I have the TCC People List on this Excel document. We have 76 people who call Tempe City Church their church community. Currently, we are batting a thousand with 76 people in a Missional Community. Not bad! That would earn us high marks on our Missional Report Card.
But here is the question Kevin and I were wrestling with yesterday: Are you simply in a Missional Community or are you in missional community?
Marks of Simply being in a Missional Community:
- Your name is on a list.
- You attend a weekly meeting, putting your 2 hours in.
- You think “they” should do things differently.
- The people in the MC are your “Church/Christian Friends”.
Marks of being in missional community:
- You are intentionally reorienting your life around your community and mission.
- You find yourself processing life through the lens of “we” not “I”.
- You think “we” must do ____ differently in light of the gospel event.
- The people in the MC are your Family.
Let us never allow the form to excuse us from the function. The form of the Missional Community is good. Yet, if it excuses us from really pressing into the function of living a life centered on the gospel in community on mission, what use is it?
December 22, 2008 at 5:01 pm
i feel like i’m in missional community (the second option). heres one example: i was supposed to be at the senums at 630pm this past friday but i fell asleep. at 7pm i woke up to a simultaneous text barrage by everybody in my mc that was at the senums asking me where i’m at. as i’m frantically getting ready to zoom on down there i get a text from barb that said ‘what the schizz’. we watched elf, tied up on logistics with the adopt a family and me and the senums went christmas light lookin’ til midnight.
and thats just one fun example not withstanding all the points that i think we hit.
<
December 31, 2008 at 9:31 am
[...] what’s running through my mind this AM- Are we a Missional Community (a community on mission) OR do we go to a missional community (show up … Just for a refresher “A missional community is a core of people who are being transformed by [...]
January 7, 2009 at 5:16 am
[...] Missional Communities We need to ask the question, “Am I in missional community, or just in a Missional Community?” If you just have your name on the list and show up once a week, you will miss out on what we are [...]