This article is Part 2 of 4. To read the other parts, click the appropriate links below:
- Part 1: The Missional Church – What exactly does it mean for the church to be missional? And how does a missional perspective play out in the context of local communities?
- Part 3: The Missional Church – “To be missional means to do something, to do the work of the ministry,” says Pete Akins, pastor of True Life Center in Cedar City, Utah.
- Part 4: The Missional Church – “Being missional is as easy as seeing a need in your community and doing something about it,” says John Wiley, pastor of The River Christian Fellowship in Raytown, Mo.
In his book The Ministry of the Missional Church (Baker Books), author Craig Van Gelder makes an important point regarding effective, culture-impacting ministry. It is the Holy Spirit who creates congregations in the first place, he notes, and it only stands to reason that if a local church community is truly Spirit-led, it will be missional.
“It is critical for the church to understand the ministry of the Spirit if it is to understand how to participate fully in God’s mission in the world,” he writes. “Attending to the ministry of the Spirit provides the framework for understanding this participation.”
Steve Cecil, who planted a Foursquare church called The Journey Community in Madison, Wis. (also called Madison Metro Foursquare Church), five years ago with his wife, Kim, also makes a crucial point about missional ministry—ultimately, it’s about sharing the gospel and making room for that to happen.
“The great ‘commissional’ is the call to go into the entire world and preach the good news to everyone,” the 40-year-old pastor and father of three told Foursquare.org. “Being missional is all about creating spaces for gospel conversation to take place. The missional church gives its best resources to make this happen—its creativity, time, money and people.”
One of these spaces The Journey Community has created is J Café, a coffee shop that will be opening soon and where church members will be able to naturally engage their community and form relationships. Funds from the café will be used for city improvement projects, and helping the homeless, orphans and victims of human trafficking.
The church, which has a weekend attendance of roughly 100, regularly partners with and hosts teams of people to perform various service projects in the surrounding neighborhood. They have also conducted a “Laundry Love” ministry, washing clothes for the homeless and building relationships with them.
Caring for orphans is also a key missional call of The Journey Community. The church supports an orphanage in Haiti with 39 children, providing them with food, clothes, water, education—and love. Steve tells the story of Keline, a 12-year-old orphan who is completely dependent on the church’s “Beautiful Child” ministry for her basic needs.
“We are teaching the children at our church to care for Keline and the other orphans who live with her,” he explains. “Our kids write letters, send gifts, give money and pray for them. In January, two of the kids at our church, both 8 year olds, are going with us to Haiti so they can meet Keline and her friends.” For The Journey Community, being missional is clearly about reaching—and far—beyond the walls of a church building.
Seth Waters, 27 and the father of three, is another Foursquare pastor who is venturing out beyond church walls. He and his wife, Maria, and a core group of leaders recently launched Bay Church in South San Francisco (also called South San Francisco Foursquare Church). With an average attendance of 70 (a number reached even before their “official” launch date of Sept. 13), this church community is very focused on their missional goals.
“Being missional means you are intentional at putting your resources and energies into things that allow you to impact culture and transform lives,” says Seth. “That means getting outside the four walls of the church and going to places where people are broken.”
And that they have. Teams from the congregation have scoured the city, literally knocking on thousands of doors to introduce themselves to members of their community. They routinely walk the streets to meet people, and meet their needs, whenever possible. This includes praying for the sick as well as the oppressed—in fact they intentionally walk by mental health facilities in hopes that they may pray for anyone who happens to be sitting outside.
Bay Church also has an “Adopt a Block” program, where they find families in their neighborhood in need and help meet those needs, hoping also to minister to their spiritual needs. They also serve meals at a local shelter. Additionally, Seth notes that they are intentional in developing relationships with city leaders, expressing the congregation’s desire to serve their city in any possible way.
The church’s unselfish, hands-on ministry is making a difference, a life at a time, in one of the nation’s toughest spiritual climates. In one instance, a team from the church met a man who was contemplating suicide, having lost his job and being forced to live on the streets. The church keeps in regular contact with him, and in addition to being drawn to Christ, he has gone through detox and is starting to make better choices.
In another instance, a team prayed for a family whose daughter was about to have an emergency surgery due to a blood clot. When the doctors performed another MRI just before surgery, they found it had disappeared. The family was stunned, and is opening up to the gospel as a result.
“It’s amazing to be part a movement of people who are excited about impacting our culture through seeing the power of God released!” Seth exclaims.
This is Part 2 in a series of 4. To read more about missional Foursquare churches, click the links below:
- Part 1: The Missional Church – What exactly does it mean for the church to be missional? And how does a missional perspective play out in the context of local communities?
- Part 3: The Missional Church – “To be missional means to do something, to do the work of the ministry,” says Pete Akins, pastor of True Life Center in Cedar City, Utah.
- Part 4: The Missional Church – “Being missional is as easy as seeing a need in your community and doing something about it,” says John Wiley, pastor of The River Christian Fellowship in Raytown, Mo.
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By: Bill Shepson, a Foursquare credentialed minister and freelance writer.
