"The weather is here...wish you were beautiful."

Wait. That may not have come out just right.

Actually, the weather that folks are yearning for around here is nowhere to be found...at least locally. The triad of North Carolina is parched. Several hours away a tropical storm is dumping inches of rain on the coast, but these farmers can't coach, cajole or prod a drop from the clouds. Oh, but that the Iowans could have claimed as much this spring!

Tomorrow morning it is off to Warehouse 242 (see link) in Charlotte. I will be eager to experience and then to report on that experience. I have merged with enough emergent/missional congregations now that I can mark some of the identifiable threads that weave this cultural phenomenon together.

I will be more thorough about this later. For now I can quickly forward along some of the characteristics of missional churches that the readings have set forth...:

1. Missional Churches have a high threshold for membership.
   
   They are 'high expectation' congregations who realize that following Jesus is not something done too casually or easily. There is sacrifice involved.
   
   Mark Thames writes, "Most people today hold membership in stores such as Blockbuster Video or Sam's Club. Inevitably people bring this idea of membership to the church rather than carry the church's idea of membership into the world...Members, the people on the inside, do as little as required to be part and have the benefit. Non-members, those on the outside, do as much as required to share the benefit without becoming a member."
   
   
2. Missional Churches are real, not real religious.
   
   This missional characteristic may be the most notable to the dechurched visitor. "These folks are real." A more popular term? "Authentic." There is congruence between words and actions, between presentation and practices. Someone of my generation might say, "They practice what they preach."
   
   
3. Missional Churches teach to obey rather than to know.
   
   They understand faith as not something one just possesses, but something one practices. Jesus said, "Follow me", not just "Listen to me." Worship and community gatherings are not simply about head dumps and cerebral expansion but the equipping of flawed persons to be disciples in the world.
   
   
4. Missional Churches worship differently.
   
   Worship is experiential and highly participatory. It is different each week and defies capture by any tradition.
   
   
5. Missional Churches live apostolically.
   
   This is vital. These faith communities know the wider community well, understand it and relate the Gospel effectively to it. At their core they understand themselves as a people sent. Newly formed missional churches will rarely have the same walls around them each week, but will understand themselves as people on the move...indeed, a movement rather than an institution, an organism rather than an organization. You are more apt to find them meeting in someone's home or at the local Starbucks than a fixed street address each week. And when there is an address to which a web site can point a seeker, this is just the fueling station where the disciples...I mean, apostles...come to be recharged before being sent out again to the mission field.
   
   
6. Missional Churches expect to change the world.
   
   We've talked about this frequently. Remember...the church exists because there is a misison, not visa versa.
   
   
7. Growth and Success are measured by capacity to release, not retain.
   
   The litmus test for faithfulness rarely has anything to do with size of the community. Membership statistics are unimportant, oftentimes not even tracked. It is the impact upon the community that is most important. How has the congregation grown the kingdom in the world? This is the greatest measure.
   

One might read through these characteristics and wonder, "What is so unique about this? All churches should be tuned in these ways." Indeed. But as I look about me I see that the traditional congregations have often lost their way. If these are the characteristics for which they strive, they are woefully off track. As Joe Boyd, missional pastor in Las Vegas, claims, "I read the Gospels over and over. Nothing I was doing on Sunday was what I thought Jesus would be doing if he were here." Curious.