NCU Magazine - Missional Church Conference

The culture is changing. The gospel is not. How can churches reconcile these realities to reach the people around them? This is the question which brought pastors and leaders to North Central for Interact the fourth annual Missional Church Conference.
With registration intentionally limited to create a more intimate environment, Interact was a fitting name for this conference.

Attendees sat only a few feet away from the speakers each of the three days
of the conference. The style of presentation was a dialogue between the keynote speakers and attendees rather than a lecture from the stage. The conversation started with Mark Batterson tackling the subject of “Church in the Middle of the Marketplace.” Batterson acknowledges that many church leaders, “have no idea what it’s like anymore for someone to come through our doors for the first time.”

Batterson has come to believe that while clearly communicating the Gospel is paramount, doing so in an irrelevant way is disrespectful to people and God, because God is always relevant. Understanding people in your community is important. “Otherwise,” he says, “we’re answering questions no one is asking.” He encouraged pastors to be faithful; that their efforts have eternal value. “When you are faithful in one place,” Batterson said, “God will bless you in another place.”

Among the core convictions that steer National Community Church (where Batterson
is the Lead Pastor) is the belief that the church ought to be the most creative and hospitable place on earth. NCC believes that businesses ought to be able to look at the church to learn those traits, rather than the other way around.

Dr. Earl Creps returned to this year’s conference to share his insights as a church planter targeting the “high tech Mars Hill” that is Berkeley, California. Having recently resigned as Director of the Doctor of Ministry Program at the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary (AGTS), Dr. Creps spoke candidly about some of the challenges of ministering to people with a postmodern mindset, especially their distrust of anyone perceived to have an agenda. “Instead of doing ministry to achieve Christianity,” Creps said, “we need to be Christians to achieve ministry.”

Todd Hunter, President of Alpha USA, challenged pastors to find ways to help church members understand their place and responsibility in the larger story of the gospel. He reasoned that the best way for a church to be mission-driven is to help its members live mission-centered lives.

Throughout his discussion with the attendees, Hunter repeatedly emphasized the
importance of remembering that the mission cannot become more important than the people, since reaching people is the heart of the mission.

On day three of the conference Ed Stetzer brought his expertise in the area of church planting to the discussion. After sharing statistics from his current research about
Americans’ faith beliefs, he challenged ministers to "hold our models loosely and
our Jesus tightly. “It’s easy to be mission minded but not missional,” Stetzer said.
“Everyone is on a mission; it’s just a matter of where and to whom.”

Ultimately, because the growing diversity of our culture is hesistant to a one-size-fits-all approach to ministry, the lost important thing is to seek to understand the people we’re called to reach and develop processes to reach them. “The incarnational church is interested more in the harvest than in the barn,” said Stetzer. He encouraged a de-emphasis on “come and see” in favor of a re-emphasis on “go and tell.”

Guests at the conference received a packet that included two free books: Unchristian –
What a New generation Really thinks About Christianity…and Why it Matters by the
Barna (Research) Group, David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, and In a Pit With a Lion On a Snowy Day – How to Survive and Thrive when Opportunity Roars by Mark Batterson.