“Missional” is the latest buzz word describing what churches ought to “be”. At best it describes an outward focused attitude that’s focused on promoting Christ’s kingdom instead of maintaining institutional survival at any cost.
Moving from theory to action is where things get dicey. Search the blogosphere and scan the most popular books for how that ideal works out in practice, and you might assume becoming “missional” could entail anything from changing your church’s worship music to sporting a new tattoo.
The bewildering breadth of concepts being advanced as “missional” rightly leaves many well meaning congregations paralyzed as to how they might faithfully and credibly move along the “missional” path.
One ministry that has helped many congregations move towards becoming more “missional” (even if they didn’t know that was the catch phrase these days) is Touched Twice United.
As they state on their website…
Touched Twice Untied is a Christ-centered organization that mobilizes volunteers from local churches to host free clinics which strive to meet the medical, spiritual, and physical needs of the guests — all on a budget of zero dollars and zero cents.
TTU Map Touched Twice United desires to see clinic ministries in every county across our nation by 2011. The goal is to see churches adopt the clinic ministry as part of their outreach strategy. As the church ministers through TTU we then hope to see the ministry expand organically - moving to the next neighboring church and so on.
In the mainline, we pride ourselves on reaching out to the poor and disenfranchised… at least in theory and usually by means of advocacy and posturing at safe distances from human suffering.
Touched Twice United however helps us move beyond words to deeds.
It also gives mainline churches something they desperately need… an opportunity to invite people to meet Jesus Christ the Lord.
Whereas most in the mainline find making “presentations” of the Gospel frightening or “artificial”, hosting a “Touched Twice” clinic gives us opportunity to invite people to join us at church in a friendly, non-confrontational manner.
If we won’t even do that, we can’t expect to stop our decline can we?
So if your congregation is paralyzed as to how to go about the process of becoming “missional”, Touched Twice United may just give you the practical assistance you to do something, instead of just talking about what never gets done.
What would be the impact on our nation IF every county in the United States had such a clinic outreach conducted monthly? It’s hard to tell, but it would be worth attempting!
Will our churches take responsibility for the parishes where God has placed us?
Image courtesy Touched Twice United.
