Recently, I’ve been listening to Reggie McNeal and he has some very interesting points on the role of the church. Reggie is a Missional Leadership Specialist at Leadership Network and he champions for the church to return to its missional identity. The first thing that comes to mind when we hear about “missional” is cross-cultural missions. But being missional is so much more than that. It is a paradigm shift both in identity and action.
One example that Reggie gave was the airport. The success of an airport is not measured by how many planes are parked on the ground, “close” to the terminal. Neither is it measured by the number of passengers it has in the lobby; it is not a case of “the more the merrier”. Airports serve a function and that is to connect people to their destination. The more people that an airport connects, the more successful it is. In the same measure, the church is like an airport - it is a connector. And the destination? The kingdom of God. The problem comes when we mix it up and think that the church is the destination when it is the connector. If we can see this, then we understand that ministries, cell groups, you and I – all of these are connectors. And this frees us up to “be” church wherever we are; it is no longer constrained within buildings or programs. This is really the best part, because we get to connect people to the kingdom, and that is where life truly is.
