Jul
13
Written by:
Jack Mercer
7/13/2007
If The Open Door was all about location, location, location, Hope Community Church (Evangelical Free) is also about location, actually, the lack of location! The church is located near, but definitely not in, Manitowac, Wisconsin. The church is primarily surrounded by farmland. (We later found out that the roads in front and to the side of the church are cross roads for the surrounding area.) Quite candidly, I didn’t know what to expect when I walked into their building, but I can assure you it was a wow experience.
These folks have got the “attractional” thing down. The minute Sandy and I walked into the building we were greeted by a hallway that screamed, “We love children.” Then John Aitken, Associate Pastor, stepped out to greet us and give us a quick tour of the building before beginning our conversation. From the half basketball court, to the theatre/café where the youth worship by live video feed, to the children’s suite, where we learned about the “Heroes of Mega City,” Hope makes it clear they are seeking to attract folks to their church. But, for me, that further heightened the question, “What is Hope doing to make missional disciples?” Quite a bit actually.
As John talked to us, it became apparent that discipling those who come to Hope is forefront in his mind. Hope attracts many who have nominal church affiliations in their background, but prior to coming to Hope had given up on church as relevant to their lives. As a result, it’s no real surprise that John concentrates on new member classes and two follow-up classes utilizing both Alpha and Willowcreek’s 5Gs. (John has written the curriculum for the two follow-up classes, which they call Alpha 2 and Alpha 3.) Furthermore, John in his Scottish brogue (he and his wife moved to the states eight years ago) declared unashamedly, “The light that shines farthest shines brightest at home,” which may be a way of saying that while Hope is  very committed to missions giving (5% now with a target of 10% in the future) and sending mission teams into the world (Japan, Czech Republic and Equador), Hope’s primary missional focus is on bringing people to Christ and helping them grow in their faith. This raises an interesting and frequently asked question?
How is being “missional” different from being missions minded? I ask that question because, in my mind, Hope is reaching the Manitowac community for Christ in a dramatic fashion. However, I would be very hard pressed to describe Hope’s ethos as missional in the same way The Open Door’s ethos is missional. Here, I think, is where some comments from those of you further along the missional journey would be very helpful—especially to those of you like my friend Kim, who read the blog, googled missional, and still came away wondering what missional is all about. So here’s a major shout out for feedback. Hope you’ll respond.
Picture above left is Hope's youth worship/cafe area.
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1 comment(s) so far...
Re: Hope Community Church--Location? Not so much!
Jack,
I loved the post about Hope Community. It addressed an issue that I keep raising in the missional dialogue. In a previous generation, ‘missions’ was understood to be about crossing cultures geographically with the Gospel. So, what churches did at home was evangelism…while what they did across the oceans, was missions. Such identifiers are, for the most part, no longer functional in North America. Now ‘mission’ is not about geography, but about relationships. So, when Hope Community reaches beyond itself into communities who have little or no knowledge of Christ, even in Wisconsin, with a disciple making priority, they are exhibiting a missional posture.
Missional churches are involved with both neighbors and nations. They see themselves as existing to accomplish Christ’s mission of making disciples, locally and globally. Any church must minister locally so that Christ’s prayer is more closely realized in its own community, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done…” As Kingdom outposts, their ministry must seek the spiritual transformation of those within the congregation’s immediate sphere of influence.
This leads to the BIG issue. For too many, a missional posture is measured by what the church does corporately (when it is gathered) in mission and ministry. As I understand it, this is actually second order mission. The real indicator of a missional posture is first order mission; members who individually understand themselves to be God’s missional people, have identified their personal primary mission fields, and are living as representatives of His Kingdom among their work associates, students at school, neighbors, team mates, and family members. Missional church is not first about “corporate performance of mission or ministry services,” whether locally or globally. Instead it is about God’s people living as His missionary representatives, seeking spiritual transformation of those persons they encounter daily; those with whom they have ongoing relationships. The reality is, in this generation, members are all over the world in business and leisure. We already have relationships scattered throughout the globe. How we “mission” those relationships is the best indicator of our missionality.
A final check relates to congregation’s being strategic in pursuit of God’s missional purpose. More than mission activity is required for a true missional posture. It is possible to be very active without being intentionally strategic. A key question that remains on the heart of missional churches is “How are we involved in bringing the Gospel to those who have never had opportunity to hear about Jesus and His saving work?” At some point we realize, strategic mission investment means making disciples among those who would otherwise have no access to the Gospel, not simply among those who have not accepted the Gospel. But be clear, it is not either-or, for the missional church. It is both-and; global and local – glocal.
© Milfred Minatrea, Missional Church Center, 2007
By Milfred on
7/16/2007
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