Missional Renaissance by Reggie McNeal is a fascinating book, but I can’t help thinking that it’s a frustrating read for many church leaders. The sub-title hints at the reason: Changing the Scorecard for the Church.
McNeal urges the church to get out of “the church business” by shifting from an internal to an external focus – which is pretty much his definition of the missional church. He points out early in the book that the missional church does not focus beyond its walls to be culturally hip, but rather because it believes that engaging the community out there is the very reason why the church exists. So suddenly the number of people in worship services on a Sunday morning ceases to the measure of a successful church – and that’s a good thing because the world doesn’t care about the church’s old scorecard. A missional church is more interested in how many hours in service members have spent in the community.
I love the airport analogy he uses. An airport is a place of connection, not a destination. Its job is clearly to help people get somewhere else. Similarly when a church thinks of itself as the destination, with lots of people hovering around, it’s actually preventing those people from going where they want to go, from their real destination. That destination is life and, he points out, Jesus promised us life, not church. “I have come to give you life and to give it to you more abundantly.”
I’m about halfway through the book and it has yet to address how a missional church raises money. I see from the index that it’s coming up soon. Can’t wait.
In the interests of full disclosure, Reggie McNeal is a friend and has been our keynote speaker at two ASA conferences.
