I am a pastor in the United Methodist Church and I have also been sold on the missional expression of the church. Yet, I ran across this article that explains how pastors are not sold on missional.

This saddens me at many levels. For one, I realize, that until pastors both understand what missional is about (it is not a program, a trip, or a project) and become missional themselves, the church will not be an expression of what God yearns for it to be. I know that is a pretty strong statement, but I believe missional is what God intends for the church.

Instead we have done a pretty good job of making the church about us. We have taken God’s plan for His glory and have turned it around to make it an avenue for our egos (when our churches grow large), or our career (hey, I’m moving to a [larger, better, more cool] new church), or even our self-success (Just look at this [program, great sermon, great teaching, etc]).

If we continue to allow the serving of God to be service to us (our careers, egos, etc), we will never be what God intends for us to be. Instead, we will allow ourselves to become the subject and focus of all that we do, even though it might look otherwise.

Missional is about understanding we are sent by God. God is the subject. It is God’s glory and God’s will at stake. I encourage you to go to this link and read BlindBeggar’s take on it.

I also encourage any and all pastors (especially UMC pastors) to become involved in the conversation. A great place to begin (and I will probably post more on this site) is Allelon.org.