This is the first in a series of posts about life in missional communities.
As we lead up to the launch of our Missional Communities in the month of October, it seemed like a good idea to write a few posts about MC's and some of the common questions that people have been asking. Over the next few weeks, keep an eye out on the blog for more posts like this one.
The single most common question that has been asked about the launch of MC's for us at Lansdowne Alliance Church has been a very practical one: where will the MC's be meeting? This is a significant question not only for the simple and practical reason of knowing where and when the meeting(s) will happen but also because of the way we will be organizing MC's as a church family. While some churches have organized small group ministries and other groups by affinity, we will be organizing our MC's by geography. The reason is based on what the Apostle Paul said at the Areopagus when he was in Athens. We read the following in Acts 17:26-28
And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed his offspring.'
What we see in this text is that God was intentional in placing each of us in the geographies that we live in. The reason that we can know that God is not far from those who live around us is that God has placed us to live near those people and He has called us to be His ambassadors who make an appeal on His behalf that those people would be reconciled to Him(2 Cor 5:20)! So as we think about this reality, it seems to make sense to meet as MC's based on geography. This also allows us to maintain the beautiful diversity that the gospel calls us to since each MC will hopefully be made up of people from all walks of life and generations.
So, as we begin this new chapter at LAC, we will have two MC's.
One will be located at Jeff and Amy Simpson's home in Lansdowne:
The other will be located at Rod and Angie Haigis' home in Catonsville.
As you think about how you will engage in MC life, prayerfully consider which of these two locations would make more sense for how you will engage in mission. Of course as we continue in this trajectory, there will be more MC's launched in other locations. For now, however, these are the two groups that will begin to meet in early October.
In our next post, we will be looking at what a typical MC meeting will look like.