After yesterday’s post on ‘The Submerging Church’ it seems logical to delve
into what I believe is the last frontier. If you are into the scientific arena,
when you hear the term "last frontier" you immediately think space,
specifically outer space  – our galaxy and beyond. It is a place that only
a few have had the opportunity to go and when they went they left their imprint
on that last frontier.  Neil Armstrong left his imprint on the moon, the
Mars rover has left tracks on it’s planets surface and we have crashed probes
into the moon, other planets and even comets leaving man’s imprint on those
surfaces.

But what about the last frontier here on earth.  Is it the depths of the
sea or some jungle yet to be explored? It is the thought of many missiologists
that the last frontier is the culture that we live, work, and play in. The baby
boomers have their culture, they busters have theirs and the "Xer’s"
have their culture and as the old saying goes, "the twain don’t
meet." We are in a hodge-podge of groups that exist in a melting pot, or
probably better, a frying pan we call America.
Each of these groups have left their imprint on the landscape of our country
and those imprints will be around long after we are gone.

As I write, my thought is, "Where is the imprint that the church is
leaving among this culture?" Is it being washed away by the tide of
post-modernism? Or is it being swept away as being irrelevant? Actually, I
believe that there isn’t an imprint being made by the "church" today
as there should be. There are local bodies doing some really great things and
engaging their culture where they are and thank God for them. It will take many more churches engaging
their culture if we are going to make and leave an imprint.  If I am
wrong, I am wrong, but I feel I am pretty much on track with this.

Of course the question is, how do we engage our culture? You have the answer
to that one, not me. Individual believers must be willing to take a risk to
engage in conversation with people where they are each and every day. The
submerging church mentality is to share with people what is going on at your
church, you know the great teaching, music, etc… Drop that conversation and get over it! It
does hardly any good to talk about church with someone who believes that all
belief systems are equal and when they value their Sunday morning sleep in more than church. This is
an archaic mindset that is doing more harm than good. We must be conversant
with people about current topics, music, culture, what their thoughts are on
religion and the church.  The old way of thinking is we converse first
about church and then bring in life.  If you want to engage people at the
coffee house, barber shop, or in your neighborhood you must reverse the normal. You engage people by talking about life first,
then lead the conversation to what the person thinks about church, religion and Christ.

The church can become missional by sending it’s people out to engage the world and it must be modeled by it’s leaders.  Pastors, elders, board members, ministry directors who do not engage their culture should not be pastors, elders, board members, or ministry directors. Ouch! Honestly, it is not that hard and it should be a part of everyday life and not an event that you plan. The missional church submerges itself into the culture it is reaching. Think about Jesus. He did not construct a building or start a service. Rather he walked among the poor and hurt and lost. The missional church understands that
it is primarily a missional community of people being trained and
equipped to live among the world as missionaries. The missional church can use any
building and location to gather the church. It doesn’t see the building
as the church; it sees the people of God as it.

I believe that we as individual believers and the local church must
get outside of the walls of the church to meet the needs of the poor, the
wounded, and the broken hearted. It has been suggested that churches (including
the one I pastor)  forego a "worship service" every once in a
while and go out into the community and be of service to those we
encounter.  That could be done with "no strings attached"
servant evangelism, food distribution or any number of ideas that best fit the
culture where you are.

Not a bad idea… leaving an imprint on your landscape.