This summer my eight-year-old discovered a new love for fishing. Any given day you’d find him ankle deep in mud at the local pond with a pole, a worm, and a prayer. It’s amazing how much time he would spend out in the heat staring at a bobber floating across the water. And it was fun watching him discover unconventional ways in trying to catch a fish without ever having to touch a worm.
 
While he was smitten with the idea of catching a fish, he had developed a pretty serious resistance to both putting on the bait and touching the fish. In the angler world, this is a problem.
 
So he developed new strategies for fishing when I wasn’t there to help. Often this meant combining tackle not designed to go together and usually ended with a knotted mess of fishing line. When I’d get home for the day, I could always tell he went fishing by the presence of his mud-layered fishing pole sitting on the front porch needing to be restrung. I was bailing him out constantly.

One Saturday morning we were fishing, going through the regular routine. I baited the hook and I threw out the line for him. When a fish bit, I set the hook and handed the pole to him, he reeled it in, and then I removed the hook from the fish’s mouth.
 
The next time I tried to let him do it. But I still ended up rebaiting the hook, throwing out the line again, helping him set the hook, and handing him the pole so he could reel in the fish. After watching him stumble for about five minutes, he asked me to remove the hook from the fish’s mouth. We did this all morning.
 
My line never hit the water.
 
When we got home, Jen asked how we did. With a grin on his face he proudly reported that he had caught eight fish and that Dad had caught exactly zero. Noticing the strange face I was suddenly making, he turned to me and said, “That’s okay, Dad, you’ll catch a fish someday.”
 
Our perception is our reality. You’ve probably heard that before. However, our perceived reality is not always the truth. We perceive through the lens of biasness, woundedness, insecurity, selfishness, and an inflated opinion of ourselves.
 
We know that nothing valuable in ministry happens without God’s movement, that our ability is through the Spirit, and that we’re called by his grace. He orchestrates movement, provides resources, and crosses our paths with other people. He overcomes our inadequacies, enables and empowers us to respond to their need, and yet we often claim the glory.
 
Glory cannot be shared. Either we get it or God gets it.

Success should first and foremost be determined by who gets the glory for spiritual movement. Too often we give credit to a program, hard work, or creative insight and chalk up every unexplainable victory to good leadership. There are some glaring faults to this logic. And it exposes a real deficiency in the way we view both ourselves and the church.
 
We must learn to view success as God views success. Since his ways are higher than our ways, only then will we truly give him credit. Until then we keep it, and it has no eternal value. We may say we do what we do to his glory, but if we’re not doing what the Bible says to do, it’s
still about us.
 
Jesus taught that every ounce of value found in obedience, sacrifice, and discipline hangs on the command to love God and to love our neighbor (Matthew 22: 39 – 40). It only makes sense to view success through the lens of both.

We fall short personally when our pursuit is to be “first” among our Christian onlookers. Organizationally, we fall short by our internal focus and neglect of those on the outside. How can we love our neighbor and neglect the very things tied to how they perceive us? If we were to truly view success by our faithfulness to Jesus’ command to put others first, it would change our posture to the outside world.
 
Reggie McNeil reminds us in his book Missional Renaissance that externally focused leaders must take their cues from the needs and opportunities of their environment. We have to care what’s going on outside the walls of our church. We must always look for ways to bless and serve our communities. In order to shift our focus, we must shift much of our calendar, resources, and energy to people who are not already a part of our church.
 
If we’re going to become good news to a broken world, we have to change the way we are viewed by the world. We have to care more about how we measure up to our onlookers than we do our peers. We have to become more externally focused by changing the scorecard based on our impact in the world, not the survivability of our various church forms. “No strategy, tactics, or clever marketing campaign could ever clear away the smokescreen that surrounds Christianity in today’s culture. The perception of outsiders will change only when Christians strive to represent the heart of God in every relationship and situation.” (Gabe Lyons, Unchristian)
 
The problem is that many church leaders have spent their entire leadership lives in pursuit of building organizations that rise to the apex of church industry standards. “Changing values and motivations is not easy, but nothing less will accomplish this shift (McNeil)." We will not make the shift from an internal focus to an external focus unless we are willing to change the way we view success. We cannot shift the way we do church without shifting the
way we view church.

Excerpted from "Barefoot Church: Serving the Least in a Consumer Culture" by Brandon Hatmaker

The missional church movement has been quite interesting to watch over the last few years. This is especially true as we’ve attempted over-and-over to clearly define what it actually means to be missional.
 
So here’s a quick attempt at bringing some clarity to the subject of “Missional” in the context of church. It’s not an exhaustive list… but it's some of the stuff I've learned and am still learning along the way.
 

1. Indeed “Missional Church” should be a redundant title. Unfortunately it’s not. Bottom line, every church should seek to be missional (sent) in one form or another. How does that look? I can’t tell you because I don’t know where you live, work, and do ministry. But whatever it is, it must be culturally contextual and gospel-centered. The gospel doesn’t change. The method does. 
2. While the word may seem faddish, the heart of “Missional” is not a “fad”. It’s not a phase, a trend, or a strategy to plant a church… if anything it’s a "strategy" to plant the Gospel. It’s not just another “seeker sensitive” effort to do church better. It’s has to be an honest attempt to model the incarnation of Christ believing that to do so means to live as a sent people. If It’s not, it’s not missional.
3. “Missional” is not a return to a historical social gospel. Relax. The modern missional movement does not attempt to reduce the gospel to form or function. It doesn’t seek to hurry the return of Jesus by fixing things. It does not claim to be THE gospel… it claims to be a part of the gospel: One that is doctrinal, personal, AND social. One that saves, transforms, AND renews.
4. “Missional” in its purest form is inextricably linked to biblical Discipleship. Every believer is disciple and every disciple a missionary. Both across the street and across the tracks. Let’s return to our greatest commission… it’s not one that makes converts… it’s one that challenges us to live and teach a new way of living… to make disciples who live like Jesus beyond Sunday. Only then will we embody good news.
5. “Missional” is bigger than serving the poor. You can serve the poor all day long and still be a jerk to your neighbor. Missional is a posture with everyone you come in contact with. It’s a response to truly loving and understanding mercy. The kind of love and insight that you can’t help but extend to others. That said, serving the least is a huge part of a missional posture no matter who you are. I’ve come to believe that mission (serving the poor) is one of the greatest teachers of missional (loving your neighbor).
6. “Missional” does not capture fully the essence of church. We are clearly called to worship God in two forms: By our lives (missional/incarnational), and by our affections, voice, and collective attention (exaltation/proclamation/etc). We’ve clearly been called to two directions of relationship: (1) Vertical and (2) Horizontal. We live our faith vertically to God and horizontally to others. This is nothing new and is laced throughout scripture: The first four of the Ten Commandments are about us in relationship with God (vertical), the last six about our relationship with one another (horizontal). The Sermon on the Mount where Jesus listed the Beatitudes in Matthew 5 (Which I believe to be a pretty good outline on a new discipleship in Jesus), Jesus lists eight things… the first four have to do with us and our attitude towards God (vertical) and the last four have to do with our attitude and response towards each other (horizontal). Finally, Jesus himself when quizzed on the greatest of all the commandments responded, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (vertical) … And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself (Horizontal).”
7. Honestly, I’m not sure I have a #7. But I feel weird about ending on 6. If I had one it’d be about the word “Missional” itself. Admittedly, it’s probably not a great word choice. Mostly because of our history with the word mission and missions. It’s a tad confusing. “Missions”, although a part of it, by itself is not “Missional” (see #5). One is something we do… the other is a posture. We’ve overused and abused the word to a fault. Unfortunately it’s become a junk-drawer word that annoys people. We’ve got missional ministries, missional efforts, missional communities, missional mailouts, missional staplers, and missional soundboards in our missional soundbooths. But I think maybe it’s a term that’s worth fighting for now that we’re learning to sift through the static. I like using it in tandem with the word Incarntional. Maybe missional is the “what” and Incarnational is the “how”. Or maybe we do what my friend Hugh Halter suggests and just use “missionaryish”. Would that help any? 

Today, "visitation" and other evangelism efforts seem to have given way to other strategies that are super creative and innovative. Pastors and church leaders have certainly learned to speak the language of our culture. But the question is: to which culture are we speaking?

Here's what I mean by that: I recently had a friend send me a pic of a facebook group called "Missional Wear". This is a very creative group that makes Christian t-shirts and accessories designed to create conversation. Honestly, their stuff is really good. Way better than the "His Pain. Your Gain." shirt I wore in college. And who wouldn't want a beer glass with a picture of Charles Spurgeon on it?

But I would argue that it's not Missional.

Missional is a posture. It's a way of life. It requires being present and making true friendships. Missional doesn't get in a hurry. Honestly, Christian t-shirts and "tracts" might actually get in the way of missional. Missional doesn't assume someone wants to talk with a total stranger about faith. In fact, Missional might be a little suspicious if they did.

Now, hear me out... first of all, their product is really awesome (Best I've seen). And there can be MUCH fruit from wearing it, owning it, and leading with it. I'm not arguing that. What I am arguing is that this type of thing is more a form of direct evangelism than it is a missional posture. It's a different thing.

But what I'm doing is not missional. It's biblical. It's necessary. And it's certainly a PART of being missional (Personally I don't believe you can truly engage culture and ignore the needs of culture). But going on a mission trip, sponsoring a child overseas,  even pouring yourselves out for a community renewal project in your city does not fully encompass the idea of Missional.

I had a conversation with a pastor not that long ago talking about taking a trip to help children displaced from their homes in Haiti. He's words: "This is gonna really be missional."

I'm not sure that it is.

I don't want to confuse the issue. In fact, the reason I've written this post is to add clarity (and maybe offer a little redirection). One of the most important things we can do is expand our understanding of what a missional posture can and should involve, not capture it or reduce it to form or function. Missions is a part of Missional. Evangelism is a part of Missional. But by themselves, too often fall short of communicating a holistic Gospel that saves, transforms, and renews.

Thoughts?

For a while now I have been in contact with and riding with a non-profit biker organization called the Guardians of the Children. Their vision is three fold: To (1) provide protection for victims of child abuse, (2) to provide assistance to families, and (3) increase public awareness of abuse in it’s many forms.
 
After a season as a “probationary member” of the Hill Country Chapter, I’ve recently had the honor of being “patched in” as a member and am now part of an incredible group of men forming the Austin Chapter becoming the 24th GOC chapter spread across 11 states (Picture: "Cholos" getting patched by Hill Country President "Oz" and VP "Burnout".)
 
As a part of the Austin biker community, we’ve been invited to be a part of two major associations. The first is the Confederation of Clubs and Independents. The second is the United Clubs of Austin. Each with several hundred bikers involved. Each run by an elected board of bikers representing the various clubs through out the central Texas and Austin areas. Literally every Biker club and organization of every kind is represented in this group.

Bikers certainly come with a stereotype. Just like any group of people... a typically unfair stereotype... based on a small group of people ruining it for the rest. That said, I've learned a lot from the biker community. In fact, those I've spent the most time around and now consider good friends are some of the best people I know. They've taught me a lot about unconditional acceptance and unity.

But to be honest with you, I wasn't so sure what I'd find among such a large number of patched members of varying clubs all in one room together. Here’s what I’ve found…
 
These two organizations represent an amazing group of men (and women) and the associations created are really doing what they’ve set out to do: Foster brotherhood and benefit our community in ways that not one of us can do alone.
 
Last Wednesday I sat in a meeting with 300+ bikers that announced and coordinated 8 different benefits that will be held through the holiday season. These events will assist everyone from local Children’s Shelters, to orphanages, to families in need. This, just following an announcement that one of our ‘brothers’ had a kid needing heart surgery and has to raise $10K before the procedure will be approved. A hat was passed around… literally a hat… and more than $3K was raised in a matter of 5 minutes. Then we closed the meeting with a short devotional by our chaplain... everyone stood and took off their hats... and we prayed. Meeting adjourned.
 
Now, It’d be one thing to say this was a unique meeting and that this kind of thing is rare… but it’s not. It happens every time.
 
I’ve seen grown men, presidents of their club, come before the UCOA asking for help as his wife is dying from cancer. I’ve seen clubs stand, invite, and support one another as they rallied around the wife of a member who lost his life in a recent accident. I’ve seen benefit after benefit. Gift after gift.
 
And I’ve seen a code among these men that refuse to do anything but show loyalty and respect to one another (as long as they show loyalty and respect back).
 
Many of these men are veterans, not all are without a history, present and past… but they’re rallying to try and do as much good as they know how. Like most of us, we don’t always succeed at that, but we’re learning… and more than anything… we’re trying.
 
Things aren’t always as they seem.
 
Next time someone rolls up next to you at a stoplight on their Harley, don’t reach over and lock your doors or roll up your window. Fellas, you don't have to try and look tough. Maybe just give a nod. Maybe a smile. But don’t make assumptions. Maybe he won’t do the same about you.

Bear with me, this won't take long.

I woke up early this morning to work on a new training for an upcoming conference. I'll be speaking primarily to pastors seeking to turn their church inside out, hoping to make missionaries out of consumers.

And when I say missionaries... I mean people who aren't afraid to invite a neighbor to dinner. Someone willing to program into their lives one whole day a month to "loving" other people and another day to "bless" a stranger. Someone who can actually cross the street and ring a doorbell with a plate of cookies (or bottle of wine).

Wait. Is that what I really mean? Does that define an American missionary? Could this really be all there is to the modern Missional Movement.

The answer is no. There's more to it than that. The truth is however, that we've fallen so far from a biblical understanding of "living on mission", that we've had to reduce our instruction to the lowest form of Sentness. We do this to help baby-step people into their mission field. Because, well... because people don't really want to do this.

But I'm NOT convinced that we DON'T know how to make friends or to be a blessing (yes, that was a double negative). I'm pretty sure we know how to be nice. We know how to be a friend. We know how to not be selfish. It's just that we are.

After working on my session this morning, I read this BLOG that my wife wrote yesterday from Haiti. For some perspective, do yourself a favor and read it. Try not to start making excuses for yourself and dismiss it half way through... just read it (sorry, I should give you more credit than that). Be honest with God. Take a look at the church you see in America and the kind of "hope" we hope for. See the difference?

Is it possible we're missing the point?

If you've read my book Barefoot Church, you know I'm not a guy who just likes to deconstruct the church. I love the church. I will fight for the church. There is always hope for her. But it starts with repentance and transparency about where we truly are, not an illusion of where we think we are.

Today, I'm simply peeling back another layer of scales off my own eyes. While there are amazing leaders and churches out there who are truly teaching and living a holistic gospel and who are making disciples who live on mission, it's still the vast minority. I'm thrilled that we are in a moment of time that we're entertaining new and innovative thinking in regards to mission... but as we start leaning that way... my prayer is that we identify a true biblical mission centered on Christ and His Gospel, one that loves mercy and seeks justice, and one that doesn't settle with just being "nice".

All this to say... keep going. Keep teaching people to cross the street and cross the tracks. Encourage random acts of kindness and city-wide service projects. They are necessary steps in getting us off center and moving us towards biblical discipleship and true mission. But don't stop there. Paint a bigger picture from the beginning. Help people know their trajectory. Point them towards a Gospel that saves, a Gospel that transforms, and a Gospel that renews a very broken and desperate world in need of Good News.

It's official... I'm going to be leading an online group this fall for leaders leading others through the Barefoot Church Primer. This will include an interactive daily blog and weekly leader video blog. Full details coming soon but we're targeting a September 24th starting date. In the meantime, let me know of your interest by listing your name, church, city, state, and any question or comment you might have in the comment section below.

Click HERE to learn more about what we'll cover in the 8 wk study by reading the "Hole in our Discipleship" BLOG.

Order Barefoot Church Primers online at a discounted rate by clicking HERE.

One of the greatest challenges is found in how the church responds to our culture’s call and concern for social action. We’ve been here before… and it ended poorly. A historical social gospel scares all of us, and it should, social action should never become our gospel.

But it should be a huge part of the life of a Disciple.

Church leaders, here is my proposal: As we make disciples, it is our responsibility to teach our people to serve outside the church. It’s as simple as that. We have to empower them, equip them, and release them. We have to help them understand why we’re calling them to serve others. We have to explain the reasoning, the hope, and the impact it will have on us, those we serve, and the collective posture of the church.

But most of us simply tell our people to go serve, and assume they know how.

Here’s what I’m learning: Most of our people don’t know how. Neither do most of us. The number one question I hear as I spend time with church leaders around the nation is “Where do I begin?”