Missional Communities E-Book

Reggie McNeal

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Serie: J-B Leadership Network Series
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Seitenzahl: 236

Beschreibung

The third book in the trilogy that explores the popular missional movement From Reggie McNeal, the bestselling author of The Present Future and Missional Renaissance, comes the third book in the series that helps to define and illuminate the popular missional movement. This newest book in the trilogy examines a natural outgrowth of the move toward a missional orientation: the deconstruction of congregations into very small Christian communities. For all those thousands of churches and leaders who have followed Reggie McNeal's bold lead, this book details the rise of a new life form in churches. * Discusses how to move a church from an internal to an external ministry focus * Reggie McNeal is a recognized leader in the missional movement * Outlines an alternative to the program church model that is focused on the projects and passions of the congregants This book draws on McNeal's twenty years of leadership roles in local congregations and his work over the last decade with thousands of clergy and church leaders.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Praise Page

Title Page

Copyright

Leadership Network Titles

Dedication

Series Page

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1: “Let There Be … Missional Communities”

Church as Congregation

The Post-Congregational Era

Taking a Page from Our Past … for the Future

Chapter 2: The Missional Church Conversation

The Missional Church

Church as Missional Community

The Stories

Chapter 3: Missional Communities—European Style

Key Definitions

The Four Spaces—Anthropology and Church Practice

Missional Community Formation and Rhythm

Speaking of Leadership

Valgmenighed Church—Aarhus Denmark

The British Are Coming

Chapter 4: Soma Communities: Missional Communities as Organizing Architecture

Missional Community Definitions

Soma Life—An Example

Soma Communities Leadership

What's Next?

Chapter 5: Campus Renewal UT: Missional Communities as Campus Evangelism Strategy

Fifteen Years Later

Missional Communities Take Off

Spark Groups

The Longhorn Chronicles

Contextualization

The Longhorn Chronicles—Personal Edition

Chapter 6: Future Travelers: Missional Communities as Megachurch Strategy

Austin Stone—Morphing Missional

Community Christian Church—Movementum

Chapter 7: Mission Houston: Missional Communities for Spiritual Formation and Community Transformation

“Houston—We've Got a Problem … and an Opportunity!”

Faithwalking 101

Providing Accountability

The End Game—What's Going On

Chapter 8: Looking Ahead

Missional Communities Won't Develop as Plug-and-Play Applications

Some Issues Will Need to Be Explored Further in the Days Ahead

Getting Started

About the Author

Index

Other Books by Reggie McNeal

Praise for Missional Communities

Once again, Reggie McNeal proclaims what too few have intuited: that God's Spirit is blowing in a new direction like a hurricane headwind. It is a gale force that we can lean against, be rolled by, or ride to new heights. Thank God, we have Reggie to show us how the church can once more ‘mount up with wings as eagles.’

—Charles Anderson, directing pastor, University United Methodist Church, San Antonio, TX

Every uncharted territory requires a guide that has seen the other side of the mountain. In Missional Communities Reggie serves as that guide who introduces you to the people, practices, and scorecard of this fresh growth plate of the kingdom.

—Eric Swanson, coauthor, The Externally Focused Quest and To Transform a City

Reggie is an iconoclast. His ideas and vision break open our sense of what it means to ‘be’ and ‘do’ church. If you love God and believe in the future of the church you will read this book.

—Rev. Chip Edens, rector, Christ Church, Charlotte, NC

Once again, Reggie McNeal has been reading my mind! He has given voice to those of us who dream of a church that is not just a conspiracy of strangers but a redemptive community on a mission for God. For those who dare to make the journey this book provides some invaluable navigational charts for how to get there.

—Gary Brandenburg, lead pastor, Fellowship Bible Church Dallas, Dallas, TX

Classic Reggie McNeal! An in-your-face prophetic wake-up call that congregational ministry business as usual is not going to get the job done in days ahead. But he gives us hope that we can make the change as he reports on how post-congregational ministry is being effective.

—Buford Lipscomb, senior pastor, Liberty Church, Pensacola, FL

Our staff team at Christ Fellowship has been deeply impacted by the challenges and thinking of Reggie McNeal. He has served us by helping us think beyond ourselves, reminding us that true community results in mission and continually bringing us back to the glorious mission of Jesus.

—Eric Geiger, Christ Fellowship, Miami, FL

Copyright © 2011 by Reggie McNeal. All rights reserved.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

McNeal, Reggie.

Missional communities : the rise of the post-congregational church / Reggie McNeal.—1st ed.

p. cm.— (Jossey-Bass leadership network series ; 55)

Includes index.

ISBN 978-0-470-63345-8 (hardback); 978-1-118-10758-4 (ebk); 978-1-118-10759-1 (ebk); 978-1-118-10760-7 (ebk)

1. Church development, New. 2. Church. 3. Church renewal. 4. Postmodernism— Religious aspects—Christianity. 5. Christianity—Forecasting. I. Title.

BV652.24.M38 2011

266—dc23

2011021311

Leadership Network Titles

The Blogging Church: Sharing the Story of Your Church Through Blogs, Brian Bailey and Terry Storch

Church Turned Inside Out: A Guide for Designers, Refiners, and Re-Aligners, Linda Bergquist and Allan Karr

Leading from the Second Chair: Serving Your Church, Fulfilling Your Role, and Realizing Your Dreams, Mike Bonem and Roger Patterson

Hybrid Church: The Fusion of Intimacy and Impact, Dave Browning

The Way of Jesus: A Journey of Freedom for Pilgrims and Wanderers, Jonathan S. Campbell with Jennifer Campbell

Cracking Your Church's Culture Code: Seven Keys to Unleashing Vision and Inspiration, Samuel R. Chand

Leading the Team-Based Church: How Pastors and Church Staffs Can Grow Together into a Powerful Fellowship of Leaders, George Cladis

Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens, Neil Cole

Church 3.0: Upgrades for the Future of the Church, Neil Cole

Journeys to Significance: Charting a Leadership Course from the Life of Paul, Neil Cole

Off-Road Disciplines: Spiritual Adventures of Missional Leaders, Earl Creps

Reverse Mentoring: How Young Leaders Can Transform the Church and Why We Should Let Them, Earl Creps

Building a Healthy Multi-Ethnic Church: Mandate, Commitments, and Practices of a Diverse Congregation, Mark DeYmaz

Leading Congregational Change Workbook, James H. Furr, Mike Bonem, and Jim Herrington

The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community, Hugh Halter and Matt Smay

Baby Boomers and Beyond: Tapping the Ministry Talents and Passions of Adults over Fifty, Amy Hanson

Leading Congregational Change: A Practical Guide for the Transformational Journey, Jim Herrington, Mike Bonem, and James H. Furr

The Leader's Journey: Accepting the Call to Personal and Congregational Transformation, Jim Herrington, Robert Creech, and Trisha Taylor

Whole Church: Leading from Fragmentation to Engagement, Mel Lawrenz

Culture Shift: Transforming Your Church from the Inside Out, Robert Lewis and Wayne Cordeiro, with Warren Bird

Church Unique: How Missional Leaders Cast Vision, Capture Culture, and Create Movement, Will Mancini

A New Kind of Christian: A Tale of Two Friends on a Spiritual Journey, Brian D. McLaren

The Story We Find Ourselves In: Further Adventures of a New Kind of Christian, Brian D. McLaren

Missional Communities: The Rise of the Post-Congregational Church, Reggie McNeal

Missional Renaissance: Changing the Scorecard for the Church, Reggie McNeal

Practicing Greatness: 7 Disciplines of Extraordinary Spiritual Leaders, Reggie McNeal

The Present Future: Six Tough Questions for the Church, Reggie McNeal

A Work of Heart: Understanding How God Shapes Spiritual Leaders, Reggie McNeal

The Millennium Matrix: Reclaiming the Past, Reframing the Future of the Church, M. Rex Miller

Your Church in Rhythm: The Forgotten Dimensions of Seasons and Cycles, Bruce B. Miller

Shaped by God's Heart: The Passion and Practices of Missional Churches, Milfred Minatrea

The Missional Leader: Equipping Your Church to Reach a Changing World, Alan J. Roxburgh and Fred Romanuk

Missional Map-Making: Skills for Leading in Times of Transition, Alan J. Roxburgh

Relational Intelligence: How Leaders Can Expand Their Influence Through a New Way of Being Smart, Steve Saccone

Viral Churches: Helping Church Planters Become Movement Makers, Ed Stetzer and Warren Bird

The Externally Focused Quest: Becoming the Best Church for the Community, Eric Swanson and Rick Rusaw

The Ascent of a Leader: How Ordinary Relationships Develop Extraordinary Character and Influence, Bill Thrall, Bruce McNicol, and Ken McElrath

Beyond Megachurch Myths: What We Can Learn from America's Largest Churches, Scott Thumma and Dave Travis

The Other 80 Percent: Turning Your Church's Spectators into Active Participants, Scott Thumma and Warren Bird

The Elephant in the Boardroom: Speaking the Unspoken About Pastoral Transitions, Carolyn Weese and J. Russell Crabtree

To all the pioneers in the missional community movement

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Foreword

Exhausted, jaded, and vowing never to return to leading another consumeristic church expression, my family and two other families moved to Denver to start a missions community … a missional community. As we spent 90 percent of our time and every Sunday with lost people, we stumbled into a story that not only surprised us but also forced us to rethink everything. Eventually another church just happened without our trying to start one!

At first it wasn't about reaching the lost. It was about recovering our own hearts. We wanted to find rhythms of life that were fun, made sense, and were easy to invite others into. As we tried to make the Kingdom tangible to ourselves, we found many disoriented saints and sinners who found our home their home, who followed us in mission, and who found the God we were reorienting our lives around.

At the time, we didn't have any language for it. We had not developed any concepts for reproducing it and we were sure we were the only crazy people sniffing a new fragrance of Kingdom church. All we knew was that it felt right and we were grateful that God had wooed us into his original design.

Imagine what it would be like if our world were like the rest of the world. Maybe like communist China where the largest Christian movement in history is still happening under our noses without all the bells and whistles of paid staff or church buildings. Maybe like postearthquake Japan, where entire churches were leveled and where God's people have to rearrange everything just to stay together. Be it financial disasters, constant war, or a big hole in the ocean floor leaking thousands of gallons of oil into the Gulf, someday soon, people won't just load up the family in a minivan for a twenty-minute drive across town to hear the preacher encourage them for the week. Someday soon, people are going to be desperate for a few friends in their own neighborhood to huddle around scripture, mission, and life.

Missional community is exactly what would happen if we had to be real Christians. And we may be getting there sooner than we think.

Regardless of the form of church in which you now participate, Reggie McNeal is helping all of us get ahead of a conversation God is now having with the whole church. No, this book isn't about organic church or house church or telling you to go small. This book is about going big by returning to our base nature, our primal function, and the most substantive substructure of New Testament church … the missional community.

Unlike most prophets who frustrate open-hearted leaders with concepts and ecclesial configurations that leave you without any tangible way to proceed, Reggie pulls the curtains back and flings open practitioner-based windows of real people in real life cities and suburbs. As he does so, you'll feel the fresh air of hope and you'll have more of a sense of where and how to go with these ideas.

Missional community is not a threat to traditional churches or theology unless you're only in it for yourself, unless you want to remain mired in the mud of consumer church, or unless you wish to continue creating disciples of the world instead of disciples of Jesus. This book is for Kingdom leaders who want to be a part of the systemic transformation of the church!

Although you'll be pushed, Reggie will inspire you to throw your hat into the ring with thousands who courageously experiment, improve, and add their story to the Kingdom mosaic God is artistically arranging.

Hugh Halter

Acknowledgments

Every book published represents a collaborative effort to differing degrees. In this case, with the heart of the book being a collection of stories, I am indebted to a bunch of people whose work I chronicle. Mike Breen of 3D Ministries, Rich Robinson of St. Thomas Philadelphia and Tom Finnemore of St. Thomas Crookes made the telling of the St. Thomas Sheffield experience possible. Sune Andersen brought me up to speed on the developments in Aarhus. Caesar Kalinowski served as host and narrator for my trip to experience Soma Communities. Justin Christopher was my field guide at the University of Texas at Austin, putting together my tour there and securing notes from student leaders Jenny Dietz, Peter Schulte, Raul Garcia, and Rachel Alvarez. My friend Alan Hirsch contributed the introduction and background for Future Travelers. Michael “Stew” Stewart and Todd Engstrom provided commentary for the Austin Stone missional community journey. Eric Metcalf pulled together the Community Christian team—including Dave Ferguson, Pat Masek, Carter Moss, Kim Hammond, and Kirsten Strand. Jim Herrington and Steve Capper brought me up to speed with their work at Mission Houston. Hugh Halter set the whole book up with a wonderful foreword. The eager and generous response of these leaders reflects the passion that characterizes the missional communities movement.

Of course, getting stories into print requires a publisher. The crack team of Sheryl Fullerton (my editor now on our third book together), Alison Knowles, and Joanne Clapp Fullagar at Jossey-Bass make this part easy (well—at least for me!).

The publishing team at Leadership Network are not just colleagues but friends. Mark Sweeney (thanks for believing), Greg Ligon, and Stephanie Plagens form an awesome trinity of talent and strategy for our multiple publishing series.

The people we do life with, our missional community, read each chapter and gave thoughtful feedback. I owe them much more than editorial appreciation. They are an ongoing source of joy and encouragement.

Finally, no author has a more raving fan than I do. Cathy, you keep me going in every way.

Introduction

Toward the end of Missional Renaissance, published by Jossey-Bass in 2009, I made the following assertion: “I have argued that we must expand the bandwidth of what forms church should take, including many noninstitutional expressions…. [F]orms of missional communities are developing and will have their own appeal. Instead of excoriating these developments, why not champion them?” Although I was confident in my prediction I have been caught off guard by how quickly the development of this alternative church form is taking off. Church as missional community has arrived. And it is here to stay.

In retrospect I should not be surprised. Almost a decade ago, in The Present Future, I talked about the emergence of post-congregationalist Christians as a significant and growing phenomenon affecting church attendance. At that time, I quoted David Barrett, author of the World Christian Encyclopedia, who estimated there are about 112 million “churchless Christians” worldwide, about 5 percent of all adherents, but he projects that number will double in the next twenty years! These post-congregational Christians are people who, for a variety of reasons, choose to pursue their spiritual journey outside the routines and rhythms of the congregational model of church that has dominated the church landscape for centuries. This development, coupled with the growing eclectic street spirituality in our culture, has created ripe conditions to produce and to nurture a new life form. It is a concept of church that intersects people in the middle of life—in their homes, their workplaces, their leisure pursuits, and their passions to help others.

Missional communities are not clergy dependent; they have a rhythm that is unique to them and express themselves in ways that reflect the life in their center. They grow in habitats beyond the reach of the institutional church, in environments that will not sustain the traditional practices of church. Missional communities are not focused on their corporate vision. They don't implore their members for support. They have no life beyond the life of the people who constitute the community.

Typically missional communities have no buildings to maintain and, in many cases, no clergy to support. Their scorecard is simple—are people of the community experiencing the abundant life Jesus promised and are they sharing it with others? Loving God and loving their neighbor, loving God by loving their neighbor—these are the rails that the missional community runs on.

The rhythms of missional communities differ from the artificial every-seven-days life and business cycle of the congregational and programmatic modality of church. The “whens” and “whats” of the community are established by the lifestyles and life interests of the people who comprise the community, not the other way around. There is no sense of necessity that everything must be done every week. A more organic view prevails—one of seasons, not clocks.

The disciplines of missional communities can also differ sharply from traditional church practice. The institutional church, with its goal of participation, helps people develop the disciplines of attendance and giving and serving the church. Privatized disciplines such as prayer, fasting, and scripture reading are encouraged but not necessary to sustain the program-based congregation. Missional communities, however, have maturation as their end game—developing people who are increasingly identifiable as followers of Jesus. Communal practice and personal formation are intertwined because each person expresses the life of the community incarnated in him or her. Disciplines of generosity, service, transparency, compassion, and grace—these are the necessary commitments to build and to sustain community.

Only a distorted or incomplete understanding of what missional community is would cause someone to determine that church in this form is less demanding and more self-centered than traditional church. In fact, just the opposite can be argued. The consumerist model of program church typically requires only that its members support it. And, as long as the program delivers what they want and expect, people will. In addition, being a church member doesn't require getting along with or having to like other members. However, being community carries with it the prerequisite of dealing with the others in community, working through differences. Being in community requires a commitment for a person to journey beyond self.

Missional community is a different expression of church than its congregational cousin. It differs in its rhythm, celebrations, activities, and scorecard. It is not for everyone, nor is it the replacement of centuries of church practice. But it is a growing phenomenon and these pages are dedicated to telling part of its story.

To help you gain a feel for what I am talking about I have chosen a range of missional community expressions and practices. Each chapter will detail one way some people are practicing missional community. The settings range from Europe to North America, from suburb to city to college campus, from neighborhood to workplace. The idea is not just to inform you but to excite your imagination. Some of you who are reading this want to explore this way of being church for yourself, your family, and your friends. This should help you get started, maybe even to figure out a distinctive way of doing missional community by combining various elements of the approaches presented in this book. Others of you are leaders of churches who are gaining a greater sense of call to be a missional strategist, not just an institutional manager. You might discover in these pages a way forward to exponentially increase your “reach” in your city or town while carrying on your traditional churching practices.

Some of you are reading to find out what's wrong with this, searching for data to bolster your arguments aimed at protecting and defending the traditional church against this development. I hope you will read with an open mind. Don't confuse your psychological needs—for control, order, and security—with theology. The way of being church in the world began to shift in the book of Acts and carries on into today. Just because you can't find your way by adopting this way does not mean others who do aren't following The Way.

Before we begin our visits to various missional communities, it will help to know what we are looking at and what we are looking for. That's a good place to begin.

Chapter 1

“Let There Be … Missional Communities”

The e-mails come every week or so. They usually begin with something like: “I feel called to start a church but I don't want to replicate the existing model.” Maybe they are a bit more specific: “The church plant I have in mind doesn't center on a worship service; it functions more like a network of people engaged in serving the community.” Often the e-mailers are not clergy; they are frustrated church members. They say something like, “I am just not happy any more being a religious consumer—I want to get outside the walls of the church.” Or, “I am tired of just doing church over and over; shouldn't we be paying more attention to what we do with the rest of our week?” Then typically the senders raise a question: “Do you know of anyone else thinking like this?”

Yes, I do. Thousands, actually. And they are doing something about it.

We are witnessing the rise of a new life form in the taxonomy of the North American church. Though it contains the DNA of the movement that Jesus founded, its expression is different from the institutional church that has developed over the centuries. It is church in a new way for a new day—our day—a period that can be described as the post-congregational era of Christianity. This new church life form is the missional community.

There you have it! This is the essence of the book's message. Rather than making you wait to get the point—here it is, up-front. Perhaps now that you know, you'd rather not read any further—this phenomenon doesn't interest you. But if you want to know more, perhaps even explore your own possible involvement, by all means read on.

The heart of this book is the telling of stories about some of the various approaches to these new missional communities. Each story is different, illustrating a fresh chapter in God's work in and through the church. By showing you some early iterations of missional communities, my hope is that your own imagination will be excited, possibly to the point of your trying your own hand at it!

In many ways the rise of missional communities takes the church back to its early days, when it was a movement, before it became church-as-we-know-it. Before it became church as congregation.

Church as Congregation

For most of Christian history congregations have served as gathering places where geographically approximate adherents could practice their faith. It was not always this way.

For most of its first three centuries Christianity was mainly a street movement, a marketplace phenomenon that spread through slave populations and social guilds of free laborers. Gatherings of adherents took place primarily in homes and some suitable public places, convening primarily for fellowship, teaching, and worship. However, the gatherings were not the point or focus of Jesus-follower spirituality. Christianity was primarily a practice, a way of life.

Love of God and love of neighbor meant adopting a life of sacrificial service that distinguished followers of Jesus as a counter-cultural force, differentiated from those around them by the character of their lives. Early believers rescued babies (especially girls) abandoned by Roman households. They stayed behind to tend to the sick people when plagues drove the population out of the cities. In other words, Jesus followers demonstrated allegiance to Jesus primarily when they were away from their gatherings, engaged in lives that typically and routinely intersected with and included non-Jesus followers. The church represented a lifestyle that was radically different from its cultural surroundings but radically committed to the well-being of the people in the culture.

Along the way, though, this orientation changed. The church movement became domesticated. The imperial edict by Constantine is usually blamed but a shift was already under way with the rise of a clergy class. These two forces—the need to create a state religion and a clergy eager to comply—combined to centralize and institutionalize the Christian movement. The church congregationalized. This move profoundly altered its way of being in the world.

The idea of adherents gathering together as the central practice of the faith gained ascendancy when the church settled down into a religion dominated by clergy. Church as congregation developed the expectation that people would demonstrate their devotion to the faith by participating in congregational activity, which centrally involved the worship service. Rather than a lifestyle of counter-cultural sacrificial love of neighbor, adherence to “the faith” became centered on assenting to a set of doctrinal beliefs. Christianity became defined as a set of theological propositions rather than a way of life.

The ensuing schism between belief and practice promoted a sacred-secular dichotomy that greatly influenced the nature of congregational life as something distinct from the rest of life. Church became a “sacred place” where specific religious acts were performed. The congregation served as home base for Jesus followers, a sort of refuge, effectively pulling the church off the streets. Loyalty to Christ was measured by one's participation in congregational activity. In exchange for this support the church provided religious goods and services to its “members.” The “member culture” would eventually give rise to a culture of competition, as congregations vied for the affection and financial support of existing and potential customers.