Missional Church: A Field Guide - Practice Stewardship to Build Financial Viability

I want to observe two things about this chapter and I think about the nature of this book in general.

First, if I had it to do over again in the starting of Trabuco Pres Church I would have worked much harder at developing faithful practices of stewardship in the leaders of the congregation. It's one of those areas where we are not accountable enough with one another.

Second, when I read this chapter I am reminded of a conversation I had recently with Alan Roxburgh. The point of the conversation was that the development of Missional Church got derailed in Western Culture when we started viewing it as means to devise new practices for ecclesiological maintenance and continuance. In other words, much of this book betrays the missional focus it espouses. This chapter in particular is the most naked.

Not that institutional survival is a bad thing. It isn't the thing. Our Western perspective is so deeply rooted in the survival of "what we've known" that it is difficult to develop a new way of seeing things.

When we look at churches throughout the world, financial viability is not a possibility. Plus, it is not even necessary to the health and future of the work of the Spirit. Now I know stewardship is more than money. It is more than fiscal and physical assets. It is gifts and abilities and heart as well. In this sense good stewardship is merely good discipleship.

But if we believe that being financially viable is a missional practice then we miss out on the fundamental understanding that it is God who keeps his people and his world. This is one of the hangovers of Christendom thinking. We are hoping to establish ourselves in the world as we know it. What if the calling is to have a church that doesn't rely upon the wealth of the empire for its existence? What if we are to be leaner and freer? What if we are to be united by a vision and a Lord who doesn't need buildings and staff?

I know this sounds idealistic and unrealistic, but my point is simple: Be wary of the effects of Christendom on our missional thinking. It has the power to coerce and subvert even the best intentions.

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