What is a Missional Community?
Definition: A Missional Community is a committed group of Jesus followers, the size of an extended family (12-25), empowered by the Spirit, to participate in God’s mission of redemption in a particular neighborhood and/or network.
There are 7 key phrases in this definition:
Committed group. They are devoted to each other and to the mission of the community.
Jesus followers. They are maturing disciples who are following Jesus’ lead.
Extended family. The group is small enough to care, yet large enough to dare.
Empowered by the Spirit. They are formed and sent by the Spirit.
Participate in God’s mission. The missio Dei is organizing principle of all they do.
Of redemption. They will engage in both Gospel proclamation and demonstration.
Neighborhood or network. They are embedded in a neighborhood or network of relationships as an incarnational expression of the church.
Hopefully, this definition offers a framework to differentiate a missional community from a traditional small group, but at the same time it provides enough flexibility not to be too rigid. It is important as you define what a missional community looks like in your context that you not be too prescriptive. In other words, allow each missional community to be unique to their context and mission.
All missional communities will not (and should not) look alike. Remember mission is the mother of adaptive ecclesiology. Which means that if we begin with God’s mission (missiology) then there will be lots of wild and wonderful expressions of church (ecclesiology).
