In advance of the Verge Conference later this week and a new blog (re) post from Ed Stetzer discussing the "missional conversation," here's an excerpt from my new book, Ethnic Blends: Mixing Diversity Into Your Local Church. The book is being published by Zondervan as part of Leadership Network's Innovation Series, and will be released in April 2010.
Here's the excerpt:
Have you ever wondered why it was the
church at Antioch and not the church at Jerusalem that sent the first
missionaries into the world? God said go (Matthew 28:19, 20; Acts 1:8),
but the saints in Jerusalem said NO! In fact, it wasn’t until the church was
persecuted that individuals were forced to carry the message of Christ to other
lands and people (Acts 11:18, 19).
In contrast, the church at Antioch was
proactive and eager to send Paul and Barnabus forth to distant lands. But
why?
For all the talk about being “missional”
today, much of the conversation has grown out of a white, homogenous context. To
be clear, I am very thankful for church leaders who are challenging people to
look beyond themselves to meet the needs of hurting people, challenging
believers to go and be the church in homes and neighborhoods, café’s,
bars, and clubs, in the workplace, the workout center, and on the college
campus. But if the “missional” mindset is not a natural outgrowth of the
prevailing model of church ministry, perhaps it demonstrates a weakness in our
understanding of the church itself.
At Mosaic, we have found, much as was
probably true in Antioch, that a missional mindset is inherent to the very
culture and DNA of a healthy multi-ethnic church. In these congregations
missions is not a program: it is a reflection of the church itself. Since cross-cultural
ministry is an everyday reality in such an environment, missional engagement is
central to the life of the multi-ethnic church and the practice of its
ministry.
This is why we began to distribute
food, clothing and other material goods to members on a very small scale in
2004. The fact is, our own members were hungry, in need of clothing, beds,
refrigerators, and many other things we had no systematic way of providing. In
those days, we began our work by simply asking the body to donate as needs arose,
and most of the time our people came through. In time and through the
leadership of Cesar Ortega, Mosaic’s pastor of Community Engagement, we began
to store items that were donated in order to be more adequately prepared. As
word of mouth spread within the community, the demand on our time and our
resources grew with each passing year, requiring greater organization,
planning, and the involvement of people beyond our own staff and membership. After assisting
some 250 people in the first twelve months of ministry, five years later, this ministry - The Orchard - now
serves close to 10,000 people a year!
c. Mark DeYmaz. Ethnic Blends, pp. 116, 118-119
In the end, then, the missional conversation in a multi-ethnic church is not programatic in natuire; rather, it is who we are.
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