A Missional Church That Reveals Jesus to the World (John 20:21–22)

· A missional church can be summarized by the phrase, ‘By mission, for mission.’ The church was established through mission, and it exists for mission.

*Schank’s statement on the missional church

1) A missional church begins by establishing the identity of the church.

·The identity of the church is this: every church has been established for the mission of God, and ultimately every believer has been called to be a missionary.

·A missional church is not simply a church that sends out many missionaries. Rather, it is a church whose members understand their identity as people who have been sent into the world for God’s mission.

·Every member of a missional church must see themselves not primarily as one who sends others, but as ‘the sent.’ In other words, we have all been sent as missionaries.

·Each of the four Gospels concludes with Jesus sending His disciples into the world. (Matthew 28:19; Mark 16:15; Luke 24:47–48; John 20:21) The ultimate purpose of sending the Holy Spirit was to empower believers to live as witnesses of Christ to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8)

·In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit came upon particular people such as prophets, priests, and kings. But in the New Testament, the Holy Spirit has been given to all believers. This shows that the mission of God has also been entrusted to every believer. *The Lodi Camp ministry of a Korean church in Syracuse, New York (200 refugee children received Christ)

2) A missional church does not limit its mission field to other countries, but includes the community in which the church has been planted.

· Cross-cultural overseas missions are not the only form of mission. All of our neighbors should also be seen as people to whom we are sent. In other words, wherever we live is our mission field. *The reality that Europe and North America have now themselves become mission fields

·We should not seek merely to become a Global Church; we should become a Glocal Church (Global + Local Church).

·In particular, many people from Muslim countries have come to live among us as refugees. They can be seen in light of the “survivors” described in Isaiah 66:19. They are people who can encounter the sign of the Lord and eventually be sent to distant lands that have not heard of His fame or seen His glory, so that they may proclaim His glory among the nations.

·Nearly ten thousand Afghan refugees have come to the greater Washington area. If churches reach out to them and demonstrate the love of Christ, Afghan churches could be established here in Washington. And from among them, missionaries may eventually be raised up and sent back into the Muslim world.

*The blessing Pilgrim Mission Church experienced after giving up a $20 million church building over the issue of homosexuality

3) The missionary method of a missional church is to reveal Christ through the way we live.

·Jesus left His disciples with two great commands that are inseparably connected: the Great Commission, the command to make disciples of all nations, and the Great Commandment, the command to love. These two are ultimately one, because mission is carried out through the practice of Christlike love.

·There is a way to redeem our time according to God’s purpose for giving it to us: to see every moment as an opportunity to communicate and demonstrate the love of Christ.

*The meaning of “making the most of every opportunity” in Ephesians 5:16

·Efficiency is always important in the affairs of the world, but efficiency is not the ultimate standard when we serve people. The question should not simply be how much output we produced compared to our input. Our standard must be the biblical truth that one soul is more precious than the whole world.

·Robert Mulholland said, ‘Spiritual formation is a process of being conformed to the image of Christ for the sake of others.’ A spiritually mature person is not simply someone who has the gift of healing the sick or predicting the future. A truly spiritual person is someone who possesses the character of Christ—His humility and gentleness—and is able to serve others with the love of Christ. A missional church is a church made up of people who possess this kind of missional spirituality.

Study and Application Questions

1) Summarize the meaning of a missional church in three main points.

2) A missional church is ultimately a church in which every believer understands that he or she is a missionary and therefore lives a missional life. A missional life means recognizing every situation as an opportunity God has given us to reveal the love of Christ. Instead of responding to circumstances with complaining, fear, or anger, we seek to share with others the love that we ourselves have first received from Christ. Am I living this kind of missional life right now? If there are areas in which I am not, what decision or commitment did I make during today’s worship service?