What’s really funny is, its the parents who think they started the car!

In his book Building missionary congregations Robert Warren writes:

“A church effectively engaged in mission will see that participating in the missio dei will involve shifting emphasis from a focus on the life of the local church, and a concern to keep everyone in it happy (which too easily passes for ‘pastoral concern’), to a concern for the world in its needs, joys and struggles.

The work, for example, of engaging with the sick, the grieving and the dying, as well as with the moral issues of such roles in society as those concerned with wealth creation or medical ethics, is indeed pastoral. It is the shift from the maintenance and ‘keeping people happy’ mode in which the church all too often operates, into engagement with these situations that will bring the church into the pastoral-in-mission mode of operation.

For such a shift to take place, the structure of the local church will need to be simplified, and new priorities adopted. However, much can be done within existing ways of operating. The intercessions each Sunday in public worship give a marvellous opportunity to engage with the hopes and fears of everyday life. Home groups geared outwards to engage with whole-life issues can also contribute significantly. The description of the Christian faith as ‘the Way’ gloriously expresses this understanding that the faith is not so much about doing different things, as it is about doing things differently.”