Friday Missional Story: Missional Reboot

cross posted from my blog www.intheway.missionaltribe.org

Last September my friends Adam and Diana Clay spent a weekend at a bed and breakfast in Fort Worth. As they talked the owners who are Christians found out that Adam is a church planter. They had purchased an old Church of Christ building and set it up as a wedding chapel (Lockhart Chapel).

They had been trying to get someone to start a church in the building. They had approached Southwestern Theological Seminary, but the seminary never got back with them. They asked Adam to pray about it. They felt there should be a church in the neighborhood, but didn't feel like it was there role to begin one.

Adam brought it to the City on a Hill Connection team. We prayed. We prayer walked the community. As we did, we felt that God did indeed want us to work in that community.

The struggle began and we discussed it before we said yes. Would having a church building change the way we see our mission? Would we be able to keep our DNA? Did God want us to look beyond our ideas of models?

Our first event was in December 2008 just before Christmas. We held a community Christmas carnival. Since then we did a superbowl party pack, and had a prayer clinic. In all of that God has brought in two folks from the community, both believers.

A little over a week ago, I started feeling like we were drifting from our mission. We were becoming to oriented to the Sunday gathering rather than our mission. I felt that we really had not spent the time and effort that we really need to with the two people that God had brought to us. If they were there, they were there for a reason. Both are having some significant struggles in their lives.

Last Sunday, all of us that God had called into this effort, had the opportunity to huddle. Neither of our regular folks from the community had come, which really was an answer to my prayers. I wanted to spend time talking to Adam, Diana, and Lou.

As we did, I found out they were having similar concerns. We were drifting away from the things that we value. We were letting the two guys that God had given us down and we were too focused on the Sunday afternoon gathering.

So, what does that mean? After Easter, we will re-orient. We will be hosting our network wide Easter gathering, so we don't want to try to do that while shifting our approach and work in the community.

The Sunday gatherings will be a time of worship. We'll still have them so that if someone in the community comes in they'll find us. Most of our energy will be dedicated to developing our relationships with the folks that God has brought into our lives. We'll meet with them during the week as well. This will involve more time and effort as most of us live quite some distance from the neighborhood. Our efforts to reach the community will begin with our two guys and trying to reach their neighbors and friends.

We are not disappointed in what's happened so far. But it's good to re-examine and make sure we are tracking with the Lord. In this case, we believe we had drifted off course. Fortunately, God is able to re-0rient us.