Exploring the Missional Church

1. I began a sermon series this past Sunday exploring the meaning and purpose of a Missional church and will be asking several questions over the next few weeks to determine what mission God is sending our “little German church on” in the future?  Here is a definition of Missional by Rick Meigs that I used in my sermon on August 9th.  
   
   What is Missional - A Short Answer
   
   "Jesus told us to go into all the world and be his ambassadors, but many churches today have inadvertently changed the "go and be" command to a "come and see" appeal. We have grown attached to buildings, programs, staff and a wide variety of goods and services designed to attract and entertain people.
   
   "Missional is a helpful term used to describe what happens when you and I replace the "come to us" invitations with a "go to them" life. A life where "the way of Jesus" informs and radically transforms our existence to one wholly focused on sacrificially living for him and others and where we adopt a missionary stance in relation to our culture. It speaks of the very nature of the Jesus follower."   ---  Rick Meigs   
   
   The website http://www.friendofmissional.org/ has created a list of what is Missional that you will find below. 
   
   The missional church is a collection of missional believers acting in concert together in fulfillment of the mission of God
   
   The missional church is one where people are exploring and rediscovering what it means to be Jesus' sent people as their identity and vocation.
   
   The missional church will be engaged with the culture (in the world) without being absorbed by the culture (not of the world). They will become intentionally indigenous.
   
   The missional church understands that God is already present in the culture where it finds itself. Therefore, the missional church doesn't view its purpose as bringing God into the culture or taking individuals out of the culture to a sacred space.
   
   The missional church is about being -- being conformed to the image of God.
   
   The missional church is evangelistic and faithfully proclaims the gospel through word and deed. Words alone are not sufficient; how the gospel is embodied in our community and service is as important as what we say.
   
   The missional church understands the power of the gospel and does not lose confidence in it.
   
   The missional church recognizes that it does not hold a place of honor in its host community and that its missional imperative compels it to move out from itself into that host community as salt and light.
   
   The missional church seeks to put the good of their neighbor over their own.
   
   The missional church practices hospitality by welcoming the stranger into the midst of the community.
   
   The missional church will see themselves as representatives of Jesus and will do nothing to dishonor his name.
   
   The missional church will be totally reliant on God in all it does. It will move beyond superficial faith to a life of supernatural living.
   
   The missional church will be desperately dependent on prayer.
   
   The missional church gathered will be for the purpose of worship, encouragement, supplemental teaching, training, and to seek God's presence and to be realigned with God's missionary purpose.
   
   The missional church will feed deeply on the scriptures throughout the week.
   
   The missional church will be a community where all members are involved in learning "the way of Jesus." Spiritual development is an expectation.
   
   The missional church will help people discover and develop their spiritual gifts and will rely on gifted people for ministry instead of talented people.
   
   The missional church is a healing community where people carry each other's burdens and help restore gently.
   
   The missional church will requires that its leaders be missiologists.
   
   Based on the definition and description what are some ways that we can be Missional?