Monday, June 14, 2010

Understanding Missional - Interview Results Part 3 of 4

The interviews I conducted for a research project in early 2010 resulted in four key findings. In parts 1 and 2 of my blogs on these findings, I noted that missional practitioners seem to have a focus on or passion for renewed theology and reshaped leadership. Part 3 of the Interview Results reveals a new topic: re-prioritization of holistic discipleship.

Reprioritization of Holistic Discipleship
Another pragmatic approach revealed to be true in the missional communities led by the respondents is a reprioritization holistic discipleship in the church. Reacting to the programmatic and event-driven nature of the contemporary church, a majority of respondents stated that the church needs to again make reproducing disciples its primary focus. Respondents also claimed that the church needs not only to reprioritize discipleship, but also to abandon discipleship approaches based only on knowledge and add instead include approaches that include experience-based discipleship as well knowledge based discipleship. Though not every respondent used the terminology of experienced-based discipleship, six of the seven spoke about viewing discipleship as holistic, implying that discipleship pertains to every area of life. More specifically, missional discipleship means teaching people who to live on mission for God in every area of their life and in everything they do. One respondent said that in his old, contemporary church he would meet an actor and say, “I need to get this actor onto my drama team.” With a missional mindset, though, the same respondent would now say, “I need to help this actor be the best actor he can be so he can be a missionary to other actors.”

The strongest belief about discipleship that was revealed by the data collected from the interviews pertains to community. Every respondent remarked about the importance of community for the disciple and for the discipleship process. Community to the respondents is not found in small groups, church programs, once a week worship gatherings. Instead, community is about developing a rhythm of life together with others. This rhythm requires sacrifice of time and frequent proximity. The rhythm includes doing mission together on a regular basis as well as other common discipleship tools such as Bible study, prayer, and fellowship. A vast majority of contemporary churches also teach the importance of community, claiming that it is the place where discipleship happens best. Missional churches do not claim discipleship happens best in community. Instead, they teach that disciples live out the mission of God best in community.