Shaped By God's Heart E-Book

Milfred Minatrea

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Serie: J-B Leadership Network Series
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2004

Seitenzahl: 369

Beschreibung

Discover the tools to create a new kind of church and move from merely surviving to thriving. Drawing on an extensive two-year field study of 200 churches from a variety of denominations and geographic regions, Milfred Minatrea--a missiologist, urban strategist and practioner in minister--presents the best practices for re-energizing Christian spirituality in a congregational setting. He provides readers with the tools for assessing their congregation's position on the continuum between maintenance and mission and for determining the actions that will move them toward becoming a missional community. He also outlines key strategies that successful churches have used to become relevant in a postmodern society without losing what is distinctly Christian in their spiritual practices. Milfred Minatrea (Irving, TX) is Director of the Missional Church Center for the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

Leseprobe

CONTENTS

Preface: A Personal Letter to the Reader

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Sending the Church into the World

Part One: The Church in a New and Changing World

Chapter 1: From Maintenance to Missional

Fighting Change with Maintenance

Theological Foundations of Missional Churches

A Change Agent Adept at Change

Mission-Minded or Missional?

Becoming Missional

Reflection and Application

Chapter 2: Be Church and Be Changed

The Four Dimensions of Missional Churches

The Eight Passion Actions

Practicing What We Preach

Reflection and Application

Part Two: The Nine Essential Practices of Missional Churches

Chapter 3: Missional Practice Number One

They Are Concerned for Nominal Church Members

Membership Is Not Casual

They Are a Unified Community

The Church Has Clear Expectations for Members

Members Have Clear Expectations of the Church

“How Do They Enforce Their Expectations?”

Reflection and Application

Missional Practice Assessment

Chapter 4: Missional Practice Number Two

They Show Authenticity in Faith

They Are Authentic with One Another

They Act Authentically in the World

Being Real in Two Worlds

Reflection and Application

Missional Practice Assessment

Chapter 5: Missional Practice Number Three

They Equip Believers

They Practice “Applied Christianity”

They Have a High Commitment to God’s Word

They Learn Obedience Through Disciplines

They Use a Variety of Methods

Reflection and Application

Missional Practice Assessment

Chapter 6: Missional Practice Number Four

God Is the Focus of Worship

Worship Is Experiential

Worship Is About Content, Not Form

Worship Is Highly Participatory

Worship Values Creativity

Worship Is More Than Words

Reflection and Application

Missional Practice Assessment

Chapter 7: Missional Practice Number Five

They Live Apostolically as Those Sent

They Live Mission in a Neo-Apostolic Era

Apostolic Living Shares Good News

Reflection and Application

Missional Practice Assessment

Chapter 8: Missional Practice Number Six

Mission Begins with Relationships

Mission Is Expressed in a Glocal Community

Missional Churches Identify Primary Mission Fields

Missional Churches Touch the World

Reflection and Application

Missional Practice Assessment

Chapter 9: Missional Practice Number Seven

They Know Their Purpose

They Check That Actions Are Based upon Purpose

They Let Go of What Does Not Serve Their Purpose

They Do Only What Serves Their Purpose

Reflection and Application

Missional Practice Assessment

Chapter 10: Missional Practice Number Eight

They Grow Naturally

They Connect with a Source of Unlimited Supply

They See Themselves as the Mission-Sending Agency of God’s Design

They Take a Role in Equipping Missional Leaders

They See Multiplication as God’s Design for Reaching New Generations

Reflection and Application

Missional Practice Assessment

Chapter 11: Missional Practice Number Nine

Missional Churches Seek to Develop Kingdom Citizens

Missional Churches Seek to Express the Kingdom of God in the World

Missional Churches Cooperate, Not Compete, in the Kingdom of God

Missional Churches Battle a Common Enemy

Reflection and Application

Missional Practice Assessment

Part Three: Structures and Strategies for Becoming Missional

Chapter 12: They Run Rapids in Rubber Rafts

Rejuvenating Aging Church Structures

Mission Structures and Missional Churches

Preparing Members for Missional Tasks

Mission Empowerment

Facilitating Structures

Next-Generation Structural Expectations

Reflection and Application

Chapter 13: Seeing Beyond the Horizon

A Deep Intimacy with God

Personal Humility

The Experience of Deep Pain

The Ability to Take Risks

Being Uncomfortable with Comfort

Creative and Noncomforming

Many Interests and Areas of Expertise

Cultural Engineers

Challenging the Status Quo

Perceived as Radical in Pursuit of Their Vision

Understanding, Constructing, and Altering Organizational Systems

Establishing Effective Leadership Teams

Developing Missional Communities

The Primary Task of Missional Leaders

The Leadership Question

Reflection and Application

Chapter 14: Moving to Missional

Where Is Your Church on the Mind-Set Continuum?

Moving Each Mind-Set to Missional

Are You Ready to Move?

Beginning the Transition

Potential Dangers

Starting a Church

How Jerry Barker’s Church Moved to Missional

Taking Your Own Steps Toward Missional

Sail On!

Reflection and Application

Appendix: Missional Church Cultural Assessment

About Leadership Network

The Author

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Copyright © 2004 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Minatrea, Milfred.

Shaped by God’s heart: the passion and practices of missional churches / Milfred Minatrea.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 0-7879-7111-1 (alk. paper)

1. Mission of the church. I. Title.

BV601.8.M57 2004

253—dc22

2004006648

PREFACE: A PERSONAL LETTER TO THE READER

After more than twenty years of serving Christ, I know that the church can also be a dynamic experience of personal transformation, where individuals connect with God in profoundly intimate and personal ways, and in a powerful corporate connection as a whole body. Together, members exhibit the power of God at work in their lives, making the church winsome to outsiders and influential in communities. This church is optimistic: it believes itself to be the dwelling of God, uniquely empowered by His Spirit, living the transformational reality of His Kingdom in contemporary society.

Yet for many His church has become not a place of relationship but merely a place where people gather for religious ceremonies. Members belong to the church just as they may belong to the Lions or Rotary Club. They go to church, but often they do not see themselves as the church. Even parishioners speak of the facilities where they meet as “the church.” What was intended by God as a living Body has been reduced to bricks and mortar, a building made with hands.

What has happened?

Many churches are vestiges of a former community that long ago underwent significant change. Parishioners became part of a church when they first moved into a growing community. In church, they established enduring relationships with people who held similar values. Their children were confirmed, baptized, and married in those sacred places. As the community changed across the years, members sold their homes and moved away. Yet they continued to drive back each week to enjoy the web of relationships that was their church, their dearest friends. They continued to worship but lost touch with the community around them. Increasingly, church became isolated from the world rather than engaged with the world.

As mission—the purpose of inviting and equipping individuals to be authentic disciples of Christ—gave way to maintenance of the status quo, people have grown weary of going through the motions of religious trappings without experiencing personal intimacy with God. Our world is filled with individuals whose lives manifest their deep hunger for something more than the nominal religious experiences they have observed thus far. They know something more exists; they just do not know how to get there. They search for a different type of church—and that church does exist today.

This church is not limited by geography or denomination. It is found across the globe in an increasing number of places where leaders have been willing to lose everything to gain something that was almost lost. They have caught a glimpse of God and are unwilling to settle for anything less than intimate relationship with Him. In this pursuit, they are rediscovering the authentic relationship that develops among fellow pilgrims on that path, members together in the Body of Christ. Those churches are preparing members, and holding each other accountable, to live as representatives for God in their individual spheres of influence, in their world. These are missional churches, reproducing communities of authentic disciples, being equipped as missionaries sent by God, to live and proclaim His Kingdom in their world.

One might say this is a new kind of church, but I would say that it is some two thousand years old. It is reclaiming the intent for which Christ established His church. In many ways, contemporary society is very close to the first-century experience. It is pluralistic, profoundly spiritual, but not necessarily Christian. Major ethical issues challenge social structures. Global distribution of wealth favors a privileged few whose responsibility to exercise compassionate concern for those in poverty is often lost to a “me-first” mentality.

Yet the missional church is not a first-century church; it is a twenty-first-century church committed to use every means available to accomplish God’s missional purpose in the earth. Such churches are connecting members intimately with God and involving them in His mission around the world. They use global communication and transportation systems to gain information and extend influence. They are not content simply to provide financial resources so that a few select individuals can be involved in global missions. They are on mission as individuals and as communities of faith.

The measure of a missional church is the transformational impact of its members’ lives in their world. Their influence results in new followers of Christ, new communities of faith developing. They are reproducing communities—followers resulting in others following Christ, leaders producing new leaders, cells expanding to new cells, and churches starting new churches. It is impossible to separate the individual focus from the corporate endeavor. The church is what its members are.

Shaped by God’s Heart is the result of my observation of churches well on their way to being missional congregations. They are still forming and growing and changing. Each church is unique, yet all share common practices and ways of approaching the world. In this book, I have attempted to portray what a missional church looks like. My intent is not to create a model or models that you or other church leaders should seek to emulate. Rather, I hope that having seen what missional churches look like in other places, you may be led to observe your own church in this light. I hope that you, as a leader, will not leave your congregation, but rather influence it to become a life-giving missional community of authentic disciples.

I long for you to experience the depth of joy known only to those who abandon everything in pursuit of God and His purpose. My purpose in writing Shaped by God’s Heart is to touch a place deep within you, a place marked by a profound desire to experience God in a most personal way intended for His Body, the Church.

To Pam, Best friend in the journey toward His heart

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Each of us is the product of many individuals who have shaped our lives. A book is no different. Shaped by God’s Heart is a compendium of the influence and investment of countless thousands of persons who have marked my spiritual journey. I thank God for the foundation laid by a father who lived Christianity in his business and a mother who epitomizes generosity. My sister Ann, whose mobility and capacity to communicate have been severely limited by cerebral palsy, taught me to see the beauty of the individual within. One day soon she will run, dance, and sing for the first time in her life, a heavenly moment she awaits with eager anticipation.

So many parts of the Body of Christ have shaped me, as well. I am thankful for these Texas congregations who have allowed me to journey with them toward the heart of God: First and Denman Avenue in Lufkin; Meadowbrook and First in Irving; Colonial, Park Central, and Grace Temple in Dallas; and First in Lancaster. These churches and their staff members have taught me so much about the Father’s Kingdom.

Wonderful colleagues in ministry have walked beside me in the shaping process. Dr. Bill Tinsley, Dr. E. B. Brooks, and Dr. Gary Hearon provided encouragement and mentoring, often without their own awareness. Their hearts reflect the heart of the Father. Rick Davis, Don Sewell, Dexton Shores, Bobby Smith, Jim Young, and Abe Zabaneh expanded my grasp of the coalescing of mission and ministry. Patty Lane and Lindsay Cofield each made significant contributions when I grew weary in the writing process.

The wonderful staff of the Missional Church Center has carried a heavier load while I was involved in research and writing. Thank you Fred Ater, Ted Elmore, Cindy Zoller, Maritza Solano, and Marla Bearden for offering your gifts so graciously in this process.

The Baptist General Convention of Texas and Dr. Charles Wade approved study leave that allowed me to focus on research. I am grateful for an environment in which research and writing are deemed essential. Thank you for your commitment to being Kingdom Christians.

Many friends made special contributions as Shaped By God’s Heart came together. Frank Goodman gave me a key to his family’s lake house with this invitation: “Use it as if it were your own.” That setting was a beautiful retreat where many concepts first surfaced. In fact, I still have the key. Ernie Murray and Gaye Eichler cared enough to wade through and critique early drafts of the manuscript. I am grateful for their gracious assistance.

Carol Childress, formerly of Leadership Network, is a person I have long admired. Her encouragement that I pursue writing a portrait of missional churches fanned an original spark. The relationship between Leadership Network and Jossey-Bass introduced me to wonderfully capable new friends. I am thankful to Sheryl Fullerton, Catherine Craddock, Andrea Flint, and Sachie Jones for walking me through publishing processes that were foreign to me. Naomi Lucks Sigal was indispensable when I needed her gifts and expertise the most.

I am grateful to my family. My wife and best friend, Pam, never doubted this project was something God wanted me to accomplish. She prayed and encouraged. Likewise my children and their families in special ways gave me fuel for the journey. Thank you Kish, Corina, and Olivia; Allison, Andrew, and Ashtyn; and Joshua.

To every congregation and leader whose stories appear on these pages, thank you for treating me as an honored guest. Those who invited me into their churches and homes are now part of my family.

Finally, I am grateful to the Rev. David White of Victoria, Australia. On the day I began my research journey, we met on an Amtrak coach. We spent hours visiting about the Kingdom and ministry. Before we parted, he challenged me, “Do not just start this book. Finish it!” The page on which I wrote his comment in my journal is now dog-eared. David, thanks for that departing word. It served its purpose.

INTRODUCTION: SENDING THE CHURCH INTO THE WORLD

John sits in his study, staring at the wall but looking nowhere. Surely there is something more to ministry than this, he says to himself. He recalls the excitement he felt when he first sensed God’s call to ministry. Now he’s worried about the couple who say they’re thinking about taking their family to a church that can “better meet their needs.” He’d like to talk to them more about it, but he’s got Sunday School vacancies to fill, a Bible study to plan for, sermons to prepare, and calls to return. Is this really what he signed up for?

Most members, sensing his unease, reassure him that the church is going really well. They love their pastor and his faithfulness in caring for them, and it shows. Attendance grows steadily from year to year, and there’s enough money to fund programs that they enjoy. The area around the facility shows the wear of a community past its prime, and the church properties, although well kept, are dated. Sure, upkeep is a constant challenge, but committees stay on top of it. They’re also fairly satisfied with the overall program and ministry of the church: age-graded Bible study on Sunday mornings; youth activities, including the upcoming spring ski trip; good choral music, with vocalists who frequently use recorded tracks instead of piano or organ as accompaniment.