“a group of people with a common characteristic or interest living together within a larger society.”

I find the above definition to be a great one for community. But I find it much harder to communicate the concept of true and authentic Biblical Missional Community.  I have felt more frustration in my inability to clearly define and describe this concept to people than almost any other concept.

Despite my frustration, I find it an important enough teaching of Christ that I will continue to try and present the idea, and present it with greater clarity.  To do so I plan on using the monthly newsletter for the next few months, as well as many other venues to continually elaborate on the topic of missional community. 

I also will be taking advantage of strategic partnerships with some very well versed friends and trusted ministry organizations to help us as a family to more fully understand and embrace the idea of missional community. 

The toughest hurdle in helping people to differentiate between missional community and a Bible study as we have traditionally known it.

Here is a quote from Jeff Vanderstelt a friend of mine who is a Church Planter who leads Soma Communities, a body of church planting churches in the South Puget Sound are of Washington: 

“The goal of most Bible studies is to study the Bible. We believe the goal of a missional community is to make disciples who make disciples. We clarify that the mission of making disciples with our missional communities will require studying the bible, but often bible studies don’t require that you make disciples.

In fact, our discovery has been that many people have studied the Bible for years and have never led anyone to faith in Jesus, equipped people for ministry and sent out more to do the same. It’s as if we have come to believe that knowing the Bible equals faith in and obedience to God.

Often when I speak to leaders and people who wish we did more bible studies at Soma, I ask them what was the last book of the Bible they studied. Let’s say they’ve respond with “James”.

I then say something like, “That’s great! I’m sure you’re now caring for widows and orphans, visiting the sick, caring for the poor, etc…!” To which I generally hear, “Well no…not really!?” Then, I say, “But I thought you studied James?” “Well, yes, but I’m not necessarily doing that.”

I go on to explain that the intent Jesus has for studying his word is that we would hear it and do it, not just hear it and know it. The next thing I say is: “So how about getting involved in a missional community and doing what you have studied and know for now? In fact, maybe you should practice obeying what you know with some others for a while before you add more biblical knowledge that you will be accountable to obey.”

The missional community is the best environment to study the Bible because it is only in the context of community that you learn to obey what it teaches and it is while on the mission of making disciples that you come to see how powerful God’s word is for bringing about transformation.

So for us at Soma, we call people to obey the mission of Jesus to make disciples; obey what the Bible teaches; grow as effective ministers of the gospel; get on mission with other believers to reach the lost and build up those who know and believe in Jesus. All of this requires that our people go back to the Scriptures over and over again to inform and equip them for all of this.

Doing mission together pushes our people to study the Bible more intently together. In fact, I have found believers’ hunger for and engagement with the Bible only increases the more they exercise obedience to what it says and also need it to teach others to know, love and obey Jesus.” 

I hope these words will be beneficial for all of us in better understanding God’s plan of multiplication through authentic community. 

If you are interested in learning more about Missional Communities then plan on attending the The Well Informational Meeting on Tuesday, December 13^th.

It was a great pleasure to spend an evening eating food at a resteraunt in Kansas City and hear a number of the great minds and voices of the Missional/Incarnational conversation share their thoughts  I was invited by virtue of who I know, not what I know.  These voices included Michael Frost, Alan Hirsch, Mike Breen, Hugh Halter, Kim Hammond and Canada's own Cam Roxburgh.  It was a thrill to hear the discussion and to try and evaluarte  the validity of each thought through the lens of our Leduc context.  This was easier to do with some than with others.  

I was doing some follow up reading of some of these great thinkers and was intrigued by the following thought from Alan Hirsch:

The language in our best theology is that a church exists as a “sign, symbol, and foretaste, of the Kingdom of God."  It’s a scratch-and-smell experience for the people around. When people rub up against the church, a Kingdom aroma should waft from it; they should catch a glimpse of life as God intended it to be lived in the first place. And just so we don’t forget, the reach of the Kingdom of God is not just local; it is regional, universal, in fact it is cosmic in scope. It’s a big purpose and thinking about it in this way changes the game.

I love the picture of the scratch and smell experience for the people around us.  I would love to know what the general thought is for people who have rubbed up against some of our LFC community.  I guess that would be determined by who they rub up against.  I am very excited by the growth that I see in many of our community, and yet I have to scratch my head sometimes when I run up against some who hold a deeply engrained "old-Church" model of how they think people in our community need to be addressed and dealt with.  

I pray that those who are starting to taste the beauty of God's plan for incarnational life will rub off on the rest.  I know that this is something that I, personally, think I am just starting to scratch the surface of.  But the aroma is attractive and adictive. 

The above title could get me in a lot of trouble with a lot of people.  Of course I believe in studying the Word of God and understand that it is important.  It is important to study the Word, but it seems as, if not more important to put the Word into action.  

This is why it is important to me as a leader and a shepherd to help people transition from the mindset of a small group to the Kingdom actions of a Missional Community.  

Below is a portion of a blog post by an old friend of mine, Jeff Vanderstelt, Pastor of Soma Communities in the South Puget Sound area of Washington State:

In fact, our discovery has been that many people have studied the Bible for years and have never led anyone to faith in Jesus, equipped people for ministry and sent out more to do the same. It’s as if we have come to believe that knowing the Bible equals faith in and obedience to God.

Often when I speak to leaders and people who wish we did more bible studies at Soma, I ask them what was the last book of the Bible they studied. Let’s say they’ve respond with “James”.

I then say something like, “That’s great! I’m sure you’re now caring for widows and orphans, visiting the sick, caring for the poor, etc…!” To which I generally hear, “Well no…not really!?” Then, I say, “But I thought you studied James?” “Well, yes, but I’m not necessarily doing that.”

I go on to explain that the intent Jesus has for studying his word is that we would hear it and do it, not just hear it and know it. The next thing I say is: “So how about getting involved in a missional community and doing what you have studied and know for now? In fact, maybe you should practice obeying what you know with some others for a while before you add more biblical knowledge that you will be accountable to obey.”

The missional community is the best environment to study the Bible because it is only in the context of community that you learn to obey what it teaches and it is while on the mission of making disciples that you come to see how powerful God’s word is for bringing about transformation.

So for us at Soma, we call people to obey the mission of Jesus to make disciples; obey what the Bible teaches; grow as effective ministers of the gospel; get on mission with other believers to reach the lost and build up those who know and believe in Jesus. All of this requires that our people go back to the Scriptures over and over again to inform and equip them for all of this.

Doing mission together pushes our people to study the Bible more intently together. In fact, I have found believers’ hunger for and engagement with the Bible only increases the more they exercise obedience to what it says and also need it to teach others to know, love and obey Jesus.