On Mission

Got word from one of our HBA Churches today that they voted yesterday to be missional in their approach. Now, the word "missional" wasn't used in the meeting, nor was there a motion for the church to become something new. What happened was that they voted to take two actions. The first is to add much-needed space to their small facilities. This congregation of about 50 people is almost at the capacity of their current meeting space. They also voted to begin monthly financial support of a sister congregation in need as a part of our partnership with Bay Lakes Baptist Association in northeastern Wisconsin. Here's where the missional mindset shows up. For their building, they voted to begin the process of planning and of exploring what their financial resources might be and to build when the resources are there. For the financial support of a sister congregation, they put a dollar figure--a very generous one for a congregation their size--with no end date specified. In other words, they are on mission for the sake of the kingdom of God first and for their own needs second. They could easily have said, "Let's see what resources we have for missions after we get our building done." Rather, they said, "Let's see what resources we have for building after we fulfill our mission calling." Missional. On mission from God. Just one example, but a good one. What's your church's story? I'd love to share it here.