Right now we are going through a two week series entitled "missional".  Over the last several years the term missional has become quite the buzz word in evangelical circles.  Seemingly, there are many who grab buzz words and attach them to their church missions statement or core values without even considering or defining what these words or phrases actually mean.  I, however, would like to clearly explain what missional means so that I am not guilty of doing the same thing.  Rather than merely having the word included in our missions statement, I would prefer to see it played out in our church culture... that the people who make up our church know what it means and know how to live it out.  

 The basic characteristic of a missional church starts with the people.  And what I mean by that is that a church is not simply creating an evangelistic program called "missional" and now we can be called a missional church. Rather, I think it has to come down to the people.  

So, I think the real question is... are the people missional and how can we gage that? We can gage this by asking ourselves one question... "do our people, as a whole, care about the common good in our city and our world?"

To be missional is to live life as a missionary. A good missionary contextualizes the Gospel wherever he or she is placed. This means that the missionary understands the people of whom they are engaging with in the Gospel.  The problem with many Christians is that we have an "us" and "them" mentality in regards to how we relate to those who do not know Jesus.  Sometimes we have created such a subculture we often do not see the needs of those around us or even share the same concerns. 

Jesus was the perfect example of what it means to live as a missionary.  He "made himself nothing (or emptied himself), taking the form of a servant..." (Phil. 2:7).  Jesus was often for the common good. Jesus' ministry was full of feeding the poor, healing the sick, causing the blind to see, etc.  but he did so to display the beauty of the Gospel. 

My good friend Winfield Bevins speaks further on this topic:

So, when we talk about missional... I want us to pled with God to show us where we do not see the needs in our city and in our world.  I hope we can display the Gospel of Jesus by the way we love those in our neighborhood, in our work place, in our schools, etc.  Let us ask God to allow us see the world through the lens of the Gospel and not through the lens of cultural Christianity.  Lord, help us be missional. 

Why do I preach through books of the Bible?

We are currently working through the book of Galatians in our church.  Typically we teach through books of the Bible, with the exception of an occasional short series on a specific doctrine.  However, most of our teaching is expositional which means we walk through books of the Bible verse by verse, line by line and we expound on the meaning.  At first glance, it may sound really boring and I think one of the common misconceptions for expositional preaching is that the preacher has no freedom to be creative.  Another concern that tends to be raised is that we "lose people" by preaching through books and the average church attender is more interested in application and not information.  With all that being said, it seems, that for a young church planter, the worst option for me would be to preach expositionally.  In this blog post I hope to show you just the opposite.  Here are several reasons why expositional preaching has worked well for our church:

1. It forces the pastor to wrestle with difficult texts.
For one, I personally would want a pastor that has to deal with preaching through difficult parts of Scripture.  Not everything in Scripture has to be deep and hard to grasp.  But, when dealing with the character of God (issues like the Trinity, pre-destination, the end times, the atonement, His wrath, etc.) things can get a little tricky. Since I am an imperfect being, I tend to want to avoid the hard parts of Scripture.  Thankfully, preaching through books of the Bible forces me to deal with verses that I typically would want to steer away from.  Recently, as a church, we were in chapter 5 of Galatians. In verse 12 Paul is using a massive amount of uncomfortable sarcasm... so much that he tells these Judiazers (who think they are spiritual because they are the "circumcised group") to emasculate themselves.  Now, typically I would want to stay away from explaining passages like that but now I prayerfully and obediently study God's Word with hope to bring Him glory. 

This is a great quote by Martin Lloyd Jones:

"One advantage in preaching through a book of the Bible... is that it compels us to face every single statement, come what may, and stand before it, and look at it, and allow it to speak to us. Indeed it is interesting to observe that not infrequently certain well-known Bible teachers never face certain Epistles at all in their expositions because there are difficulties which they are resolved to avoid." 

I thank God that I have to wrestle with difficult texts of scripture.

2. It shows the congregation how to hear from God.
God is Sovereign and in control of all things.  Therefore, by preaching through a book, I am not waking up on Monday morning and thinking "our church is not giving properly... I should preach on stewardship".  Rather, I am saying "okay, this is where we were last week and this is where we are now".  I am putting the message in the hands of God.  My prayer is "Lord, use your Word to speak to our people" and since He is in control of all things, the passage that we just happen to be working through is exactly what our people need to hear that morning. Thank God that He is in control and not me!

3. It shows us Scripture in context.
Rather than taking a topic and using a multitude of verses to support a theme I am using one passage in context. This allows the hearer to see Scripture as whole, rather than quick glances. 

4. It does not have to be boring.
I would like to say that it is a sin to preach boring sermons, but I won't. We are expounding on the great truths of the One True God and God has designed me a certain way so that my personality can come out through my preaching.  People ultimately need to see Jesus through the preaching but they also hear it from me.  I can avoid being a boring preacher by being real when I preach.  For some of younger preachers, we have a tendency to try to be the next John Piper, Mark Driscoll, or Matt Chandler. The truth is . . . MOST of us are not going to be those guys.  Most of us are just going to be Joe Preacher.  Now, this doesn't mean that our preaching needs to be average but it does mean that we need to be fine with being who we are.  The sooner we realize that the better for us and the better for our congregations. Creative preaching comes from finding out who we are.  It comes from us trying to figure out how God has uniquely created us so that we might be the preachers that God wants us to be.  Boring sermons come from the preacher not being gripped by the Scriptures.  How can we be gripped when we are trying to be someone that we are not!?

5. It gets our congregation to have an interest in reading the Scriptures. 
My hope is that my congregation can go home and study what we are working through on Sunday. They can read through and pray over questions, thoughts, applications, etc.  They also know what is coming.  They can look ahead and see what we are going to be hitting next. This gives them a chance to pray for their heart to be ready to hear more about a particular passage and they can pray for me as I prepare it and they will know specifically how to pray for that.

6. It draws our body together. 
Since I am wrestling with the tough passages, our whole church is too!  This creates an opportunity for our people to dialogue about the Scriptures, which builds a since of community and accountability in our church.  It really is a fun thing to watch.

I am truly thankful for the riches that we find in digging through the Scriptures.  I am thankful for the opportunity that God gives me to preach through His Word.  I pray that I would be a better expository preacher and our people would be better expository listeners.  The vision in my preaching is endless... it's what Paul desired for the church of Galatia (Gal. 4:19) "that Christ would be formed in you".  Christ can only be formed in us if we seek to know Him more.

The following are resources on preaching that I have found helpful:

"Christ Centered Preaching" by Bryan Chapell

"The Supremacy of God in Preaching" by John Piper

"Him We Proclaim: Preaching Christ from All the Scriptures" by Dennis Johnson

-Ben