Simply Missional
Published: October 27, 2008
Dell Computers has shattered the warehouse myth. Most companies love big warehouses. They feel safe with lots of inventory on large shelves in massive warehouses, always ready for that next order. In their minds, the well-stocked warehouse confirms the belief they will always be able to meet customer demands and customer expectations.
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Dell disagrees with the warehouse approach. In the technology business, the product literally rots in value on the shelves. Because Dell does not want their best resources on the shelves, they only keep two hours of inventory. Which means that if you order a PC on dell.com, the parts will not arrive to Dell until two hours before your PC is shipped to you.
Dell wants their resources out there, on the street. Not in the warehouse, where the resources merely gather dust and produce no impact. So Dell has designed a very strategic process to move their resources to the street.
Sadly many churches are betting their futures on the warehouse myth.
Most churches build big warehouses and shelve a bunch of Christians (those rows look suspiciously like shelves). They design attractive programs to "retain" people in the sacred warehouse, keep precise records of how much inventory (people) is on the shelves, and brag about their warehouses being constantly open. And warehouse managers love to show other warehouse managers their newest warehouses while dreaming together of bigger and better warehouses.
God is calling churches to shatter the warehouse myth, to change their warehouses into strategic distribution centers, where people are distributed as salt and light to the world--sending them out on mission. Some churches are strategically challenging their people to be out there, and these churches have a strategic and simple process that moves people from the warehouse to the street. These churches are simple and missional.
They are simply missional.
We are often asked if there is a relationship between our two books Breaking the Missional Code and Simple Church, co-authored with David Putman and Thom S. Rainer respectively. Is there a relationship between a church being missional and a church being simple?
If you have not read our two books, here is the elevator conversation: Breaking the Missional Code helps leaders effectively exegete their culture so they can live on mission as a Biblically faithful and strategically contextualized congregation, focused on living for God's kingdom. Simple Church challenges church leaders to design a simple discipleship process that places people in the best environments for spiritual transformation, and to remove the clutter and the busyness that competes with the essential.
So is there a relationship between a church being missional and a church being simple? We believe so. Churches that are living as missional communities in their culture are often quite simple. These churches do not rejoice in their complex systems or impressive buildings, but in the micro stories of their members' transformed lives. In the same way, churches that are designed around a simple process are embracing the call to be missionaries in their culture.
As best we see it, the relationship between being missional and being simple is apparent for at least six reasons...
1. Being missional and being simple requires strategic thinking.
While Jesus is the one who builds His church (Matthew 16:18), He has given us responsibility and authority in His mission of redeeming people to Himself. Expressing ownership in the movement of the Church, the apostle Paul says, "I laid a foundation as an expert builder" (I Corinthians 2:10).
An expert builder builds intentionally and strategically. He envisions the completed building, lays out a blueprint for the project, and aligns people and resources to the project. An expert builder would never approach a project haphazardly and without a clear plan.
In both of our books, we challenge leaders to be strategic thinkers. Thinking strategically is not isolated to one aspect of church leadership. Church leaders who think strategically about their community also think strategically about their church.
These leaders do not expect mission to just happen. They prayerfully seek for the best systems and structures that both facilitate and validate effective missional thrust into their communities. It is incumbent upon leaders to think outside the (warehouse) box.
2. Living a missional life is a part of a simple discipleship process.
Jesus' famous words, known as the Great Commission, are often quoted yet also misunderstood in many churches. "Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded" (Matthew 28:19-20).
Many read, "teaching them everything" in Jesus' famous command. But Jesus challenges us to teach people to "obey everything." The end result of discipleship is obedience, not merely information. The test of our ability to disciple people is not how many times we gather people in the warehouse to download more information into their brains. The test of our ability to disciple is how we effectively move people to obey the command of being Christ's witnesses (Acts 1:8).
Many churches believe discipleship equates information. This faulty premise assumes that the only thing lacking is that church folk do not know enough. So when one of these churches seeks to ramp up their "discipleship," they typically look to add another type of curriculum or Bible study structure. Such churches produce a bunch of Bible Study junkies who sit in the warehouse with yet another workbook.
Electricians, mechanics, plumbers, scientists, lawyers, and doctors must practice their trade or profession. Would you want a heart surgeon who had just "studied" the heart to perform surgery on your child? Why do so many think that becoming a disciple can be learned through a workbook? Living the Christian life is not a workbook, it's a life lived.
Churches with a simple process seek to lead people to be doers of the word, not just hearers (James 1:22). Discipleship to these churches is not information, but transformation. And a true disciple is someone who seeks to transform the community around him. Such churches streamline their programming to create space in the lives of their people to live as a disciple/missionary in their community. Too many churches are filled with busy consumers rather than missional disciples.
Leaders of these simply missional churches understand that a broader vision for discipleship must be cast, a vision that results in obedience, not simply knowledge. By instilling in the hearts and minds of their members a paradigm whereby daily they look and listen for the activity of the Holy Spirit and the voice of God as they move through their day, these ordinary citizens are transformed into missionaries, sent from a Kingdom not of this world into a place that is dry and hungry for redemption on every level.
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Simply Missional
Published: October 27, 2008
Ed Stetzer discusses six reasons the relationship between being missional and being simple is apparent for the local church.
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