Reclaiming the Word "Missional"

I had the opportunity to meet Alan Hirsch a couple weeks ago, which was a great honor and, of course, included captivating, thoughtful discussion.

As part of his stop at CTI, he did an interview with Leadership journal and Out of Ur. You can find the audio here.

The short clip focuses on what "missional" really means (because everyone seems to be using the word these days), and I've included a few of my notes here:

• A missionary stance toward the culture
  
• Treat neighbors as a cross-cultural environment
  
• Pretend you're in Papua New Guinea and have to learn all about a new culture
  
• There are hundreds of subcultures around us (different music tastes, hobbies, dress code, political thinking, etc)
  

What does an attractional church do if it realizes they need to shift their posture to a more missional mindset?:

• Win the battle of the imagination
  
• Dethrone Constantine (that the Church exists beyond the institution)
  
• Be patient because it's such a huge shift
  
• Everyone has to take an active role and realize they're more than consumers
  
• Know that people will be upset by this shift
  

Listen to the short audio clip for more context.

Exponential: Ed Stetzer

Ed Stetzer is a church planting guru who spoke on the state of church planting in the U.S. and then interviewed a panel of pastors who lead reproducing churches.

• Churches of less than 200 are four times more likely to plant new churches than churches of more than 1000.
• Church planting is hard work and is made easier if you're part of a community of church planters.
• Church planting is the most effective form of evangelism.
• If you want to build multiplication into your DNA you have to put resources toward that.
• Bob Roberts--If you want to be effective at making reproducing churches you have to learn from the other side of the world where it's happening.
• Neil Cole--Complex things break down, simple things multiply. Your church is only as good as your disciples.
• Great preaching is one of the major obstacles to church planting because is makes church mostly about Sunday.
• Another obstacle to church planting is focusing on church instead of society and letting church grow out of that.