Establishing a missional culture: welcome and hospitality

About a year ago a friend was talking about a verse from the Psalms that God had been speaking to them about.  The "God speaking" was a contagious condition.  I'd never noticed them before, but but now can't seem to shake these words:


"God sets the lonely in families, he leads out the prisoners with singing; but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land."  Psalm 68:6.


It's that first phrase that keeps chasing me: God sets the lonely in families.  For me, that gets close to what establishing a missional culture is all about out.  We are working on our lives, communities and churches so that they become a place where the lonely find a place to belong in His family.


Over the summer I've been reading Ian Adams' excellent book; Cave, Refectory, Road. Adams explores the ancient rhythms and practices of Christian monastics and makes some great suggestions about how those principles might help communities and individuals today.  One of those practices, is hospitality.  From their foundations in the ancient world up until the present day,  Monasteries have always been supposed to be place where the stranger, the poor and the lonely are welcomed.

In our own way, my family and I are experiencing a little of the loneliness of the road right now, and also the beauty of welcome and hospitality.  We've recently left Sheffield to live and work in Deal, Kent.  Before I go on, please don't feel too sorry for us, the area is lovely and we're very happy here.  Even so, our lives were recently full of old friends and familiarity and suddenly feel a lot emptier as we start to build relationships all over again.  What has really helped us is the welcome we've received.  Strangers have come round to help us unpack, boxes of food and goodies waited for us when we arrived, friendly smiles and words have been given the end of church.  We are being pulled into a new family.

All of these different things are pushing me towards one realisation: hospitality and welcome are fundamental to a missional culture.  God sets the lonely in families and he wants to do it in our communities.

But good hospitality takes sacrifice.  Lonely people, new people, are often difficult and require effort.  They don't know how the community works, they may not be on board with the vision, they don't get the in jokes.  They may be lonely because they're weird or awkward.  They may be awkward because they're lonely.  They will at times be hard work.

The effort is worth it.  If you can establish a culture of welcome and of hospitality then you're already a long way to getting a missional culture.  The difficult, but new, awkward people are essential to your life and your group; find them and welcome them.

building a missional culture isn’t as easy as a,b,c………..

Here are some of the marks of a M.I.S.S.I.O.N.A.L culture – can you see them in your culture or how could they begin to shape how you and your people live?

M – missional mindset

People who understand that they are 'sent'. People who look to the Great Commission as well as the Great Commandments. People who live sacrificially. People who get out of the boat. People who take on the adventure. People who live life outside the church walls. People who recognise those ready and open to Jesus. People who embrace risk & change.

I – incarnational lifestyle

People who live a missional lifestyle rather than organise missional events. People who have mission at the core of who they are not just the centre of activities that are 'put on'. People who share life as well as a faith with people. People who 'live with and amongst' not 'minister to' people. People who look to be good news to who or where they are placed – home, neighbourhood, work, nursery, golf club, pub, school gates, coffee shop……..

S – scripturally based

People who are grounded in scripture – reading, processing, reflecting, learning, applying, acting, living. People informed and imitating the life of Jesus in the Gospels. People who can feed themselves from the Word. People who have the word of truth as an offensive weapon.

S – spirit led

People who are dependent on the Holy Spirit. People who are empowered by the Holy Spirit. People who follow and join what the Spirit is doing in people & places.

I – Intecessory Prayer

People fuelled by prayer. People with a pattern of personal prayer. People with a pattern of corporate prayer. People sent covered by committed prayer. People who change the spiritual temperature through Intercession. People who win battles in prayer. People whose hearts are broken for the lost through prayer.

O – orbit the centre

People who live life in communities and gather together with the wider family for
Celebration. People who aren't isolated from the resource centre. People who
are resourced, trained and sent from the central church. People who return to
tell war stories. People who are healed up from battle scars.

N – neighbourhood or network

People who know who (network – social, demographic, interest, ethnicity) or where (neighbourhood) they are called to be Good News. People who live out the Good news in their networks or neighbourhoods. People who connect with people. People who recognise People of Peace. People who understand and live Luke 10.

A – active participation

People who aren't consumers of a Christian product on a Sunday. People who participate in the adventure & life of their community. People who play their part. People who 'have a go'. People who step out of the boat. People who produce vision and grow maturity in others.

L – lay led

People who don't depend on Christian 'super heroes'. People who don't abdicate
responsibility to the pastor and staff. People who step up and take responsibility
for who & where they are called to lead & live.

Posted by Rich

Establishing a Missional Culture continued

In thinking about establishing a missional culture, I came up with 3 steps:

1. Know what that culture will look like


2. Make sure it's missional


3. Establish it

Seems pretty simple when I say it like that, eh? Obviously it's not quite as easy as 1-2-3 so let's look at those steps in a bit more detail.

1. Know what that culture will look like

You could describe this as starting with the end in mind - you don't need to have everything planned out in detail before you begin, but you do need to know your destination so that you can take steps in that direction.

Think about what good news would look like in the neighbourhood or network that God has given you a vision for.

Think about what values are important to you as leader(s). What do you want your community to look and feel like? Do you want to eat together? Do you want to pray regularly for friends, family and colleagues? Do you want a culture of openness and honesty?

Answering some of these questions before you begin will help you steer yourself and your community in that direction.

2. Make sure it's missional

We are people who are sent out, called to look out on our world and cry out for God's kingdom to come. We are invited to be part of God's mission and take his truth, grace and love to the places and people who need it.

The culture you establish needs to have mission as it's starting and ending point. It needs to be the lifeblood that flows through it, that guides your community and gives it momentum.

It's often when a community is new that it's hardest to be missional. A lot of time and energy goes on getting to know one another, hearing from God about what he wants to do with you, deciding when, where and how often you want to meet. These are all important aspects of building community and connecting to God.

But it's important that you don't forget to include mission and there are simple things you can do to keep it running through the life of your community. Prayer walk around your neighbourhood. Talk about your missional vision and what good news would look like. Tell each other who your people of peace are and pray for them. Give testimony about opportunities to pray for colleagues.

3. Establish it

Once you know what culture you want your community to have and you're sure it's missional, you need to make sure that you actually begin to live it!

Let's say you've decided that you want your community to have a culture of openness and honesty. Great, but it can be all too easy to avoid this at the beginning, especially if you don't know each other very well. It's so important, though, to build this in from the start as it can be very difficult to change later on. As a leader, you can choose to set an example by modelling wthe openness and honesty that you're hoping will become part of your community culture.

You may have decided that an important value of your community will be having a bring and share meal every time you meet. At the beginning it may be easier for you as the leader(s) to provide a full meal, rather than asking people to contribute to a new community. After all, hospitality is important too. But you may inadvertently set a culture where people expect that a meal will be provided for them. Instead, start as you mean to go on.

This can be done in a very low bar way - you don't need to ask a visitor to make a lasagne for 8 people! You could simply tell them that your community always has a bring and share meal and you'd love it if they could bring a drink or a packet of biscuits.

And don't forget to establish mission right from the beginning. It's often hardest to be missional when a community is new. A lot of time and energy goes on getting to know one another, hearing from God about his plan for your community and the practical things like deciding when, where and how often you want to meet. These are important aspects of building community and connecting to God.

But it's important that you don't forget to include mission and there are simple things you can do to keep it running through the life of your community. Get to know each other by talking about who your people of peace are - and then pray for them. Take time to listen to God by prayer walking around your neighbourhood. Talk again and again about the missional vision of your community. Give testimony about what God has done through you as well as in you.

So there you go - Steps 1, 2 and 3 for establishing a missional culture!

Establishing a Missional Culture Part 2

Today, here are 2 ways to establish a missional culture. They are both about learning to be part of God’s mission involving new ways of approaching the shape of our week, different from the ways our culture or our past experiences have influenced us to do life. You might want to apply it both to your own journey of learning how to do this, and to how you lead.

1 Establish Missional Rhythms

Learning to live differently takes time and spiritual disciplines allow God, over time, to change us. You may already be familiar with spiritual disciplines such as bible reading, fasting or celebration, try to think creatively about what missional spiritual disciplines you and your community could use. Perhaps you could learning to prayer walk an area, to talk to new people on the commute to work or a regular commitment to be in a public place where people gather. What could you do on a daily, weekly or seasonal basis? A group of my friends choose to spend just under an hour straight after work one day a week walking particular roads of the estate they live in. They prayed for it, talked to anyone they met who seemed friendly and often bought take away prawn crackers to share. Some weeks there were great stories of people they met or answers to prayer, but many weeks seemed un eventful. Over time they got to know people and a group now gather weekly in one of their houses for worship, food and bible reading. What missional discipline would help you invest time to allow God to teach you and use you in his mission? What might this look like this summer? Allow God space to surprise you by what he does.

2 Establish missional Accountability

Building on a missional rhythm, accountability about how your missional spiritual disciplines are going helps it to be a journey of learning about mission and not an event that you just do. When it’s difficult, scary or more likely you just feel tired or bored, sharing your journey with others helps you decide what you want to do about that. Sometimes it might be time to step it up and add another level of challenge, if you’ve been going making new friends is it time to offer to pray with them? Or time to invite people along to something? Alternatively you might be pushing yourself too hard and you need to learn to relax and just be available in a place and let God surprise you. On Saturday I managed to run 2.5k around the local park. On my own I would never have made it, but I was running alongside my sister in law. Partly just the shared nature gave me encouragement to keep going, but also as I started to flag ¾ of the way along, her simple running wisdom on my failure to breathe properly allowed me to make the finish line. Learn to let others encourage and challenge you in your pursuit of a missional lifestyle. Where do you already have accountable relationships? As part of this do you discuss what you are learning about mission? Allow others to be part of what you learn.

Todays two reflections are not quick wins to a missional culture. The culture we live in can encourage us to live quite isolated lives and without deciding otherwise we can slip into a lifestyle where we are not meeting new people. The church culture some of us have grown up in may not have taught us alternative ways of living that make mission a natural part of our way of life. Rhythms of mission and accountability are two ways God can teach us to live differently from these assumed patterns. How could you inspire those you lead to take on missional spiritual disciplines? What ways can you include missional accountability in the discipleship or leadership structures you already have?