Questions, questions

I’d like to write more about what a missional approach could look like, but first I put the question to you: how can we take a missional approach to ministry in Helena? What would it look like to be incarnational in reaching different people groups in our community?

On a personal level, what kind of people are you connected with? Think about the places where you are a regular, where people know you by name. Maybe it’s at the club or a restaurant, a civic group or service organization, an arts group or a local sports league. Wherever you have connection is where you can have influence, where you can incarnate the gospel of Christ.

Now what could a missional approach look like?

In or out

Jesus was always in the midst of the community. He wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty, to hang out with the wrong crowd, to be present in the daily lives of regular people living their workaday lives, their troubled lives, even their decidedly unethical and unholy lives. He got in and they were never the same. Jesus was all about getting in and having influence.

But all too often people who decide to follow Christ immediately get out of the world. Sever all ties. Get comfortably ensconced in the church subculture. And lose influence.

The call of Christ does not demand that we sacrifice our voice in our communities. Rather the call of Christ is precisely the opposite. We are called to influence people in the world in the name of Christ. And this can’t be done without being in the world.

Are you in?