The Growth of the Missional Christian Assembly
Missional church is definitely a trendy title that is all over the place these days. the notion that we need to categorize bodies of Christ, missional, has since the beginning of creation been weird to me. I mean, shouldnt all church buildings be missional in their very nature? why cant a church, at its very base, desire to meet their culture and city with the gospel as a missionary would in a different country? Isnt that what the bodies of Christ is challenged to do in the sending out by Jesus in Matthew 28:19? Our own city needs this kind of church. Austin churches is slowly transitioning to what our Creator instructed in the Bible.
The Son of God gives the charge 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 explains this concept as, right before Jesus Christ rises to Heaven, He commissions the disciples on a story that would begin right in their local community. He begins with their local place of Jerusalem, and then broadens the call to the outer parts of the world.
As believers, we are not urged to privacy, but to be missional persons who are aggressively going out and finding communities right where they are with the story of Christ. We have gazed at this throughout history: God sends Abraham on a mission to move from his country and his people and go to the city that God would show him (Gen. 12:1), God motivated Moses on a exploration to save an enslaved people and lead them to freedom (Exodus 3:8-10), God moved Jesus on a journey to creation to restore all things to Himself through the crucifixion (Colossians 1:20). And now God is sending us on a journey to engage homes, cities, peoples, and even nations with the gospel(Matt. 28:19 Mark 6:7 Luke 10:1 John 20:21 Acts 1:8). If we abandon this motivation and continue to treat the churches like a closed off country club ” requesting that people clean up their talents, pay their deposit, and come to our sanctuary God will continue His story without us.
