Pursuing Missional Faithfulness... the begining of the pursuit of God.

Okay, so most people that know me know that I am pretty involved in my church- Walnut Hills Baptist Church- woot! woot! I love my church and the people in it, and I have been a lifelong member of this church. I can honestly say I was born and raised in this church!


I have seen many transitions over the years at church- some good and some bad... but we always manage to pull through with strong faith and a desire to meet God over and over, no matter how many times!
It seems to me through all of this there is a common theme among our transitions and until now it’s like we’ve never been able to pinpoint it. That theme is “Where is our church? And where are we going?” Everyone wants these things spelled out to them right? So we don’t ever make any mistakes, so we know for sure we are doing what God would want us to do?
Where is that 10 year map marked with all the details explaining each step of the way? It feels less risky when you know exactly what's coming...

Uhhh... Lord, are you listening?

Then He answered!

The first time I heard about Pursuing Missional Faithfulness (PMF) was during a Church Council meeting. Since I am the church clerk, I was one of the first ones to hear about this intriguing endeavor that our church could participate in if we all chose to take on this journey.

Dr. Neal introduced the council to an approach to church life called Pursuing Missional Faithfulness.

He made us aware that we would NOT "feel" safe; but just the opposite through this experience: he described it as “risky”. Someone ask the question once: "WHAT DOES FAITH FEEL LIKE?" The answer: "FAITH FEELS RISKY." If it doesn't feel risky, it's probably not faith. Wow. Then I remembered the verse, "For we walk by faith and not by sight."

Remember that map I was asking about? I have come to understand that God will never give us a detailed, step by step map of the future. Rather, God's callings are usually out of sight... giving directional vibes but not the details necessarily.

Pursuing Missional Faithfulness should help us come to the right direction without exact details. We are explorer-pioneers, think Columbus, and Neil Armstrong.

Pursuing Missional Faithfulness is a 15 month approach seeking to push us out, up and beyond the obstacles that keep us from “reaching beyond ourselves”.

Pursuing Missional Faithfulness is something that council has decided to present to the church as an endeavor that all those interested in should participate! It sounded so exciting to me and I was anxious to get started!

So this is where all my time has been- and why I haven’t been blogging as much! But even in the midst of it I feel like I should put this on my blog... so the following posts will be about the process of pursuing missional faithfulness with my church from my point of view.

There are other churches doing this same endeavor- under the direction of a great man named Bill Moore and I really think this will lead to big changes in churches around the globe. It’s very exciting to me!

For this process I am in a prayer triplet, getting together with my other two over the course of 100 days to pray for 100 minutes in 10 sessions. This is the first commitment that you have to make when you agree to journey with those in your congregation through the PMF process. Committing to pray first and seek God’s will is key in this process. So many times we try to take things on and then ask for God’s help. This process tries to listen for God’s direction FIRST- then complete the tasks.