Missional Communities: Finding the Balance Between Being Sent and Equipping the Saints

I have been a Christ follower since 1989.  My walk with Jesus has had its up and downs, but since the day I surrendered my life to Him, my primary focus has been to love Jesus and love others as I love myself. 

 

Becoming Missional

As a member of a Cooper Creek Christian Church, and a disciple of Jesus, I am encouraged to participate in our weekly gathering, become part of a Creek Community, and serve those I am sent to.  With these activities in mind, through the power of the Holy Spirit, and by the grace of God, the mission of The Creek, “To love God and to love others in such a way that the effects are felt within the community” is fulfilled.

Determining who you are sent to, is an important part of becoming a Christian that lives “On Mission.” As a member of the body of Christ, you have been sent to make disciples, teaching them to obey all that Jesus has commanded (Matthew 28:18-20).

If you are anything like me, trying to figure out to whom God has sent you to, is a difficult process.  I have always understood my calling to my family, friends, co-workers, and the surrounding community.  But until I joined The Creek, I was never challenged to broaden my scope of influence to include "the least of these." I have never had a problem serving my family, friends, or co-workers, but when I got involved in the Missional Movement, the words justice and compassion took on new meaning.

Care bags for the Homeless inspired by The Barefoot Church

I am thankful that my Pastor loaned me a copy of "The Barefoot Church" by Brandon Hatmaker.  This book helped to crystalize what a missional incarnational community looks like.  

Disclaimer:  If you have read "The Barefoot Church", then many of these ideas will be familiar to you, since they are based on the Austin New Church Restore Group model.

Missional Community

The Creek Community that I am a part of includes the following elements:

• Family Time – opportunity to eat, fellowship, and enjoy each other’s company.
• Prayer – petitions to God for friends, family, and those you are sent to, and praise for God’s blessings in your life.
• Study – centered on the Word of God, applied to the individual life, integrated into daily activities.
• Internal Service – benevolence, kindness, and assistance to one another when in need.
• External Service – benevolence, kindness, and assistance to the People that the community is sent to.
• Distributed Leadership – several people or families share the responsibilities of facilitating the study, hosting the family time, planning activities, and identifying missional service.

Equipping the Saints, Living in Fellowship, and Serving the Least

The health and growth of our Missional Community is essential so, our group has identified these goals for our participants:

• Equip the saints to reproduce – disciples, making disciples.
• Provide living fellowship that welcomes new members, enables friendships, promotes mentoring, and encourages disciples. 
• Serves those that are in need, both inside of the Creek Community, and within the community at large.
• At the heart of every meeting together, the emphasis is on spiritual growth, expanding the Kingdom of God, and putting Christian faith into action.

Making it Happen

Moving from a purely educational small group model to a missional community creates tension and has led to confusion about what a successful Missional Community looks like.  The following is meant to provide suggestions that will help to clarify steps to success.  

Our Creek Community meets once a week during the school year, and once a month during the summer, but I suggest that you take hold of any additional opportunities for doing life together.  As a group we have started scheduling activities to build community.  The structure of our group has changed over time, but we tend to follow a model similar to what is demonstrated below:

• Family Time (60 minutes) – meal, snacks, or hanging out.
• Prayer Time (30 minutes) – take prayer requests and praise reports, record them in an email that is sent to each member before the prayer.
• Study Time (30 minutes) – use the Up (What is God saying to you?), In (What are you going to do about it?) and Out (Who are you going to tell?) model.  Inductive study with these questions in mind ensures practical application and effective discipleship.
• Wrap up, for those that need to go, and keep the place open for stragglers.

For us the distribution of leadership was accomplished by asking members of the community to step up in specific areas.  We asked for two people for each area to ensure redundancy.  The lineup has flexed throughout the life of the fellowship, and we purposely did not mix a married man with a married woman, a single man with a married woman or vice-versa.

Areas of responsibility for us include:

• Mission - finding opportunities to serve outside of our immediate group.
• Facilitation - willingness to teach, lead, or reel the group back in during prayer and study time.
• Hosting - provides a place to meet, eat, and enjoy our time together.

As a group we recognized that the easiest path to becoming a missional community was to get involved with a group or organization that already exists for the purpose of impacting the community.  We set a realistic goal to serve our Creek Community internally 50% and serve the greater Sarasota Community externally 50% of the time.  We don't always hit this mark, but we keep the goal in mind.

School supplies for the class We adopted

In keeping with this, our group adopted the class of one our members that is a teacher.  Another of our group member's Mother, attends Grace Community Church.  They serve a group of homeless each week, and we have partnered with them in service.  As we start up the new year, we will review our commitments and adjust our focus, but what will remain is a burden to identify who God has sent us to serve. 

 

Be of Good Cheer

Some aspects of a missional community are easier than others.  Each opportunity has to be balanced with existing responsibilities.  Discipleship is messy, and I have been tempted to be discouraged due to perceived failures of  my own, my fellow community members, and/or those that I seek to serve. I try to remember who I am in Christ, and I always look to Him for my sense of worth and gratification!

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord. – 1st Corinthians 15:58

Are you living on mission?  Have you figured out who you are sent to?  How does your community live out its faith?  Have you found a tangible way to lead your group to be on mission?  If so, please share it below!