7 minute read
Exploring Your Missional Work
by Trent Grable, Director of Strategy & Leadership Development
—Rob Wegner, "Missional Moves: 15 Tectonic Shifts that Transform Churches, Communities, and the World"
While the spiritual and Christ-like foundational training of our work tends to be well codified, the individual callings of our members often take different, more exploratory developmental paths. Often, we can look at the missions, callings, and expressions across the church to find our own individual expression, but each missional expression is unique, and requires the body member to lean into their own walk, their own calling.
At its most fundamental level, the church exists to fulfill the mission God gave to his people, to be living representations of the redemptive, dead-raising work of God. At times, however, the procedures and practices of the church have become the focus of our activities. We mistake rituals for mission and habits for commission. We use the word “church” to describe a building, sometimes inadvertently confining the whole of our calling into the limits of our walls. It has become harder to focus on our mission when so much of what we do, measure, and train for is just a part of that mission. We have been disproportionally equipped for worship services (and other types of gatherings) over and above discipleship and evangelism. Worship gatherings, for example, often become a mission in themselves. We must remind ourselves, however, that we do not forsake gatherings because it is within the meetings of our saints that the mission, and our equipping for the mission, is refined. We do not gather to merely gather, we gather so that we may be developed, equipped, and then sent, so that the mission may be fulfilled. The saints have work to do.
How then do we prepare the saints for their work? First, there are foundational elements of preparation that apply to all saints in all their various capacities. This general equipping has been a focus of the church for many years; helping the body develop into the image and likeness of Christ. Second, there are unique attributes and needs for each member of the body - unique to them, unique to their mission field, and unique to their calling. Each job in an organization, or player on a sports team, requires core competencies to perform and thrive in that venue, but also requires specific leverage they can apply as contribution to their venture and to the success of their mission. Likewise, the church thrives when all members both 1) express Christ-like characteristics and 2) actively contribute to their specific missional expression. The church with only teachers is as effective, and as inviting, as an organization with only accountants.
One of the guiding values of the CGGC is Total Participation, “because we are all qualified and commissioned to make disciples.” While we prescribe the mission, there is no prescription for how that must or should be done. Because, ultimately, processes and operations are merely the engines through which the mission is delivered. For instance, if my mission is to ‘feed my family well’ then there is no set process on how to accomplish this. Feeding my family either tacos or stir-fry would accomplish the mission. Even if my family has a preference towards one or the other, so long as the meal is good, and the family eats, then we need not question the process. The style of food is almost inconsequential, precisely because both could have done the job, and done it well. They are not kitchen enemies, and we do not have to hate tacos to adore stir-fry. They are two equally tasty ways to fulfill our mission.
As we think about total participation of the church, we limit our missional reach by convoluting mission and process. They are interconnected, absolutely, but not the same. The “mission” is what our “goal” is, the “process” is how we go about our “mission”. The mission is rigid. The process is flexible. We must refrain from making the process the mission, and the mission the process. Otherwise, we alienate and disengage an eager range of missional saints who see their mission, their calling, or their leverage outside the bounds of current operations. A more inclusive, and potentially healthier, way to view their expressions is the missional impact of their work, not the alignment with any particular process. Doing so allows us to build congregations of multiple missional expressions, united in our redemptive mission, but able to leverage all spiritually lead members of the body to do good work.
As we disciple and coach our emerging leaders through their own expressions, here are some ways we can think about their exploration:
Missional Scope: An exploring disciple maker doesn’t need full control over every aspect of your congregation to explore. There will always be areas of the community that are less refined or less critical for established missions. Find these areas of lessoned impact where mistakes matter less that allow people to lean into, experiment with, and explore their gifts. Then, once the calling shows fruit, the disciple maker can be moved into a more impactful mission field, or, indeed, you may find that they have crafted their own.
Missional Calling: A hard concept for many, good-natured disciple makers to understand is this: your mission is not necessarily other folk’s mission. Your calling for medical missions or the neighborhood hungry won’t mean as much to those called to business as missions. Their passion and calling elsewhere does not invalidate your calling, nor should your calling invalidate theirs. Finding space for every member to be edified and validated in their missional expression helps all members play their God given roles and allows for cross-pollination of good works. If someone feels called toward a mission not your own, find ways (and maybe even fresh mentors) to encourage and guide that expression.
Missional Action: Different mission fields require different methods of engagement. If your developing disciple maker thinks they know a good way to engage (and their wisdom, logic, and spirt leadings are sound) allow them latitude to make those calls. Again, they don’t have to decide what the entire congregation has to do within a particular mission field, but allowing them appropriate levels of authority (and likewise accountability) within their own missional space allows them to make that particular missional expression their own.
Missional Auditing: At the end of the day, there will be lots of folks who claim to be called to mission fields that we just don’t see. This is where congregational eldership and wisdom come in. Accountability and governance of various missional expressions of the congregation are good ways to make sure that Christlikness is being developed in leadership, missional expressions are bearing fruit, and congregational resources are being appropriately allocated. This is a wonderful opportunity to share the outcome of healthy missional expressions while allowing decision makers to find their unique callings to make their mission a reality. Elders should be the first supporters for emerging decision makers who are ready to lean into their callings.
