imagining how the church can reorient around mission

What
does it mean to be a missional community of faith?  There is much talk about what that is, what it looks like
and how it works.  Newbigin (one of
the true forerunners of the current movement) identifies six characteristics of
a missional community:

  1. It practices corporate praise, thanksgiving, gratitude,
    and grace;
  2. It declares truth that challenges the reigning
    plausibility structure
  3. It establishes relationships within a local
    neighborhood
  4. It encourages mutual service in the priesthood
    of all believers
  5. It expects mutual responsibility rather than
    individualism
  6. It nurtures hope and a re-imagined vision of
    the future

I
love these. 

What about you?  If you were to make your own list, what
would you include?

r

Community

10 Responses

  1. Hmm, I think of the marks of a missional faith community along the lines of the APEST.
    A) It looks towards how it can expansively be at work for the Kingdom.
    P) It challenges the status quo while also giving imagination and hope for a different way of being when a part of the Kingdom.
    E) It proclaims the story of Jesus putting everything back together both by word and deed.
    S) It is a place of spiritual nurturing where people learn what it means to have union with the triune God. As a result it fosters reconciliation, worship, thanksgiving, lament, the sacraments, etc in a holistic way.
    T) It further explores the story of God putting everything back together and fosters a community ethos of learning from God, scripture and each other.
    Implied) It realizes that it can’t be this type of community with just one or two people being experts.