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Mike Breen: What is a missional community? | PRINTABLE

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Over the coming weeks, we will be asking some of the leading thinkers and practitioners to answer 7 of the most frequently asked questions about missional communities. All of the folks we’ll be hearing from are featured speakers at Exponential 2011: On The Verge. For more information about Exponential 2011, visit www.exponentialconference.org. Also, make sure to use and follow the Twitter hashtag #7questions to keep up with the conversation!

Question #1: What is a missional community?

Other answers from: Neil Cole | Hugh Halter | Alan Hirsch | Felicity Dale | JR Woodward | Jeff Vanderstelt

You can download a PDF of this post here: PDF

Mike Breen has been an innovator in leading missional churches throughout Europe and the United States for more than 25 years. In his time at St Thomas Sheffield in the UK, he created and pioneered Missional Communities, mid-sized groups of 20-50 people on mission together. The result, less than 6 years later, was the largest church in England, and ultimately, one of the largest and now fastest growing churches in the whole of Europe. In 2006 Mike was approached by Leadership Network to lead an initiative into church planting. Through this partnership, more than 725 churches were planted in Europe in just three years. Today, Mike lives in South Carolina, leading 3DM, a movement/organization that is helping hundreds of established churches and church planters move into this discipling and missional way of being the church. Twitter: @mike_breen.

Question #1: What is a missional community?

Mike Breen:

Often times people use the phrase ‘missional community’ to describe the state of a group of people. It’s descriptive. The question seems to be, “Is this community missional?” Or, as Neil Cole says, “Is this community joining the mission that God is already doing?” Are we existing as a sent people? It is meant to be descriptive and rather general. The way that I have used this phrase in the past 20 years is a bit more specific and more as a proper noun. Just like the phrase ‘Worship Service’ denotes something quite specific, so the phrase ‘Missional Community’ originated as a very specific thing, identifying a type of missional vehicle that was created in the late 1980’s in the UK.

A Missional Community is a group of 20 to 50 people who exist, in Christian community, to reach either a particular neighborhood or network of relationships. With a strong value on life together, the group has the expressed intention of seeing those they are in relationship with choose to start following Jesus through this more flexible and locally incarnated expression of the church. They exist to bring heaven to the particular slice of earth they believe God has given them to bless. The result is usually the growth and multiplication of more Missional Communities. These MCs are networked within a larger church community allowing for both a scattered and gathered church. These mid-sized communities, led by laity, are “lightweight and low maintenance” and most often meet 3-4 times a month in their missional context. Each MC attends to the three dimensions of life that Jesus himself attended to: Time with God (worship, prayer, scripture, teaching, giving thanks, etc), time with the body of believers building a vibrant and caring community, and time with those who don’t know Jesus yet.

MCs first began as missional small groups (groups of 8-15 people) more than 20 years ago in England. After a few years it became clear they were small enough to care, but not large enough to dare. Missional growth, multiplication and momentum was rare with these smaller, more missional groups. Leader burnout was common. Quite honestly, it took several years for this to surface as a recurring problem that needed to be dealt with. After a few more years of experimenting, mid-sized groups, about the size of an extended family, emerged as a missional and discipleship vehicle that was capable of the exponential growth and depth we see today. As Missional Communities continued to develop further and as we began to research why, something exciting came to light: Every culture (and sub-culture) gathers and finds identity in groups the size of extended families. When natural genetic extended families break down, people of all races, ethnicities and backgrounds organically begin to re-create the extended family. Missional Communities were simply tapping into something hardwired into human DNA.

In Sheffield, England at St Thomas Church, what I started with a few hundred people in these groups of 20-50 people, each reaching out to various mission contexts, has turned into thousands upon thousands of people in Missional Communities…in a city where less than 1% of people attend church. Untold numbers of people are finding Jesus. MCs for the creative class. MCs for former Iranian Muslims. MCs for former gang members and murderers who became Christians. MCs for students studying at the university. MCs for new parents. MCs for people living in particular neighborhoods. MCs for the homeless. MCs for former prostitutes and drug addicts.

What Missional Communities do is find a crack or crevice of society and incarnate the Gospel of Jesus Christ to that specific culture of people by creating an extended family on mission together. And when this scattered church of Missional Communities gathers together as one large family, it is a picture of the coming Kingdom, or as Newbigin would say, “a sign, instrument and foretaste.” Every color, age, race and religious background. That is what the ‘gathered’ worship service has been like.

Perhaps what is more exciting is that we have now seen it spread. Missional Communities aren’t something specific to England, Europe or even South America. Now in the United States, all across the country, hundreds and hundreds of churches are beginning to see this kind of vibrant, missional life in their own contexts. Urban churches. Suburban churches. Church plants. Mega churches. Lay leaders are being released into their destiny to lead the church of God in his mission of rescuing and redeeming the whole world. These leaders refuse to believe that being a disciple and being missional are mutually exclusive; in fact, they see it as inseparable. Missional Communities are simply a vehicle to send these leaders out into their divine calling.

What do you think about Mike’s definition of missional community? What other questions does this leave you with? Join the conversation in the comment section below…

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  • Amy vanderlinden

    Mike – this is so timely as I am about to start my own missional community. I have been part of CCOJ, then OHM community and we have been connecting more to Hope with Paul Sorensen which is the celebration community I’ll be connecting to. I’ve been leading my own huddle since Kandi moved to SC and mam really excited about this new step. All of the 3DM materials I’ve read have been so helpful and I can’t wait to read more! THanks for sharing your wisdom and continuing in your commitment to reaching the world. We miss you,
    Amy Vander Linden

  • Ikoncommunity

    I think this description is spot on and actually puts a very practical explanation/understanding in front of us of what a missional community can, and even should, look like. 3DM has been a real blessing to our community in the areas of discipleship and especially i helping us iron out strategical issues of mobilizing for mission from the ground up. Count me in as a cheer leader, and practitioner of this pathway towards being missional.
    Tim Catchim

  • Dave K

    I love the idea of MCs being targeted towards neighborhoods and geographical regions – I think this makes sense (and am part of a church that does this based on the 3DM model of MCs), but have some questions about the idea that MCs should split and divide a church into affinity groups of like-minded people.

    Reading this description led me to wonder what the difference is between MCs and age/niche specific ministries in churches. Both seem to move towards a “church within a church” model which can become unhealthy when the various “mini-churches,” split up by demographics, cause a silo-effect allowing people to be part of a “church” without having to interact/do life with people unlike themselves.

    I realize that there may be only a nuanced difference (though an important difference, I think) between splitting based on geography/proximity versus affinity/demographics, and would be interested in hearing further thoughts on this.

  • Ernie Hinojosa

    Have known Mike for years now, and am very excited about this article. An excellent condensed picture of missional communities. As a mission executive in the ELCA Lutheran Church in the southeast US, I am ALL IN on this vision for church.

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  • Helene Tame

    Missional communities has gripped me as an authentic means of being and doing good news. I personally like to define an MC has a group of people with a mutual commitment to both being a disciple of Jesus and making dsciples, believing that both happen as we grow in communion with the Holy Spirit and community with one another. I believe that personal maturity should be the motivator for missional living or as Neil Cole puts it that our transformed lives, transform lives, which is why a mutual commitment to both being and making disciples is for me the most succinct way of summing up the generic call on all of our lives.
    Helene Tame, Cambridge, UK

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  • John

    Mike-thank you for a vividly clear and succinct picture into what so many are trying to incarnate these days: living and leading like Jesus. Brilliant! John

  • http://twitter.com/T_David Tyler David

    This is interesting to me. I understand the idea of getting people in large communities of 20-50 to build momentum for the community but I am curious about a couple of things.

    1. Where do these communities meet? Where in their missional context? (house, pub, etc…) Where can you fit 50 people?

    2. Was the difference between 15 and 20 people that noticeable in the different missional communities?

    3. What does it look like when these different M/Cs gather together? Is there central leadership?

    These questions are not accusations or any kind of passive shot at the model, I am just curious to know.

  • http://convergemissionary.com/ Brian Stankich

    Missional community reworded is relationships with a purpose. I like the idea of people coming together to accomplish something that only that group could accomplish.

  • http://twitter.com/toodus Todd Engstrom

    Mike,
    I would really like to hear a little more about how these larger MCs develop, and more specifically how they are led. It sounds like you’re keeping a lower barrier of entry into the larger gathering…does that mean the context of these meetings is more informal and conversational?

    I’ve definitely seen the value of larger groups for both outsiders and insiders, and am just curious how you direct and leverage that for engaging neighborhoods as well as being hospitable and open.

    Todd Engstrom

  • Logan Gentry

    We’ve actually taken the approach of MCs being the 5-12 group and then gathered 2-4 MCs together for a Neighborhood Gathering (the 20-50 mentioned above) once a month in a local bar to address an issue facing our neighborhood or our city.

    They are discussion based presentations that address issues like homelessness, foster care, hyperreality (i will be happy when.. culture), and other issues. Usually a intro question to get people talking and to get to know one another while it also relating to the topic. 10-15 minute presentation using common grace language to inform the gathering on the topic, let them discuss that information and then another 10-15 minute conversation on the issue and how we host these events because Christianity demands a response to these issues & present the gospel explanation.

    So the MCs (5-12) are on mission together throughout the month in their small communities discipling one another through scripture, prayer, caring for one another and mission. Then they gather with other MCs first week of the month in Neighborhood Gatherings (20-50), bring co-workers and engage in discussion.

    It’s been a really great environment and very challenging to engage our neighborhoods.

  • http://twitter.com/sdmcbee Seth McBee

    I would agree with the reasons why we have Missional Communities, but as a leader of a Missional Community in a suburban context with Soma Communities, I cannot imagine having an MC bigger than 15 to 20. The reason is within the suburban context, people have children, so when you add 2.5 kids to each of those families, let’s say you have 5 families, you add an additional 12-15 kids. Now you are trying to find a space to share life with 25 to 30 people with over half of them that need special attention because of their age. I would rather multiply the group by raising up leaders and sending them to another part of the neighborhood, people group or city. When you have around 5 families, there is plenty of help to reach a particular area in suburbia.

    Just a thought from the suburban context.

    I actually think you’ll add to your “workload” more easily if you are trying to gather 50 people together on mission in a neighborhood.

    In Soma, we would actually end up having four MCs with a total of 40 to 50 people and call it an expression, or local church to reach a particular area or particular people group.

    At this point, we are merely talking about particulars of a methodology instead of ecclesiology. The importance is having a group of people ready to live out a singular mission (making disciples) to a particular context for the glory of God.

    Peace.

    Seth.

    • Logan Gentry

      I agree with you seth. A community on mission breaks down when it starts to hit the 15-20 range.

      I’m curious from Mike & Seth, how do you see nonbelievers assimilating into these environments? Are people brought into homes? Are they brought into these large gatherings? How are the lost engaged?

      Enjoying the discussion.

      • http://twitter.com/sdmcbee Seth McBee

        I tried to respond, but it went to moderation…I put a link in there, so that’s probably why. email me if you want and I’ll answer you there… seth at somacommunities dot org

  • Bobbycapps

    I appreciate the interest in ‘how many’ and realize that much of this discussion is happening around the practical logistics involved in a groups size. For us the issue became worse before it became better. When we started we’d have the few missionary families and they would begin to exercise the gospel in a subsidized apartment complex, for example. As the gospel bore fruit the us (missionaries) and them (the needy lost) became merged. The gospel of course necessitates that. So as we became a larger community we realized that because very practically we still desperately needed each other to stabilize families, to do very practical acts of love and gospel upbringing, we HAD TO let the group get uncomfortably large.

    We have about 35-40 people in one group and they can’t be smaller due to the above realities. Yes, you have to figure out demographics, but don’t split people up too fast, you might be working against the very thing you are trying to do.

    • http://twitter.com/sdmcbee Seth McBee

      Bobby.
      That’s why I believe it’s key to expect multiplication (which is a biblical concept from the garden) and start raising up leaders so that when the group is ready, so is the leadership. The group should expect multiplication from the start, not surprised.

      • Bobbycapps

        Agreed, the challenge of discipleship is then very multi-dimensional, all people in the pipeline at different places, emerging as missionary agents of the King.

  • http://twitter.com/Mike_Breen Mike Breen

    Hey everyone! First off, thanks for all of the comments on the article, glad it has raised so much discussion! There have been a lot of questions, so let me see if I can answer as many of them as possible. If more come up…ask away!

    One of the biggest topics of discussion was around the size of the Missional Community and why we’ve placed them in the 20-50 person range. First off, let me just say that there really isn’t a formula for MCs…each and every one is different. I can’t say that loud enough or long enough. So Seth, because you are in a suburban context, 20-25 people in your MC might be your limit. The context really dictates the size of the group. However, I’d also say that if the group is already at capacity and can’t grow anymore…isn’t it missing the focus of the group already?? To grow the group and bring more people into Kingdom life through its’ existence? Also, I think our houses can fit more than we are willing to admit…it’s just that we may not be able to fit in one room. Remember, MCs as I and 3DM defines it our EXTENDED FAMILIES on mission together. So if you think about Thanksgiving and you’ve got 40 people in the house…it works. It’s just that they are spread out. I think one of the problems is that we want a group of 25 people to exist in the same relational capacity as if it were a small group of 8-12 people. The reason that mission works so well in this extended family size group is that new people don’t have to jump into those more intimate relational spaces. The group is small enough where everyone can be known and people know when you’re missing, but it’s big enough that you don’t have to share your most intimate of details like people tend to do in small groups. This is one of the defining characteristics of MCs. The MC can break up into smaller groups for more intimate time, but mission is best done in the larger, extended family time. So in the suburbs, some of the best times of mission are parties done at people’s houses where there are 50-60 people…but they are in every room of the house, in the backyard, on the deck, etc.To emphasize this point, Jonathan Dodson just reviewed on his blog the practical book we released called “Launching Missional Communities” and this is what he said about their church’s experience in wrestling through smaller MCs vs larger ones: “I find this very thought provoking because of what we are feeling at our church with a need to cluster our missional communities (avg 10-20 adults) for more energy and more church wide missional alignment and focus. We were already having some discussion around these pain points and the feeling that some of our MCs were so focused on keeping the balance of gospel, community and mission that sometimes they are freed up to do any of them well. I think the advantage of a MC being larger could free up a more “personal” sized group to go naturally deeper into discipleship issues without the risk of losing a missional identity.”

    One other topic is WHERE do MCs this size meet? The answer….ANYWHERE. The driving question is WHO are you reaching out to and WHERE are those people? If you’re reaching into a particular neighborhood, a person’s house or neighborhood rec room might be the best place. In Sheffield, we were reaching out to the club scene by the university, so the would set up a cafe outside the clubs at 3am on Saturday mornings, giving the college students a place to come down off the drugs and talk with people. The Core Group of the MC would meet an hour before to set up, they’d pray together, read scripture and talk about their weeks. That was the rhythm of their MC. If you’re reaching out to homeless people…you’d probably want to meet on a street or under an overpass. If you’re reaching out to artists, where are artists already hanging out? Here’s the thing: People are already used to meeting and congregating in groups this size in almost all aspects of their life. The question is where are they doing it at?

    Another question dealt with these just not being affinity groups and “church within a church”, splitting people apart, etc. This is a tricky one, and I recognize this. I’d say we need to understand there isn’t a perfect way of doing this it’s going to be a little of both. Remember, these MCs are networked within a larger church gathers, all of these people come together under one roof, worshiping the same God. We used to have different MCs man the different volunteer spots in Sunday worship. One week it would be the homeless MC passing out bulletings, greeting people as they came in. Another week it was the artists. Another week the inter-generational MC. So while there is razor sharp focus on the people God is calling us to reach out to, the service turns into a mixing pot of all of these different ages, races, ethnicities, etc. That being said, we do need to be honest about certain things. One of the things some churches are doing is reaching out to Iranian Muslims who don’t speak English and going to a church building is a HUGE cultural hurdle. Yet they profess Jesus as Lord, worship together and do mission together. Do these people HAVE to come? No. Would we like them to? Of course. I think it’s just realizing that grace needs to abound when we do mission and there are no perfect systems or models. We listen for God, try to see where his Spirit is moving, and follow him there.

    • http://twitter.com/sdmcbee Seth McBee

      Mike.
      Good thoughts my friend, appreciate your leadership in this. Regarding your question

      “The context really dictates the size of the group. However, I’d also say that if the group is already at capacity and can’t grow anymore…isn’t it missing the focus of the group already??”

      As we see the group maximizing in size for a particular gathering spot, we multiply into additional Missional Communities. So, instead of us meeting weekly in a house of 50 people, we might meet weekly as 4 Missional Communities in different houses on mission for that neighborhood or context. So, we never want our groups to think “this is it.” We want them continually engaging in family and mission so that we naturally have relationships with non-believers expecting the Spirit to move and bring more people into the Kingdom causing us to expand as the church of God set as a city on a hill for our cities.

      Hope this helps.

      Like I said before and you stressed above, methodology is going to be a little different depending on culture, context, etc. but the mission for all time is exactly the same: making disciples who make disciples by the power and glory of God (Matthew 28:18-20)

      Great discussion brother and may we all use this to spur us on to good works for the glory of God.

      Peace.

      Seth.

      • http://twitter.com/sdmcbee Seth McBee

        Mike.
        One more thing. As the Missional Communities multiply, we still engage each other weekly through our Sunday gathering to celebrate God’s blessings as the local church. We then also have other times we get together in a larger group to share life together as well.

        Just wanted to make that clear as well, so it doesn’t seem like we have a bunch of micro missions that are sporadic.

    • jesusfreak

      Okay, so how does one go about starting/running/growing/hosting/building a missional community if the church they currently attend is falling apart at the seems (for..you know.. 6 years now…)
      I think it’d be intresting to take this out of the context of a particular church. (With the help of some elders-than-me).. but, apply the same principle. Say, at a community college.
      I can find 5-10 christians who are committed to quality discipleship, called to missions, and going to a JC w/ me next year… but, i don’t belong to a church who is ready/in a place/willing to start this… and I’m pretty confident I don’t live in a community w/ a community like this in existance.

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