Recently, my friend Jeff Vanderstelt shared his heart on the Saturate Field Guide that he developed with Ben Connelly, another one of my friends and one of our regular authors at NewChurches.com. Here is the interview.
Q. How can an attractional church move towards being more missional using this book?
A. The book guides believers through a study whereby they will come to understand the gospel and its implications for discipleship and mission. As participants work through the daily study and exercises, they will learn to embrace their identity as God’s family, sent as servants and missionaries to the world. The guidebook is most effective when a small group of believers commit to go through it together. As they travel together through the study, not only will they be led to personally grow as God’s missionary people, but collectively they will learn to realign their lives together around God’s purposes and mission. The guide was designed to move people from being Sunday only believers to everyday disciples who make disciples together in community while on mission.
Q. How do we normalize mission in the life of my church?
A. First of all, we need to preach the gospel indicatives – What is true about 1) who God is as revealed by 2) what God has done (especially in and through the person and work of Jesus Christ) leading to understanding 3) who we are in Christ. Then, we need to help people see how believing the gospel leads to new behaviors. The indicatives of the gospel lead to the imperatives of obedience.
The reason this is key to normalizing mission in the church is because the church needs to understand that the outcome of the gospel is mission. God is a missionary God who sent his only son to rescue and redeem a people for his mission on the earth. God is missionary, and we are his missionary people. It begins with us understanding our true identity as God’s people. Charles Spurgeon was famous for saying: “Every Christian is either a missionary or an imposter.” There is not a category for non-missionary Christian. If you are a Christian, you are a missionary.
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