[featured_image]It’s not that traditional churches or contemporary churches are irrelevant. They are not. But they are going to become less important and less effective. In the future, disciplemaking is going to be increasingly driven by the Christians who understand they are missionaries – sent by Jesus with the Gospel together in community to those in the culture surrounding them. It will be those Christians who align with Jesus’ redemptive mission and adopt the practices, skills and behaviors of a missionary in their own zip code that will contribute to the greatest transformation of lives and communities the world has ever known.
The future church in America will be shaped less by the internal needs of its members and more by the redemptive mission of Jesus. The measuring stick will shift from counting how many people attend a worship service to counting how many nonbelievers are within walking distance of our churches.
The mission-shaped church is here to stay.
