A Letter from Pastor Mark - December



Dear Friends,
Over the past four months my newsletter article has been focused on the church as a missional movement.  A missional movement is when the people of the church are so excited about Jesus that they live in his ways and his message goes viral passed on from person to person.
In order for the church to become a missional movement it must contain missional DNA or mDNA.  The six elements composing mDNA are:
· Jesus is Lord
· Disciple-making
· Missional-incarnational impulse
· Apostolic Environment
· Organic systems
· Communitas
This month we are ready to discover what is meant by Apostolic Environment.  Apostolic    Environment is how the church’s ministry is expressed in at least five forms.  We find those five forms in Ephesians 4:11-13.  “It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole   measure of the fullness of Christ.”

The five roles of the Apostolic Environment are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers.  When a church becomes a missional movement then the people will embrace one or more of these ministry roles so that the church functions as a mature body in its ministry in the world.
Many people have been taught that these five roles refer to “professional” Christians such as clergy who are to be the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers.  This is a misinterpretation of this passage.  All Christians are gifted and called to live out one or more of these ministry roles.  When the people of the church begin living those roles in their everyday lives then the true ministry of the church becomes alive and a true force in the world.  When living out those roles are left to the “professional” clergy then it severely limits the influence of the church in the world.
When every Christian embraces the apostolic environment then we will all begin to live out our calling from God and the church will emerge as a missional movement.
Next month the mDNA element that will be defined is Organic systems.
In Christ’s Abundant Love,
Pastor Mark




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