Missional Church: Step One

Are we leaking the life of Jesus? Most Christians rate themselves low in the area of evangelism—in time spent and giftedness (I hate the word evangelism--it's a word that's been so bastardized I can barely use it).

A few weeks ago in a discussion about what to do with Wednesday nights, I heard church leaders encourage individuals to become actively involved in some form of (their own) ministry. "Discover your gift and use it. You don't need to ask us."

While nobly encouraging freedom, leadership mistakenly promoted individualism. Unfortunately individualism embraces self-reliance and personal independence. When leadership has a clearly defined vision it steers, networks and leads its faith community.

In a recent survey pastors identified outreach as the most pressing issue in their congregation. So how does today's leader take the individual responsibility of leaking the life of Jesus a step further and leap to the corporate responsibility of training a faith community to leak the life of Christ? Not until leadership recognizes this process will they discover the primary step of leading a faith community into a missional posture.

Hint--

There is nothing extraordinary about it. It's ordinary!