APPENDIX TO THE VISION OF CROSSFIRE

Taken from a report from the PAOC General Executive and the World Missions Committee May 2004

The Missional Church: Definition

Missions…is the intentional crossing of barriers from Church to non-church, faith to non-faith to proclaim by word and deed, through the power and work of the Holy Spirit the coming of the Kingdom of God in Jesus Christ. The Church participates in God’s mission of reconciling people to God, to themselves, to each other and to the world. This involves gathering and incorporating them into the fellowship of the Church by repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, and equipping them for discipleship and missions. Notice that this is different than the past. No longer is missions just about cross cultural, cross language or cross geography. It is about people who are lost where ever they are. We believe that overseas missions will only be strengthened by missional churches who see ministry as cross faith to those without.

The Missional Church: Characteristics

The following is not an exhaustive list but rather an attempt to sketch out the key characteristics of a missional church.

1. The Missional Church is authentic. A missional church lives out the Kingdom values is proclaims. Its life is characterized by forgiveness, accountability, and love. Peace, joy and hope pervade its life together to such an extent that the existence of such a gathering of people presents hope to the surrounding community in a way nothing else can.

2. The Missional Church is wholistic. Missional churches do not treat humans as disembodied souls but engage them as whole persons in all the context of life. The missional church expresses the passions of God in all of the theatres of its culture whether that culture is willing to acknowledge the Kingdom truth or not.

3. The Missional Church is inclusive. The missional church is a community of Christ followers that welcomes Christ-seekers. It recognizes that people place a high value upon the concepts of journey and inclusion.

4. The Missional Church is an equipping community. First the missional church is passionate about discipleship. Second, this discipleship cannot be biblical if it is conceived in terms of North American individualism. Pastors and leaders, therefore, are more focused on creating an environment ruled by Kingdom values rather than managing the day-to-day operations of the institution. A quick review of most pastoral descriptions in the PAOC would probably reveal how far removed we are from this mark of being a missional church.

5. The Missional Church is a community in process. The missional church sees itself as a community in process. It understands that to be missional, it must sail close to the current winds of culture in order for its message to be heard. It also recognizes the inherent danger in this posture of adopting the ways of the culture which are contrary to the Word of God or allowing the influence of its context subtly to alter and thus contaminate its values and message.

6. The Missional Church has an integrated vision. The missional church no longer defines missions in terms of geography. It defines missions in terms of lost people wherever they are found. The missional church, because it is tuned in to global realities, will continually strive for a balanced approach to the stewardship of its missions resources recognizing that the need of Canada’s 30 million is great, but the needs of the world’s 1.5 billion unreached people is vastly greater.

7. The Missional Church is infused with passion. Reaching the lost wherever they are found is the center, the prime directive, the passionately beating heart of the missional church.

8. The Missional Church is intentional. The missional church intentionally focuses its structures, its staffing priorities and its budget around its passion for lost people. It constantly scrutinizes every program, every expenditure, and every event through the lens of the missional imperative.

9. The Missional Church is strategic. The missional church is constantly growing in its understanding of local and global realities and of the complex and rapidly changing face of missions, in all its multifaceted manifestations. It makes use of the internal and external resources in the body of Christ whose gifts and expertise can empower strategic decision-making in its resource allocation and deployment decisions.

10. The Missional Church is articulate. The missional church is fearless and forthright in its communication of the Gospel without being brash or coercive. It is constantly developing fresh and innovative ways of presenting the Gospel to enable our culture to hear the message.

11. The Missional Church is a community without walls. Church is understood neither as an organization, nor a program, nor an institution, but rather, it embraces all the people of God wherever they live out the call to follow Christ in the home, the school or the workplace. Missional churches equip the people of God to live out His mission in the culture and facilitate effectiveness in public witness as Canadian culture grows to be more opposed to the public truth of the Kingdom.