Missional churches

I receive an update from the United Methodist Board of Church and Society once a week. This update has several articles that deal with issues of mission and justice. Any one reading my blog would know that these are two areas that I am committed to. In fact, there have been several exciting things happening at our church based on missional work. The first is that we had several of our Middle school and High school youth go on a mission trip. This is the first mission trip that our youth have gone on in the last we believe 20 years. They went because of the dedication of the youth sponsors, parents, and congregational members who helped support through finicial giving. We sent 15. We already have had 37 youth and sponsors sign up for a mission trip for next summer. When we become the hands and feet of Christ in this world we are transformed.
The other exciting area was that we sent a group of five adults to a mission field for the first time outside doing our habitat for humanity project. They went to Iowa and help deliver flood buckets and spent a day "mucking" out houses. The church was challenged to provide 10 flood buckets and we sent 23. I felt that the whole church responded to the excitement of both missional opportunities. Of course, we can't stay there and need to continue to have the excitement for our church to be involved. I believe that if we can continue we will be more faithful in living as disciples and the rest of the church will benefit both worship and stewardship.
To continue that theme, I wanted to share from the UMBCS board this article. This came from the 2008 Mission Initiative Summit. The quotes are from Rev. Mike Slaughter who is the senior pastor at Ginghamsburg Church in Ohio which is a large mega-church. He was commenting on "soft-secular" people who "try to bring Jesus into their world view instead of being transformed into His." He also said "soft-secular folks never move to that place of truly sacrificing their resources and service for the sake of the kingdom." He does challenge us as a church. "The moment you can't respond to immediate missional needs because you're tied to brick and mortar, you've stopped being the hands and feet of Jesus, the body of Christ. The missional church is continually sinking everything it has to risk, to give its life, to be consumed for the rest of the world."
What I have seen this summer speaks to what Rev. Slaughter has said. Also he must be doing something right to grow a mega-church that is so invested in mission. As we continue to plan for our selves where we are going in our church, I pray that we do not lose sight that the reason we come together is not about a building but about building the kingdom through our faith, our work, and our willingness to live as a disciple.