From Mission to Missional

Presented by Chris Buja Adjunct Consultant for Growth and Vitality

Metro New York DistrictAnnual Meeting May 1-2, 2015

Opening Words & Chalice Lighting

• We come together every weekBound not by a creed,Or a mutual desire to please one GodOr many GodsYet we are drawn togetherBy a belief, that how we are in the world,Who we are togetherMatters.We light this chalice,together in the knowledgeThat love, not fear, can change this world -Jennifer Leota Gray

Takeaways

• Definitions, relationships, and distinctions of: mission, mission statement, attractional, missional, missionary, mission trips, vision, and ministry

• Exercise to discern your own missional calling (individual) and that of your congregation (if it is there!)

• Small and large opportunities to do missional experimentation

From Mission…

• Mission defined as:– Purpose– Reason for being– “why” a congregation (or any institution or

organization) exists– When mission is being accomplished, the “vision”

is being realized– Everything a congregation does to fulfill mission

and realize vision is called “ministry”

…more on mission…

• Lots of books, workshops, webinars that specifically address mission and mission statements

• Briefly, the explicitly stated mission statement needs to accurately express the actual, deeper sense of mission

• If sense of mission and mission statement do not match: “Houston, we have a problem…”

…a little more on mission…

• Assuming a congregation has a clear, concise, compelling sense of AND commitment to its religious mission (and a mission statement that correlates)…

• What are the models that a congregation might process that mission through?

Attendance-Size Culture Models

• Typical paradigm for categorizing congregations:

• Family congregation• Pastoral congregation• Program congregation• Corporate(Campus) congregation• Each with corresponding characteristics of

attendance, structure, relationships.

…to “Missional”!

• “missional”- to be sent, being sent, to serve; “misio dei” per Christian tradition

• A new paradigm…or more appropriately an expansion, extension of the paradigm

• Those attendance-size culture categories can be broadly defined as “attractional” models, (sometimes attractional/extractional is used)

• “Missional” as another category, another model, on the spectrum

• More than another category/model, a different philosophy of mission fulfillment

Missional shifts

• Rev. Ron Robinson appeals for a shift to a “bigger bandwidth” of what church means

• “Go and be”, as opposed to “come and see”• From, “does the church have a mission?” to,

“does the mission have a church?”

Missional shifts cont.

• From extracting people from surrounding culture, and attracting them into congregation culture; to the congregation entering into the surrounding culture- and being changed by it for the sake of mission fulfillment

• Often reverses typical path of participant– Large group worship to small group ministry to

serving others (attractional)– Serving others to small group ministry to large group

worship- if at all (missional)

Missional shifts cont.

• Who does the church exist for, why does it exist, for whom does one’s heart break for?

• Response to change in religious participation trends

• Shift away from membership focus to ministry by those who may or may not identify as members or of a certain faith (gasp!)

Case Study: The Welcome Table

• Turley OK• Rev. Ron Robinson, lead pastor/organizer/?• Focused on serving a specific zip code, city

quadrant, that is drastically suffering by numerous socioeconomic markers

Discernment

• Do you feel a calling, an inkling, a desire to be a part of a missional congregation?

• Could your existing congregation become missional? More missional?

• Could a missional community launch/plant/emerge in your area?

Finding your “sweet spot”

• With full credit to Rev. Tandi Rogers of UUA from this blog post; with some modifications by me for this workshop

• Identifying the “sweet spot” for you and/or your congregation

Sweet spot continued

• Circle: what you/congregation do well, skills, gifts, that which brings joy

• Square: what breaks your heart/congregation’s heart in community? What are the unmet, undermet needs of community? Who are the unserved, underserved people of community?

• Where the circle and square overlap is your/congregation’s sweet spot

What to do with that sweet spot?

• As an individual, enter into and engage that overlap• As a congregation, develop new outreach/service to

that overlap• AND…could that overlap be an opportunity for a

missional community/movement to emerge• To be or not to be a missional community is not a

decision to be made lightly and is probably beyond the scope of typical congregational vote- you are or you aren’t, you become it or you don’t

Other things congregations can do

• Examine the activities you are already doing in your building/attractional gathering space, and experiment with doing them somewhere else, out in the community, where more community engagement is likely to occur.

• Get a percept data report on zipcodes near you- demographic breakdown, religious/spiritual trends- good info!

Multi-site synergy

• Missional and multi-site possibilities may overlap in fortuitous ways

• Not just among UU congregations, but in partnership with non-UU organizations, both religious and secular

• Look at the geographic and demographic “areas of operation” for various organizations- identify the “neutral zones” that could be addressed via multi-site!

• “3M”? Missional Multi-site Ministry?

Summary

• Whatever model, attendance-size culture, philosophy you are/choose to be: religious mission is the sine qua non of institutional/movement success- for wherever you are along the attractional-missional spectrum!

• A missional movement can start anywhere- with you, your congregation, beyond your congregation.

Closing Words

• “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go and do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

-Howard Thurman

Closing Words cont.

• Ask the world what it needs. AND, ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that which both the world needs AND makes you come alive. Because what is needed is a world and people that have come alive.

Resources

• See handout for book, website, blog, article links on missional stuff

• With deep thanks to Rev. Ron Robinson for his time via phone, and a myriad of resources available online!