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Missional church is definitely a buzz-phrase that is anywhere you look these days. The fact that we need to categorize bodies of Christ, missional, has for eternity been a tiny bit weird to me. come on, shouldnt all churches be missional in their very essence? why cant a church, at its very nature, want to engage their culture and city with the message of Jesus as a missionary would in a overseas country? Isnt that what the bodies of Christ is encouraged to do in the great commission in Matthew 28:19? Our own place of origin requires this brand of church. Church in Austin is slowly gravitating to what Jesus instructed in Scripture.

Jesus gives the command in Acts 1:8 saying, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Acts 1:8 exemplifies this subject as, right before Jesus Christ rises to Heaven, He commissions the disciples on a exploration that would launch right in their own community. He begins with their origin of Jerusalem, and then enlarges the call to the far parts of the earth.

As believers, we are not called to social clubs, but to be missional people who are anxiously going out and connecting with others right where they are with the story of Christ. We have noticed this throughout history: God urges Abraham on a mission to exit his place of origin and his people and go to the land that God would show him (Gen. 12:1), God sends Moses on a story to renew an enslaved people and lead them to relationship with God (Exodus 3:8-10), God moved Jesus on a exploration to earth to restore all things to Himself through the cross (Colossians 1:20). And now God is sending the church on a mission to engage homes, cities, ethnicities, and even nations with the message of Jesus (Matt. 28:19 Mark 6:7 Luke 10:1 John 20:21 Acts 1:8). If we resist this encouragement and continue to treat the bodies of Christ like a closed off country club ” encouraging that people resolve their performance, pay their deposit, and drive to our place of worship God will continue His mission without us.