What is the Missional Church?

Characteristics of a Missional Church- Keller

Church Purpose & Philosophy -Part 1

We are a church that holds to missionary posture not only for the world, but also for our city!

We function as missionaries to our communities and city, creating and cultivating faith communities in various sub cultures and people groups throughout the city. We are a missional church and people committed to the proclamation and incarnation of the gospel to and through culture.

We are a church that is re-positioning herself as the sent people of God, taking up apostolic-missionary roles within the body Christ, to equip believers and establish faith communities and churches.

•We hold to a missional identity: We see the church as the sent people of God to declare and demonstrate God’s righteousness for all peoples of the earth. We find continuity between the church and Israel, in their election and calling to serve as a light to the nations. We are the people continuing in the redemptive narrative of God’s people on earth.

• We apply missiological principles to our local community: We are not content in fulfilling the great commission in Mt. 28, by sending money to Africa, rather we will want to help start a church in an African Refugee community right in our own city. We commit to using similar terms, principles, and practices that are common to theology of missions, which is known as missiology.

• We embrace a missional theology: We believe that missional theology should be rooted to the Trinity. Mission is woven into the character and nature of God himself. Within the trinity, we see that God sent his son, (cf John 3:16). The Father and the son send the spirit, (cf. John 14, and Acts 2). Finally, we see that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit send us, his people, to proclaim the message of the kingdom.

5 Habits of Movement Minded Leaders

taken from "The Forgotten Ways Handbook p.145" - A Practical Guide for Developing Missional Churches.

1.Continually seek to transform vision into a movement focus and feel

2.Strategically structure organically for reproducibility

3.Creates a culture of permission to dream, try new things & experiment.

4.Calls followers to a covenantal requirement for every person, group or church to regularly multiple their ministry for greater influence.

5.Has accurately applied the appropriate management style that best fits the culture and context in which the leader is working.

Resource http://www.theforgottenways.org/

Our Missional Approach

Side Door Assimilation
If we as a church will own our vision statement: Love One. Love All. We won’t try to open the door of the church wider; rather we will open more doors in various communities around the city.

reaching a diverse people of various culture and various needs. This approach fosters flexibility, creativity and contextualization of the gospel, making the message more relevant within each cultural community. This idea is not new rather it is ancient. It is a basic missionary principle that our church holds to at the core of its philosophy. We believe that more and more people today want to experience or witness Christian community without having to join the public worship celebration first.

In light of our cultural experience, and a biblical mandate to make disciples, we as a people of God see value in extending the gospel in multiple avenues, empowering Christians to extend gospel within both small and medium sized communities throughout our city. We recognize that the traditional worship celebration may as well be the first step for the unchurched; therefore we will in time establish a weekly worship service on Sunday mornings for the purpose of Exaltation of Christ, through the preaching of his word, communion for believers, worship and baptism.

This organic approach allows our church body to engage their neighbors, at multiple levels. This model pushes our church leadership to focus on Leadership Development, Equipping Christians to Establish Communities.

This model is a missional model for churches. It’s not the model but a model. There are many other forms but we are choosing this way to keep or structures a little more decentralized than your typical church and more flexible to increase our member participation and upping the Ante on how to do church. We are empowering ordinary people to be pastors to their neighborhoods and spheres of influence. We are talking the church to our culture.

The advantages are many. To name one, this model increases access and opportunity for un-churched/un-believers to see and experience the gospel in the context of community. The un-churched are able to more quickly and organically assimilate into a community of believers, which in reality increases their likelihood of sticking around and growing in their faith.

Vision: Love One. Love All

Bob Marley echoes what Jesus pointed out as the most two important truths in all of scripture. I am so refreshed with Jesus teaching. In fact, I believe we we need not only look to the pastoral epistles to form our ecclesiology, but the gospels as well!

At Imago Dei Community Church our vision comes from Jesus' simple and profound statement to "Love one and to Love All." He is the Head of the Church.

LOVE ONE.When Jesus was asked to name the greatest commandment, He replied that God is one, and is to be loved with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. We believe this is the ultimate priority of every person, to discover and foster an exclusive love relationship with God. (Deut 6:5, Joshua 22.5, Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30, Luke 10:27)

LOVE ALL. Jesus continued his answer by saying that the second greatest commandment is to love your neighbor. We interpret this to mean everyone; that dignity and worth transcend beliefs, lifestyles and demographics. (Matthew 22:38, Luke 10:25-37)