Smaller churches with a missional mindset

The past couple of days I've been with some wonderful church leaders in the American Baptist Churches of the Great Rivers Region leading a workshop that addresses how to help a smaller church transition from a maintenance-mindset to a missional one.  It was a joy to be with these church leaders and the leadership of the Region and share with them some of the ideas that come out of my book Intentional Ministry in a Not-So-Mega Church: Becoming a Missional Community. 

Many of our smaller churches have a maintenance-mindset that has greatly limited their impact on their communities.  These churches have an inward focus rather than an outward one, they seek chaplains rather than pastors to lead them, they work very hard to preserve their resources instead of using those resources for ministry, and they see missions as something they support instead of do.  Most of these churches are either plateaued or declining with the majority of them in decline.  They can often survive for decades in this state, but for all practical purposes they have forfeited their right to call themselves a church.  They long ago forgot their purpose for existence was is to impact their communities with the Gospel.

The good news is that these churches can change and become more missional in their understanding of their ministry.  As they develop a more outward focus and recognize that their primary mission field is within their own communities they can see lives changed through their ministry.  Such a transition does not occur quickly; in fact it can take years to transform a church from being maintenance-minded to missional.  The important thing is to begin making that transition and doing it in a way that makes it more likely to succeed.

This is why these small church leaders attended these workshops this week.  They know their churches can do much more than they are currently doing, but they needed help in knowing how to lead their churches in the needed transition.  The Region provided copies of my book to the pastors attending the workshops, and we spent the day at two workshops discussing the steps their churches need to take to become more missional in their ministries.

Would you describe your church as maintenance or missional?  What kind of impact is your church making on its community, or is it even involved in the community at all?  How much of everything your church does is for itself and how much of it is for persons outside your church membership?  Does your church need to make the transition discussed above?  You can start by reading my book.  As you think about hnow to implement the ideas you'll find there you may want to ask your denominational or judicatory leader to invite me to lead this workshop for the small church leaders in your judicatory.  I would love to help your church become more missional in its approach to ministry.