for us any more.
I love the distinction of whether or not you lead with pragmatism (seeker sensitive) or with your theology (missional). To be pragmatic without principles leads to all manner of downfalls in any and every area of life. I think our church has done a good job combining both, at least we have tried.
I agree Connie. To say the least we have ministerd to our people understanding the tension of being practical as well as practising a strong dependancy on God and his Word which sometimes invites us out of our comfort zones.
This really is a reminder for everyday people in their everyday lives to be Christ-centered, mission minded, spirit led people. If we just go to work everyday for logical, pracgmatic reasons…paycheck, provision, etc….then we miss the kingdom purpose of work as a gift of God for his glory. If we choose not to take paper clips and pencils home from the office because we might get caught and lose our job rather than because our theology tells us it’s wrong to steal and we need to depend on God for his provision, we are missing the call to trust him completely.
If we chase people down with our bible and see every conversation as an opportunity to drop gospel bombs instead of being relational and getting into peoples lives and then leading them to Jesus, we alienate ourselves and can become judgmental, and still miss the call to mission.
I’m thankful for the example that the leadership of CCC has established both for churches and for individuals to live their lives on mission in a relavant way.
Driscoll does a real good job here of reminding us of of an essential Christian truth…that all are called to be missionaries in whatever sphere of life God has placed them. For many, the idea of a missionary has been farmed out to a necessary, but somewhat professional class of “called people”. One can not separate the call to Christ and the call to make disciples. They are deeply connected, and in my opinion one of the defining marks of a true Christ-follower.