The Missional Church

Thanks Dad, Andrew Jones and a host of others for highlighting this post by Larry Chouinard. He gives 16 Features of the Missional Church:

“A missional church is one whose primary commitment is to the missionary calling of the people of God. . . it is one that aligns itself with God’s missionary purposes in the world. . . The missional church is a sent church with one of its defining values [incarnating Jesus’ life and values in the culture it is embedded]”.
(Frost and Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come, p.229)

(1) A missional church is externally focused.
(2) A missional church is culturally engaged without being absorbed.
(3) A missional church is incarnationally not institutionally driven.
(4) A missional church is about discipleship not church membership.
(5) A missional church is patterned after God's missionary purpose in the world.
(6) A missional church seeks to establish Kingdom outposts to retake territory under the control of the Evil One.
(7) A missionary church seeks to plant,grow, and multiply missionary communities.
(8) A missionary church trains and equips new leaders to enter territories under seige by Dark Forces. We learn in the context of mission not in the security of our comfort zone.
(9) A missional church highlights character, virtue, and compassionate deeds as the most effective witness to God's Kingdom.
(10) A missional church connects to Jesus through mission not doctrinal precision.
(11) A missional church adopts an organizational structure and internal forms based on mission not ecclesiastical traditions.
(12) A missional church sees itself as organic and not in static institutional forms.
(13) A missional church pursues relationships across generational, ethnic, economic and cultural lines of distinctions.
(14) A missional church seeks to partner with the community to "seek the shalom" of the community.
(15) A missional church assembles to seek God's presence and to be realigned with God's missionary purpose.
(16) A missionary church seeks to reawaken a movement ethos as together we engage our cultural context.