|
Listen
|
Our HeartVision family is based on a Missional Community. We find a definition for this in Wikipedia: A Missional community is a group of people, about the size of an extended family, who are united through Christian community around a common service and witness to a particular neighborhood or network of relationships. The Missional Community doesn’t exist for anything less than making disciples of Jesus among these networks or neighborhoods. The participants of missional communities find their primary identity of “church” within the missional community, rather than a larger worship service or small group. In essence, this group of people becomes a close-knit spiritual family on mission together.[i]
Our Mission is to make and grow disciples through the spread of the gospel. Matthew 28:19-20 (KJV). Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. This scripture also calls attention to the Missio Dei (God’s mission):
Background:[i]
Missional Communities emerged in England in the mid-1990s, primarily through the experimenting of the St. Thomas Crookes church in Sheffield. Although they were first experimented within inner city London in the late 1980s, they became more fully formed
when Mike Breen became the senior pastor of St. Thomas’ Sheffield in 1994. They were described as being multiplying missionary congregations and called ‘Clusters’. The focus of the Clusters was on a group of Christians operating as a community together in mission., pulvinar dapibus leo.
A Typical Gathering:[i]
- Food – Share a meal
- Socialize and laugh
- Sharing Communion
- Sharing what God has done
- Praise and worship to God
- Offering prayer for healing
- Encouragement
- Studying the Scriptures
- Praying for the community
- Planning events
“Disciple making Residency”:
Pastor Jeff Vanderstelt puts it like this: They were in a disciple making residency with Jesus. After the disciples had spent time watching, learning, and practicing under Jesus’s watchful eye, he sent them out to begin to practice what he had taught them. He did not send them out alone; they went together. Then they returned and reported to Jesus what they had experienced. All did not go perfectly. So, he trained them in the areas of their weaknesses and failures. He did this kind of ongoing training with them for more than three years. As a result, when he finally ascended to heaven, they had been prepared to fulfill the mission. The best training for mission happens while on mission.
Mike Breen explains that as a Missional Community we have three dimensions of our Missional Community relationships: [iii]
UP: Our relationship with God. In Luke 6:12, we see Jesus spending time in prayer. In the midst of so much he could be doing, Jesus took time to pray to His Father. This shows how strong and how important Jesus considered his relationship to God.
IN: Our relationship with other Christians, especially those we are discipling. In Luke 6:13-16, we see Jesus calling the apostles into a discipling relationship with him. They were going to spend a lot of time with him and be trained by him.
OUT: Our relationship with the world, that is, with those outside the Kingdom of God. Jesus obviously did not live blocked off from people who weren’t good, synagogue-attending Jews. He went out into the world and worked to touch people’s lives with the Kingdom of God. We see this in Luke 6:17-19.
God invites every Christian to be on mission daily. May you always look for an opportunity to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
We Love you
Pastors Willie and Rochelle McIntosh
On Mission Every Day. Join us
- Learn the Word by reading our weekly blog.
- Write a comment, join us on social media or zoom meeting every Sunday at 2:30pm ET except the 2nd Sunday at 6:00PM (day subject to change).
- Do you need Prayer? Have questions? We can be reached at [email protected]
References:
[i] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missional_community
[ii] https://www.jeffvanderstelt.com/blog/year/day/month/what-is-a-missional-community
[iii]Mike Breen’s Building a Discipling Culture: Deeper Relationships (Chapter 7) – Thinking and Believing (micahcobb.com)
Bibliography:
Restoring Your Community with Missional Communities, Verge Networks
Launching Missional Communities, Breen, Mike; Alex Absalom
Leading Missional Communities Kindle Edition by Mike Breen
Building a Discipling Culture Kindle Edition by Mike Breen
Cultivating a Life for God, Neil Cole
Total Church, Chester, Tim; Timmis, Steve (2008-08-21). Total Church: A Radical Reshaping around Gospel and Community
Invitation to World Missions: A Trinitarian Missiology for the Twenty-first Century (Invitation to Theological Studies Series) Kindle Edition by Dr. Timothy Tennent (Author)
The Gospel in a Pluralist Society Kindle Edition by Lesslie Newbigin
4 Ways to Keep Millennials in Your Small Groups, http://www.smallgroups.com/articles/2015/4-ways-to-keep-millennials-in-your-small-groups.html?start=2
What is a Missional Community? (Jeff Vanderstelt – YouTube)
https://youtu.be/_0c4n_eOCAc?si=IbcLVTAbTCaf9TvY
Missional Community Film: Renovation Church | FILMS (YouTube)
https://youtu.be/bv9sMsGYgsM?si=mLgh3lurXIQFS5b_
