Last week I wrote a blog post about how at The Journey we are increasingly seeing ourselves as missionaries to our city vs. pastors to our church congregation.
In May I wrote about this topic when I discussed what Vince Antonucci had to say about being a Pastor or a Missionary.
Today I want to give you a small glimpse of what that is looking like for us as a church and the unique challenges that creates.
1. Being a missionary to our city means there is a LOT of people to reach. And that won't happen by simply creating a "come to us" church experience. We have to engage the culture and go to where people are at. That's challenging, time consuming, and can be costly.
2. Being a missionary to our city means that we need to step into our city and make it a better place as we earn the right to be heard. Our Journey Networks help to accomplish that, plus they help us engage point #1 as well.
3. Being a missionary to our city means that "established" Christians will often feel uncomfortable in our environments. 65% of our people weren't going to church before they came to The Journey. Many might not know King James Version language, James Dobson, Veggie Tales, Pastor Appreciation Month, or Contemporary Christian Music. They may however smoke, smell like alcohol, be struggling in their marriage, or living together w/no intention of marrying, etc.
4. Because of #3, there is often a lack of leaders to move the mission forward. It takes time for those new to faith to mature, and those who supposedly are "mature" and long-time Christians don't stay around long enough to really be effective in ministry. This also means that as missionaries we have to take a staff team approach and carry a lot of weight. It also means we have to spend huge chunks of relational time discipling new followers.
5. As a missionary outpost to our city vs. a typical church congregation, finances will always be extremely tight and might always need some kind of outside support. We've been fully-funded for a while now, but the reality is that it is always very difficult and to fund the vision that has been placed in our hearts and the vision that can reach the city it probably won't be fully-funded by the 35% of longer term church goers and the 65% of new-to-faith people that our church reaches. We need each of them to do their part, but a missionary outpost will need the support of those passionate about that missionary endeavor or passionate about that city.
There's more, but that's enough for now. There are huge challenges if we're going to truly be a missionary to our city, but it is absolutely worth it! I was reminded of that this past weekend when we baptized 13 adults - most who were not attending church anywhere before they came to The Journey.
P.S. There is no denying that we are missionaries to our increasingly post-Christian culture - the only question is if we'll acknowledge it and begin acting like it.