The DNA of A Missional Church (of the Mind)
So at this point our hope to launch a missional church - a community that is a good neighbor, a community here for the benefit of the city, a community wanting to connect those far from God to Jesus - only exists in the mind. This is the place every church begins, really. We’ve begun with a hope and a dream to impact our world for Jesus; and quite literally so, because anything less isn’t worth living for.
My journey over the last 6 or 7 years in the scriptures has drawn my attention to a number of significant themes we are convinced should form our Core DNA. Some call these core values, some even have a statement like ours and call it a vision or mission statement. In my opinion it doesn’t matter what exactly you call it, only that we receive a clear vision from God and do everything we can to live by it.
That said I thought I would post the 6 Core DNA that will shape the kind of faith community we endeavor to become. I say “become” deliberately because we know this will be a continual process for which we are always striving and not a destination where we are perfectly living.
In a statement we say it something like this…
As followers of Jesus we are a holistic, missional community of truth, beauty, and generosity. (I’m still working on the beginning piece of the sentence to make it flow, etc, let me know if you have thoughts. But I think you get the idea of what we’re trying to communicate here.)
Those six key words form our Core DNA.
Holistic - The gospel is for the whole person, the whole city, and the whole world.
Missional - Mission is why the church exists.
Community - Community is the context of love and mission.
These three describe the kind of community we endeavor to become. And our community will be characterized by these next statements.
Truth - We are centered around the scriptures and focused upon Jesus who perfectly pictures God the father.
Beauty - God created us to live creatively through the arts and innovation. (Still want to work on describing this DNA piece in a sentence.)
Generosity - Because of God’s radical generosity in creation and in Jesus we strive to live generously as people with our resources, our talents, and our strengths. (Same here, this is too long of a sentence at this point and so still working on some shorthand.)
I plan to have a post more fully describing each of those through the scriptures but there you have it in a nutshell.
So what do you think? I’d love to have, and would really value, your feedback.
Read More: The Big Reveal.
More to come…
January 15th, 2007 at 3:07 pm
Sounds great mate. Where do I sign up to become a member? No seriously - with core values like that I wish you all the best. Maybe a little something of what you understand the gospel to be that is for the whole person, city and world - it seems to be uppermost in Paul’s writings, that people know which gospel he’s talking about - just a thought.
January 15th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
Stephen, Good to see you back with a comment! It might be a bit of a commute for you so maybe you should just relocate all together.
Thanks for the input. Hopefully the idea of the gospel for the whole person, whole city, whole world will come through more fully in the extended discussion of each of the Core DNA. I hope we can do 2 things, 1. describe each piece in a sentence (let’s face it, that’s the most many people will read) and then 2. develop each piece into a longer description to fill it out a bit more (3 paragraphs or so). A third thing might be that ultimately I’d like for us to have a short essay length version.
Anyway, thanks for the input.
January 15th, 2007 at 3:47 pm
nice work. these values are critical, i really like what you’ve got. i’m going through the same process myself in terms of working out values/statements…
Where do you see a core concept like reconciliation fitting in here?
and is this something you want every leader/member to be able to articulate?
and here’s another question, that’s probably a mouthful… besides preaching on it, and the individuals that model it, how else might you create an environment that fosters/cultivates these values?
January 15th, 2007 at 3:59 pm
Great questions Lon on creating environment that fosters the DNA…any thoughts?
I think reconciliation would fit with the ideas of mission and truth. reconciliation is a key concept of the gospel and so it seems to flow with the idea of mission (just a thought off the top of my head).
I do hope our partners (I think this is what we will call “members”) will be able to articulate these.
As you already alluded, we will instill this DNA through many avenues of communication…teaching, speaking, web, etc.
But it will also come through as the basis for evaluation and implementation. That is, we will determine direction and whatnot based upon our Core DNA. This means there are many things we will probably never do. Ex., we will probably never ever have a primary or secondary school of any sort. It doesn’t really fit us.
Those are a few of the things I have been thinking through b/c I see us really spending a lot of time on these as a launch team before our public launch.
thanks again for your comments. How else do you think one could go about casting and facilitating vision and values?
January 15th, 2007 at 4:00 pm
stupid quick keys. That should be “members” w/o the smiley, winking guy…
January 15th, 2007 at 8:45 pm
I look forward to the development of this community.
January 15th, 2007 at 9:02 pm
haha… thanks for sharing Jason.
I’m not sure… that’s why I asked. I’ve heard of all the typical answers in terms of repetitive preaching, modeling, different forms of articulating, visualizing, celebrating, rewarding, all that good stuff… i guess i’m interested in what systems / infrastructure would help facilitate the unleashing of these core values…
January 16th, 2007 at 12:37 pm
i’m halfway through a book called irresitible revolution by shane claiborne. your dna kinda reminds me of this dude a lot. haha. i’ll admit he’s a bit on the radical side, but i’m loving this book. my friends from the boiler room highly recommended it to me, so i couldn’t resist. they’re some of the most passionate people i know. it’s good, if you haven’t read it. this dude explored the same idea of community-focus with those same values at the core of his ministry, the simple way.
January 16th, 2007 at 1:08 pm
Yeah, he is definitely a radical in a good way. He spoke in STL last month but I couldn’t make it over there, I was bummed.
Thanks for the book idea.
June 13th, 2007 at 11:02 am
[…] church might be. To see some examples of core values from other churches, check these out here, here, here, and […]