Attractional is the new ugly
Written by Mark Van Steenwyk : October 5, 2004
Here’s a good quote from blahOnline:
…when [churches that seek to become misssional are] asked to discuss specific ways they can recalibrate themselves to become missional churches, they begin talking about how to change their Sunday service. It betrays their fundamental allegiance to being attractional. The tailoring of worship services is a lot further down the priority list for missional church leaders. The Come-To-Us stance taken by the attractional church is unbiblical. It?s not found in the Gospels or the epistles. Jesus, Paul, the disciples, the early church leaders had a Go-To-Them mentality.
Do any of you, my readers, have any thoughts about how to transition an established church towards missionality?
Mark Van Steenwyk is the editor of JesusManifesto.com. He is a Mennonite pastor (Missio Dei in Minneapolis), writer, speaker, and grassroots educator. He and his wife Amy have been married since 1997. They are expecting their first child in April.for further reading . . .
- Incarnational Practice 6: Limit Through-Traffic
- Central Gathering: Incarnational instead of Attractional
- Attractional versus Incarnational: A Down-Under Perspective
- Learning to be Missional
- Missional Leaders?
- It’s not a Both/And, often it is an Either/Or
- Some thoughts I had on the way home from Hard Times on Sunday
Anchored in the West Bank neighborhood of Minneapolis, Missio Dei is committed to following Jesus' way of peace, simplicity, prayer, and hospitality.
The Missio Dei Breviary includes morning and evening prayers for one month. Edited (and freely shared) by Missio Dei, it draws primarily upon the Gospels, reflects Anabaptist convictions, and emphasizes missional commitment.
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yeah, loads! Good book on this: Invading Secular space, by Martin Robinson & Dwight Smith. My personal focus is towards the unchurched, but still believe the ‘bigger part’ will be played by the existing rather than the emerging churchs.
I figure on a 4 step programme!
Step #1 stop playing mirror mirror on the wall who’s the fairest of them all.
step #2 start looking out the window instead into your communities
step #3 open the doors and step outside
step #4 get involved - and by doing so learn what it is to love unconditionally.
Nice program, Gordon!
I tend to agree, Alexander. It seems that the missional movement has become immeshed with the emergent movement in some people’s minds. The two are not the same thing. Many established churches are missional…and they have a large part in the future of the church.