Cycle of Evangelism

The MC Cycle of Evangelism

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• Members begin to enjoy spending time with each other
• Break down of the deep superficiality in our churches begins
• Especially in large churches relationships are built on "Happy Sabbath" see you next week!

• People begin to spend "real" time together around a weekly (or as close to weekly as possible) meal.
• The stories of each others lives become known in the group.
• Gossip dies in this context as our lives are open to each other

• Needs are met in the MC family
• Relational needs are met in the deep friendships growing
• Temporal needs are met as the group discovers what each person needs and how they as a group can help relieve that need.
• Galatians 6:2 Bear one anothers burdens

• Accountability with each other becomes easier
• The strength of the relationships built allow for "total discipleship"(redirecting) of the members because we have "earned" the right to do so
• A level of investment in each others lives makes the discipleship (redirecting) of others welcome

Missional Communities Evangelism

• Gospel Literacy (fluency) is essential to all Members of a Missional Community

• Church service becomes a celebration of what God is doing and has done throughout the whole week
• The focus shifts away from the Church as the building (The building is the meeting place) we invite someone to
• The church is the people so church is happening all week in our MC groups.

• MC's are not about a particular cause but in some cases they may want to take one up
• For example an MC group can actually take on a Church Position like Religious Liberty
• MC's can work together to provide community needs through the Church like: Food Banks, Dorcas, Smoking Cessation, etc...
• Again this is not at all the primary focus of an MC but they can take up these ministries if they are compelled to do so

• We begin to live "Missionaly"
• We live the Gospel in every aspect of our lives together and apart.
• We grow up in Christ
• "Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ." Ephesians 4:15 (NIV)

• 1 Peter 3:15- But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect

Creates a Clear Gospel Literacy

Every Member Learns How to Express the Gospel Not Just in Words

• So the MC gatherings around meals, study, and social time help to refine our understanding of the gospel together ("One Accord" Acts 2:1,46) to meet these questions
• Living the gospel together helps in refining how the gospel becomes relevant to us in real life beyond church service.
• Diversity in unity is one of the great Gospel apologetics. (Paraphrase Shawn Brace)

• In other words it doesn't dismiss all our historic ministries it makes them better
• Church growth happens differently
• As an MC grows, the leaders of that community are prayerfully pinpointing new leaders and in time have them begin a new Missional Community

Using Missional Communities is not a small group recreational outlet for members, but they exist to create an endless cycle of biblical evangelism.

• By loving one another as Christ loved us we are affecting others.
• "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." John 13:35 (NIV)
• Every task is a chance to live the gospel together or alone
• Even washing the dishes becomes an opportunity to see yourself living in Gods image as a careful hard worker who values "well done".
• Our MC family life immerses us in the language of the Gospel.
• This means we speak it to each other often and it helps us learn
• The life we live is a perpetual mission. Nothing is mundane

• Church is not a program to invite friends and family to.
• Church is reconciliation into Gods loving family
• No longer is church a group of individual trying to instill knowledge in people.
• It is groups of families on mission together living the gospel in the everyday things of life.
• Simply put the Church is a missional movement of meeting needs, making friends and ultimately new disciples
• It's not a religious event

Missional Communities Out of the Box and Bringing Gospel Life to Your Church and Neighborhoods

• Now that unity and Gospel Literacy is in Place the focus is turned outward
• Plans are made for the MC/Family to go on Mission together
• By going out together we show the power of the gospel in our unity with one another!
• Jesus never sent anyone out alone to be a missionary. (woman at well was an encounter in the everyday life of Christ not an intentional sending out.)

• Because of the MC process ongoing there will be a groups of people ready and desiring to go through a series of teachings on beliefs and prophetic passages
• This shifts the evangelistic series away from the "Attractional model".
• The attractional model again asks unchurched to be missionaries and cross cultural barriers to learn about God. This is the opposite of Matt 28:19-20 (Jesus said "go" but we have been saying come)

"MC" Evangelistic

• It is not meant to become a group that is just simply comfortable together (Do not confuse this with small groups!)
• Small groups are designed to build community but not really mission.
• Mission is the sending out, the going out to show the gospel to the community around us
• It is not about simply Bible study, but experiencing the word together to live it together in the every day things of life
• Missional Communities are an immersion in a foriegn culture. The Culture of the Gospel! We learn it and live it at the same time as a family of God.

• The need for the series takes a dramatic shift, from having it as an expensive and exhausting event for the sole purpose of gaining "members", to church having relevant issues and needs being addressed by the MC leaders/coaches.
• And the Pastor is hearing from his own MC and the leaders he is equipping in other MC's the relevant needs and issues arising in the trenches.
• Now the Pastor can create a series of messages that are distinctly relevant and needed.

• As the people you minister to and invite into your "family" walk with you, they are in the process of being discipled
• They have not been baptized but learning what it means to follow Jesus everyday
• They may not even be interested in spiritual things yet.
• They may be looking for simple fellowship
• Spiritual things take time to develop a taste for

ELEMENTS

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Areas an "MC" can impact your local Church and Community Evangelism.

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• An MC cycle looks like this:
• Develop real relationships-Develop real friendships, learn real needs, become real friends, make real disciples!
• An MC reverses our typical process: from teach-baptize-disciple to Disciple/walk with-Baptize disciples and continue teaching!
• This means people are baptized into a family they already felt they belonged to
• They already know what it means to be a servant for Christ
• This is a paradigm shift for our thinking