Yes, I know. This reminds many of you of a Pink Floyd album, but that’s not what I’m going for here. Look at this and now come up with an analogy of the church. For those of us who have wrestled with the Christian buzz word “missional”, could this serve as a pictorial definition of the missional church?

This diagram draws my eye to the dispersion on the right side. Dispersion is a great word that we need to use with students more often and it’s fun to say. When we meet on Sunday mornings we are the “gathered church” and the benediction is like the “breaking” of a huddle in football where we become the “dispersed church”. I love the idea of gathering with a bunch of sinful saints as we focus on the power of Christ and then the worship service continues as we go out the doors of the church to work, school, the bar, Target and even the Department of Motor Vehicles.

The Rub: “Neither the structures nor the theology of our established Western churches is missional. They are shaped by the legacy of Christendom.” (Guder)So if the rub is the challenge, then the goal is this definition: ” A missional church is a reproducing community of authentic disciples being equipped as missionaries sent by God, to live and proclaim His Kingdom in their world.”

What are the systemic and theological barriers that tend to shut down the dispersion?
Furthermore, we have story after story in the scriptures of teenagers leading the dispersion, what would it take for this to happen in your youth ministry and mine?

How have you rethought youth ministry in these ways?