Many of you have asked me what this “missional community” thing is that I’ve immersed myself in. I recently found a good explanation from my friend, Gailyn Van Rheenen, who has a heart for training people to be a part of this movement. Here is what he says…

Missional churches are theologically-formed, Christ-centered, Spirit-led fellowships who seek to faithfully incarnate the purposes of Christ. They are communities formed by the calling and sending of God and reflecting the redemptive reign of God in Christ (http://www.missiology.org/mmr/mmr34.htm). These become church planting movements because a missionary impulse is embedded within their DNA. They are simple, replicable, and thus able to spread like a virus over a geographic area. These missional churches are, however, fragile in their inception because the first step is “making disciples.” This disciple-making takes time because followers of Jesus must be nurtured as they grow to spiritual maturity and become God’s sent people on mission with Him. I believe that missional DNA exists in every faithful Christian and every local church but nurturing and equipping are necessary to unleash it in neighborhoods, families, work places, and third places.

That is probably a much more eloquent way than I’ve been explaining it, so I hope this helps. I will certainly be talking more about it here and to many of you verbally, but just wanted to throw this out there.

Happy Friday!