A common conundrum for the church is how to be outward focused and at the same time build stgong community within the church. Often the discussion goes something like this:
Person # 1: "We need to be more evangelistic."
Person # 2: "We need to take better care of our own members. We need better fellowship"
Person #3: "How can we do both well at the same time?"
This conversation, or a variation of this conversation takes place in churches across the U.S. If a church begins to grow, long time members may feel threatened in a sense. Their community is changing. Their sense of what it means to be in community is being challenged. People do need to feel that they have strong connection points in the church, a sense of community. A church can be so focused on reaching new people that existing members are lost in the shuffle.
On the other hand, when a church focuses so much on the 'sweet fellowship' of the members, the congregation becomes ingrown-so focused inwardly that any sense of being on mission is lost amidst potlucks, socials, committee meetings and church functions. Evangelism is something that is done by pastor and staff, and any new additions that take place in the church seem more accidental than the natural result of being intentional in reaching the lost. If there is 'growth'-it is more likely to be transfer growth.
Is being "missional" contrary to building stronger community within the church?
Absolutely not. In fact, a right understanding of community involves the people of God being on mission together. Community is strengthened by being tested, by the community journeying together for one common purpose, by being tested.
Alan Hirsch describes "communitas" as (my paraphrase) the strengthening and deepening of a community that in faith journeys into the liminal zones (the outer edges). In other words, when a community is on mission together, something much stronger is forged than mere 'sweet fellowship.' For community to truly grow in depth, the community must be forged in the fires of faith, testing, being on mission together.
And perhaps this is where the breakdown occurs for many churches: Spectatorship is either encouraged or enabled. Fellowship is defined as simmply getting together and enjoying each other. Mission is something that is defined in terms of a trip, service is something scheduled on the church calendar from time to time. Prayer is something we meet to do once a week, and largely the prayer time is focused on membership. I could go on. You get the idea.
God calls us to something far greater than insulating ourselves from the outside world. He calls us to engage lostness. As salt and light, we are His plans for preserving and flavoring and illuminating the world. For the salt to be effective, it must get out of the salt shaker. For the light to be meaningful, it must shine outside the walls of the church facility.
For communitas to be formed, the gathering of God's people must be on mission together. It is in that 'being on mission together' that stronger, more authentic relationships are formed, community is enhanced, bonds grow stronger as God's people live, love, serve, share...together, on mission.
What will this look like in your church? Every church has a different 'personality' and each church has it's own strengths and weaknesses. A good starting place is for the community to prayerfully go through the Scriptures to understand what it means to be on mission together. None of us are exempt. We are not called to merely surivive, but to follow Jesus wherever He leads-and He is always leading us into the fields, where the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few.
As God's people are re-awakened to the plight of the lost, to the heartbeat of God, to the Awesomeness of God, to the Great Commandments and the Great Commission, to our absolute need for Him in all things and for all things (giving up the illusion of independence and self-reliance)...we can do nothing but fall on our faces in prayer and realize that God has called us to far, far more than being 'safe' and 'comfortable.'
The church in America has not flatlined. We are in dramatic decline. Years of formulas for 'church growth' has created a church culture of spectatorship and consumerism. Years of in-fighting over 'worship wars' and 'who is in control?' has left many churches 'dead in the water'-stagnant, drifting, their sails no longer set to the Holy Spirit. In many ways, the church in general has been asleep.
And while we were sleeping, the culture changed. Our world changed. The church is awakening to find itself marginalized, on the fringes of life, seen as irrelevant by most Americans. They drive by our churches and never think twice about who we are or why we gather. Inside our facilities we wonder why all of those outsiders are not coming inside. Didn't we put 'everyone welcome' on our church sign?
While we were arguing over worship styles, while we were politicking over control issues, while we were filling our calendars with activities, the world around us changed-and the world around us is turning to anything and everything but the church for answers.
We sure need an Awakening. We cannot program one. We cannot control God. We cannot create new 'techniques' to make ourselves more interesting to the lost.
But we can do some very important things: We can humble ourselves before God and confess our apathy to the lost. We can repent of our sense of self-reliance. We can cry out to God to 'renew His works in our days.' We can re-examine our understanding of community and mission in light of the Scriptures, and in doing so, re-examin what it means to be God's people on mission together.
We walk among the living dead daily. We converse with people daily who are headed towards a Christless eternity. We are surrounded by the stench of spiritual death...and we must stop focusing on our own felt needs. Jesus calls us to far, far more.
He calls our community of faith to communitas, and as we follow Him, we will experience far greater things than we can possibly imagine. This is the adventure. This is where obedience intersects with faith and humility. This is where love grows-love for the family of God, love for the lost. It's not a 'safe' place, or a 'predictable' or 'comfortable' place, but it is a great place to be. It is the place where the Spirit of God does His most amazing work in and through us. It is the place where we are absolutely dependent on Him for all things-together.
May you and your community of faith hear His call, and together, experience the bonds of communitas as you go to the very edge on mission together.
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