There is an excellent post on how differently we must think about measuring success in missional communties by Pernell Goodyear, a leader at The Freeway in Hamilton, Ontario. (Thanks Paul) There is much here to consider if you are a church planter as well as someone who is in the position of coaching/mentoring planters.

I would recommend reading the entire post here and be sure to check out what The Freeway is doing in Ontario. But to wet your appetite here is just a bit of Parnell’s post as he shares six realities of what it means when a community truly moves toward missional living.

1.  It meant that Sunday services could no longer be the main focus of our week. If attracting people to our top-notch services wasn’t the point, and living missionally was, then we should spend less time and focus on Sundays and actually encourage people to not come unless they needed to.

2.  It meant that rather than creating and maintaining church programs, we should set out to intentionally and organically be-friend one another and our neighbours. We should seek hospitality and justice and deep community together as we respond to the call of Jesus in each one of us.

3.  It meant that we would lose two thirds of the people who actually join us (we would lose many more “Christian tourists” who come to check things out, and many of the folks who want the church to be a “self-help” group). One third would leave disgruntled. One third would leave as Jesus called them on to new and exciting missional ventures (often they are some of our brightest and best folks). One third would stay and continue to learn to live out mission as a community.

4.  It meant that we would lose money. Lots of money. Many of the people who leave are the best financial supporters.

5.  It meant that our tribe [or denomination] would need to be very patient with us and that we would need to intentionally foster relationships with the “powers that be” because our monthly statistic forms and financial records would be terrible indicators of Kingdom activity. Much time had to be invested listening to each other and creating space for each other. (Thankfully our Kingdom-focused leaders have been a brilliant support to us.)

6.  It meant that we would never have a good answer to the “important questions” (insert sarcasm here) like, “How many people are you guys getting now?” To which I like to respond “10 or 12″… I just like to watch the expression on their faces. Or, “What percentage of people are involved in small/cell/house groups?” To which I usually respond “about zero”.