More on Being Missional

When I wrote last week about how our church is missional, I forgot to talk about how our church services connect with people who are not yet followers of Jesus.

In our church we rarely run any special ‘outreach’ or ‘evangelistic’ events, but instead, we try to make every public gathering an opportunity for someone who is not yet a believer to watch us and hear our message.

We’re a little bit like the church that’s described in 1 Corinthians 14:22-25.

In these verses, the Apostle Paul encouraged them to make church easy to understand for people who don’t yet know Jesus, whilst still making it a special gathering in the presence of God.

And as they did this, the visitors would be aware of their sin and judgement before God, and would “fall to their knees and worship God”, for they would recognise that in the gathering, “God is truly here among you”.

For us, this means that when people who don’t know Jesus come to our church, they get to see what it looks like to follow Jesus at the same time as they hear the Good News that saves them.

Not only do unbelievers learn how to have certainty for eternity, they also experience with us a ‘slice of heaven’.

What’s more, this helps Christians of all ages and stages understand their faith, because the preacher is always trying to make things clear to newcomers, including answers to important questions about what we believe. 

So with this in mind, I’ve added this sentence to last week’s explanation of what it means for us to be ‘missional’:

“We aim for our church services to be easy to understand for unbelievers so that as they hear the Good News that saves, they also experience the joy of gathering around Christ.”

So who will you bring along with you to church this week?

JODIE McNEILL