One of the questions I believe we face as a team is the shaping of identity and what that means for people joining us.

One the one hand we want to be an ‘everybody welcome’ type of deal where people can from anywhere in terms of their proximity to God and feel like they belong. But on the other hand we don’t want to dilute the essential DNA that shapes our missional identity.

If there were a spectrum I reckon ‘missional order’ might sit at one end, with very high requirements for joining and an almost ‘exclusive’ air about them while some of our churches tend to sit at the other, where we are happy if people just show up on Sunday.

I realise the vast majority do not sit in these extremes. Missional orders want people to join and churches want people to develop into mature disciples.

The question I am tussling with at the moment is ‘how do we shape up who we are?’

I sense a missional order in the style of UNOH hazard of hearts a dvd download is not what God has called us to – but neither do we want to be a ‘whatever happens’ kind of community where there are very low or no expectations…

My gung ho side leans towards shaping a missional order because I don’t like passengers and people who don’t pull their weight. But can we expect a new ‘convert’ to be as much of a disciple as a long termer? (In some ways yes – in others no!)

I believe this is where we need to exercise some wise leadership and be open to getting it wrong as we move forwards here.

Sometimes I enjoy not having a map and just cutting a swathe thru the bush, but other times I’d like a bit of guidance to avoid the inevitable dead ends and u turns that occur.

I would be interested in how you perceive our group to be functioning as you read this blog.

If on a scale of 1-10, 1 were a high requirement missional order and 10 a no requirement ‘please come’ church what would we seem definitely maybe free to be???? (I say seem because I am aware that this does not give a true picture)