Missional, missional, missional. You’ll hear that word a lot in and around The Hallows Church. We are a worshipping, missional community. We are a network of missional communities. We value missional strategy. You can tell the word means a lot to us, but what exactly does it mean?
You’ll hear this word a lot around Christianity. You’ll hear it a lot because of how God came on mission through Jesus, and then commissioned his disciples, us, to continue that mission. It is in the very core of the gospel message. God came through his Son Jesus to live a life we could not live and to die a death we deserved to die, reconciling us to himself from the alienation of our sin, and then graciously invites us to participate in this same work. Jesus was sent with a mission and lived a life that reflected that. He lived on purpose with purpose.
At The Hallows Church, we use the word missional to mean just that – “living sent” or “living on purpose with purpose”. As Pastor Andrew taught us this past Sunday, our missional motivation is not simply obedience, but the love of Christ. Christ’s love has completely changed our lives. It has redeemed us from sin and has given us a new identity found in him. This identity has given us purpose – the ministry of reconciliation. God first reconciled us to Himself through Christ and now appeals to the world through us. Our ministry is our message and our message is the gospel.
What does the word missional mean to us? It means living like we were sent, like we truly have a purpose. It means living lives that are marked by the gospel.
At The Hallows Church we do this in the context of community (Sunday Gatherings, Missional Communities, DNA groups), encouraging and edifying one another in Christ throughout the week. If you’re looking to get involved deeper and see what it means to live missionally in the context of community, feel free to reach out to us to find a missional community around you. If you are looking to dive even deeper into community through our Discipleship, Nurturing, and Accountability (DNA) groups, talk to your missional community leader or reach out to us. We would love to get you connected!
For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
2 Corinthians 5:14-21