When I see the moon floating in the sky above me, I find my emotions filled with delight and gratitude. For me, the moon is an ever-present sign of God’s goodness and faithfulness to us. Astrophysicist Hugh Ross, summarizing his chapter on the moon in his book, Designed to the Core, writes: “Earth’s Moon is unlike […]
Sins seem to be more manageable in the dark. We prefer to keep them, and the shame they produce, tucked out of sight. Out of sight, out of mind. But keeping our sins concealed enslaves us. Secrecy empowers sins and shame. It allows them to fester and enforce patterns of darkness in our lives. Exposing […]
In his book, An Unhurried Life, Alan Fadling wrote, “Greatness of soul requires an unhurried life.” An unhurried life. A contemplative life. A reflective life. Call it what you want. When you practice slowing down and looking for God in the moment, what you eventually have is a fuller life. A flourishing life. A thriving life. […]
Journeying Home 
Could you enlighten me a little more on the meaning or rather your understanding of missional community – does this extend to worship – ie…do we see our worship as missional? We are just starting to wrestle with this in my community – check us out at http://www.sparlingexperience.blogspot.com
Hi Scott. Simply put, a missional community is a group of people who have made it their life priority to be Jesus’ apprentices — becoming by grace what he is by nature. By doing so, we enter into the mission of God as depicted throughout the Old Testament narratives and freshly and fully climaxed in Jesus. As Jesus’ apprentices, we are sent just as Jesus was sent. This means far more than just missional activity. It means we are to continue Jesus’ incarnation as his his body on earth.
In that light, everything we do should increasingly flow from what we are becoming as Jesus’ apprentices. This would embrace worship along with every aspect of life. Jesus was engaged in his Father’s mission before he was baptized and released into public ministry. Jesus was as much engaged in his Father’s mission while eating or sleeping as he was when actually doing missional activity. That’s because mission is first and foremost incarnation — being God’s presence on earth. It’s definitely more than that, but not less than that. Because from being God’s presence, a missional community should also be demonstrating and announcing God’s presence as well.
So I would say worship is missional, not necessarily as an activity to primarily “do” mission (although that’s possbile). It’s missional because it is part of the overall embodiment of God’s presence on earth through his people and thereby it is part of the spiritual formation of God’s people and eventually fuels various forms of missional activity.
I remember hearing a pastor say it this way: You know you’ve worshipped not because you had an emotional or intimate time with God. Rather, you know you’ve worshipped because you emerge from that intimate time in God’s presence and started feeding the poor and loving people with God’s love.