Musings on Spiritual Matters

Most of you all know I read a lot of missional materials.  This should be as I am writing a dissertation on the topic.  And as you grow in any perspective you are able to look at it objectively and discover the disconnects.  It seems to be that there is an impasse with Church Growth Material and Missional Material, and the two perspectives are not friends.  In the growth material, it really does an excellent job of reaching middle class consumers, while the missional material does an excellent job reaching the downtrodden.  The missional material seems to place all of the focus of the church on the poor, the outcast, and the downtrodden, and there is nothing wrong in reaching and serving these groups.  But there seems to be little that the missional community has to offer to the middle class consumer, well there is some, like a focus on service, the need for real community, and a purpose totally on Christ, but the problem is that most consumers do not come to church looking for these elements.  They come looking for a good worship, children’s programming, and excellent spiritual programming.  But with the missional conversation, we must continue to keep an eye on the consumer as well.  Maybe we feel that they have money, or good jobs and opportunities, but these people are going to hell as much as the poor without Christ.  We cannot overlook any group in culture.  The gospel is for all.  As an established church, there must be a blended mindset.  At Castle Rock we have developed the Cruise ship and lifeboat metaphor to help us reach all people.  We believe in offering basic church service to people with excellence, and we believe in developing people for lifeboat ministry, as they leave the cruise ship to seek lost souls on the open waves of the world.  Churches have rejected church growth because of giving in to the unruly demands of the consumer, and once you go down that road, it does not lead to a good place.  But the missional movement might leave out a huge element of people.

Related posts:

1. The Missional Reading
2. Review of “The Forgotten Ways”
3. Review of “Missional Church”
4. Review of “The Missional Leader”
5. Can You Be “Church Growth” and “Missional”

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This entry was posted by Matthew on Wednesday, December 14th, 2011 at 11:39 am and is filed under Church News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.