Go Small, Go Missional
Recently I was at a missional conference and I found myself twitching at what surrounded me. Sure, the theme on the conference flyer said “missional,” but the enterprise of “Bigness” was shouting at me from every direction: big buildings, big personalities, big movements, big stories of catalytic missional churches, big book tables with big stacks of missional how-to books. The team I was with thought it was all a little curious. I find myself increasingly becoming uncomfortable with the narrative being painted. I’m not anti “mega,” but I do think our unchecked passions for “big” are sometimes tangled up more with our cultural measurements than with how God authentically operates. Going “Big” tickles us all, but it has become a diversion from the diagnostics of real-time oikos as the sampling of the Kingdom here on earth.
There Is No Secret Sauce
Are we looking for some leadership secret to catapult our ministries to the next level? In coaching church planters and seasoned pastors, I hear this sentiment between the lines with those considering the missional movement. As a planter forging communities on mission, I’ve had to come to accept there is no secret sauce. Sure, there are some important shifts I’ve had to make and wisdom I’ve gathered along the way. Still, there is no fast track to multiplying missional people. Remember, you’re working with people, not mechanical parts. It’s tempting to think there is a cut-and-paste opportunity within our reach that will open the flood gates.
Think Small, Really Small
Because we want to “take back the city for God,” we overlook the very place the church has become most bankrupt and hollow: community. Reorienting around social and emotional rhythms is not what blows up the charts. The work of teaching, discipling, modeling and practicing shared life might seem so small in comparison to city-wide impact. This is where we need some recovery. In some sense, we’ve taken our cues from Hollywood and Wall Street when it comes to measuring impact and growth. The church needs to pay attention to the tiny details of our “life together” instead of longing for high visibility. For community to be sustainable and nourishing, it needs to be detached from pressured agendas. For far too long, the evangelical church has neglected this sacred space, the living laboratory of community where there is emotional and spiritual rub. This cannot be a hurried space. This hub of our lives needs to become so central that we pay close attention to the way we are with one another. Are we insecure, easily offended, passive aggressive, guarded, posturing, emotionally honest, distant or bitter? Our healthy love is to be one of our greatest prophetic witnesses to the world (John 13). It takes serious, mutual, concerted energy to cultivate this.
