……AREN'T WE ALL BUSY!?

It’s now common place to hear people complain daily that “I’m very busy”. I theefore decided to take an in-depth look at this phenomenon, and ascertain whether it’s true that some folks are really busy and occupied, while others just merely observe time as it fleets never to return.I decided to look at my life (not in a narcissistic sense) over the years, and I basically discovered I haven’t actually gotten busier over the years. It’s just that some sort of displacement reaction has taken place.

My point is I’ve been pretty occupied over the years (high school, university, youth service and now work/volunteering/development consulting) and it’s just my priorities that have changed in sync with the demands of each stage of my life. I would hypothetically state that this is probably true for many people (perhaps everybody). If you ask me, I’d gladly tell you that the home-maker (21st century term for house-wife) who stays at home watching AfricaMagic has also got her hands full, and has the right to say she’s busy. In case you’re asking why?? I’d love to inform you that it takes work, i.e. a great degree of concentration to follow storylines for hours upon hours. Whether this sort of work adds value is another discussion entirely. (I’m not in any way endorsing compulsive habits that lead us nowhere!)

You see, there are demands placed upon us at every stage of our lives. There are activities that ought to be more strategic per season. We must not misplace activity for productivity, and we must be careful about equating the quantity of effort with the enormity of results. Our focus today is on the word busy and let’s not forget this has little to do with that heavy word called relevance. As some say, busyness doesn’t imply business!

I believe the most important thing for every one of us is to locate ourselves constantly (using some mental GPS positioning device) and recognize the activities that deserve allocation from our limited reserve of 24 hrs daily. In simple words, we ought to allocate time to the more noble, and more rewarding competing ends (whatever that means to you!). One man is very passionate about his career and therefore works very late on a daily basis, while another one places high priority on his family by refusing to take his laptop home. Yet another considers his ministry top priority, and gallivants around the globe ministering to the needs of others while neglecting some of the basic needs of his family. The amusing fact is that each man possibly has sufficient proof to justify his formula for allocating his time.

However, I would suggest that the keyword is balance. There’s something I learnt in high-school economics, called scale-of-preference. We must continually strive to maintain a balance between the numerous competing ends in our lives. This balancing act must be based on an ideology, or an established system of values. If you ask me, I’d gladly tell you that the WORD-of-GOD ought to be our compass at all times. (I’m a Christian, and would gladly tell you that only the Spirit of God can help a man attain the designation of a certified time resource-allocator, but that man must be willing to follow His lead).

I would recommend that we allocate more time to tasks that add more value, and less time to those tasks that are less important. Value is another subject that I would not delve into in this exposition, but judging the value-potential, or value-content of an activity in my opinion is a function of its persistence-attribute. In simple terms, are the rewards of such activity temporal, long-term, or eternal? (another quick one – I’d rather allocate more time to my primary area of calling, than to those things I’m just not gifted for!......even though I’m convinced I’ll be better than Roger Federer someday!)

Next time you say to yourself, I’m very busy, that could well be the perfect time to reassess, revalidate, reconfigure and re-scrutinize the tasks you’ve been dwelling on (just to be sure they are the right tasks, whatever right means to you!)

Here’s another one for us to watch out for – it’s called Temporal Intelligence (TI – measures our ability to master time and extract maximum value from time by applying ourselves optimally in the time dimension). TIME MASTERY by John Clemens & Scott Dalrymple highly recommended!

It’s an addition to the intelligence family (IQ – Intelligence Quotient, EQ – Emotional Intelligence, SI – Social Intelligence, EI – Ecological Intelligence)

Cheers to all busy folks out there!

...In Dire Need of Dimensionalist Leaders for National Reformation.

A Dimensionalist leader is one who dives into possibilities in time (temporal intelligence) and changes the current atmosphere before time catches up, so that the fullness of time merely provides a physical evidence of the visualized realities of his futuristic dwelling (Paraphrased from Tudor Bismark). True visionaries live constantly in the future. They often have to be alerted to present realities so that they can ‘descend’ from the heights, and help propel the ‘many’ that are locked in the realities of the present, into the limitless possibilities of the future.

A habitual critic is the anti-thesis of a dimensionalist. The critic has a penchant and skill for pinpointing inadequacies. The critic often relies on unproven ‘facts’ and even when the facts have been substantiated, he blows them out of proportion and beclouds his target with doom. He’s quick to pass judgment, and often delivers his verdict before the defendant is given an opportunity to express his opinion, or stage an appeal.

The critic finds it virtually impossible to see the positives in a sequence of events. He’s quick to pick out and stress the inconsistencies in a system, and uses such as an excuse to discredit a process in its entirety. Critics abound, and are not difficult to find. You come across them every day. They are often self righteous and disillusioned folks who believe their prescription and point of view outlines the right course of action. In essence, the critic finds it a lot easier, to see the evil rather than the good, the risks rather than the opportunities, and a corrupt Nigeria, rather than a nation on the path to greatness. ARE YOU A CRITIC?

The demands of this age impose a condition that states that it is impossible to be effective and to deliver groundbreaking results without learning the rudiments of dimensionalist thinking and living. Many are held bound with the chains of the past. Jerry Savelle says that if your memories are bigger than your dreams, then you are in deep trouble! The average mind always thinks of the present, and focuses on meeting the immediate demands. He consistently fails to recognize that no matter how efficiently he reactively (rather than proactively) solves his problems, he’ll always remain a step behind. It’s about time to break free from the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom.

The dimensionalist leader is pre-occupied with what could be, rather than what has been, or what currently is. Dimensionalist leaders go beyond rhetoric and oratory. They understand the “theory of flow” (every single activity, including formal, informal, planned and unplanned; constitutes a part of a coordinated system that can deliver massive results), and discard the concept of ‘discontinuities’. They are not just motivators or charismatic warheads and human engineers. They are what we would accurately label as STRATEGIC AGENTS AND DISCIPLINED EXECUTIONISTS THAT EMPLOY INNOVATIVE AND SYSTEMATIC MODELS FOR NATIONAL REFORMATION. In the word’s of Martin Luther king, They have been to the mountaintop and have seen the promised land. They are transformed non-conformists.

An example of a dimensionalist leader is our very own Fela Durotoye. He "has been to 2025", and has decided to live in the Nigeria that exists in 2025. It’s very different from today’s Nigeria. That’s why an average mind finds it hard to comprehend his message that says that Nigeria would be one of the most desirable nations to live in, in the world by 2025. He’s not bordered by the events and systems that currently prevail. There’s no place for criticisms and expression of doubts. The only thing that’s left to do is to get busy with implementation.

In the WORD, it’s called FAITH. Abraham (Father of FAITH) raised an army of 318 soldiers and defeated 5 kings. Dimensionalist leaders are preoccupied with raising vibrant armies, and building the critical mass of strategic change agents and value enforcers. You see, we don’t need very large numbers. The question is ARE YOU WILLING TO BE A PART OF THAT FEW? Thereafter, he met with Melchizedek, paid tithes to him and received bread (representing the doctrine of the kingdom) and wine (infilling of the Spirit) from Melchizedek. These were the ‘resources’ he needed to overcome the Sodomic systems in place. He received the blessings of elevation, dominion and possession. Kingdom resources are accessed by FAITH. The resources of the LAND OF PROMISE are accessed by FAITH.

For every corrupt world system founded on philosophical thinking and luciferian ideology, there’s a kingdom (apostolic) model and a prophetic process that counters and replaces it. Dimensionalist leaders have the ability to understand mysteries, access hidden architecture and receive revelation knowledge that sets them up for supernatural accomplishments. Corrupt systems were propagated into society by strategic agents. In the same vein, these evil and repressive systems must be replaced by kingdom models and kingdom thinking mechanisms for strategic infiltration into society. However, accessing kingdom keys isn’t achieved on a platter of Gold. It’s done through hard work and travailing. Gone are the days of pontificating, pretensive postulations and traditional ideologies.

The choice is yours. You could choose to be expert at identifying and complaining about the inadequacies of our current system, or you might just decide to become a solution to some of the problems we are currently facing. Money is the reward for solving problems. Those who walk by FAITH have understood that solutions can be ‘downloaded’ from above. There is A realm of problem solving that eclipses natural human reasoning ability. That’s the realm that dimensionalists walk in. They have understanding of the times, know what ought to be done, and get right down to executing it.

The Story of Success - Its beginning...and then conclusion.

Malcolm Gladwell's latest book offers great insight into the dynamics, subtleties and undercurrents that influence and somewhat induce exceptional achievements amongst humans.
Using historical data, and referencing a diverse range of vignettes and experiences over centuries, he carefully carves out a "cause and effect" correlation between a host of environmental, cultural, psycological and physical factors, and the corresponding 'output'.

In a few words, successful people don't get successful by accident! There's often a long chain of causatives and other events that may have been set in motion long before we came on board this plane called earth. While pondering over the possibility that my position in life today may have been conditioned (to a significant degree) by events that lie outside of my domain of influence and control, i began to realise that there's so much to be grateful for. (Where would i be today if i had been born in war torn societies like somalia, somewhere around the mid nineties?) I'd rather not imagine!

Days later, i read through Daniel Goleman's blog (As is my custom) in search of new updates on the social/emotional intelligence theme, and i hit a jackpot! He had just written a review on "Outliers - The Story of Success" and there it was. The missing piece of the puzzle in Gladwell's best seller.


Here's the rest of the "Story of Success"

by Daniel Goleman -

In his fascinating new book Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell makes a strong case that people owe their success to a lot more than IQ. He reviews data and offers convincing cases to show that above an IQ in the neighborhood of 110-115, IQ fails as a predictor of success in a career. In other words, you need to be smart enough to handle the cognitive complexity of the information you need for a given role or job, be it engineering, law, medicine, or business. That’s the IQ around 115. But after reaching that threshold of “smart enough,” your intellect makes little difference.

That explains why, when Harvard’s Howard Gardner reviewed longitudinal data that follows people from their early years into their career, he concluded that IQ alone predicts just 6 to 10 percent of career success. That leaves lots of room for other factors, like luck and circumstance. Gladwell makes the case for these very factors, arguing that one’s cultural and family background offer habits and outlooks that, given fortunate historical circumstances, can make some people highly successful.
But there’s more to the story.
Gladwell illustrates the case for circumstance and luck with fascinating tidbits about success, like the fact that Bill Gates and Bill Joy, two titans of the computing industry, just happened to be lucky in getting access to some of the earliest computers around in a day when almost no one had even seen one – and then were able to practice thousands of hours writing computer code starting in their teen years, and so get a jump on the fledgling software industry.

Or the fact that an entire generation of Jewish immigrants around the turn of the century was able to bring business and craftsmen’s skills they had mastered in Europe into entrepreneurial success in America. Their industrious and enterprising habits then became a model that benefited their children, some of who were to become lawyers. Those who happened to be born around 1930 and had easy access to good schooling because their generation had relatively few children; on entering a career in law, many were turned down by the most prestigious law firms of their day, but then went on to become enormously successful because they were the first to get involved in litigation for corporate takeovers – a business those other, more haughty law firms disdained.

There’s little doubt that the mix of such lucky circumstance and personal backgrounds matter for success. But there’s more to the story. A maxim of social science tells us that in some respects, every person is like every other person, like some other people, and like no other person. Gladwell has unpacked the middle range of factors, the ways certain groups or cohorts experience unique circumstances that can, with a bit of circumstantial luck, make them hugely successful.

But here’s where the rest of the story starts. Gladwell says nothing about individual differences within those groups or cohorts – why only some in that fortunate group go on to great success. He does not raise the next set of questions like: Why didn’t all the members of the school club that gave the young Bill Gates that early access to a computer become billionaires like him? Or why didn’t all the Jewish lawyers born in 1930 become huge successes like the handful of cases Gladwell focuses on?

Here a good part of the answer no doubt can be found in which individuals among those groups has a higher level of competencies like adaptability and initiative, the drive to continually improve performance, and empathy skills like sensing how another person thinks or feels. Such abilities give a person the drive to achieve, the initiative and the interpersonal effectiveness that success in a field like software (drive and initiative) and law (add in interpersonal effectiveness) require.

A massive amount of data collected by companies on their own people suggests that such personal abilities are the secret ingredient in success over and above those Gladwell describes so ably. The data I’m referring to derives from “competence modeling,” in which companies systematically analyze the abilities found in their stars (those in the top ten percent of performance by whatever metric makes sense for that specific job or role) but not found in counterparts who are mediocre. A goodly amount of these abilities – like initiative, the drive to achieve, and empathy — are in the emotional intelligence domain. Competence studies show that the higher a person goes up the organizational ladder, the more prominent the role these personal abilities play in performance. In other words, the more successful someone is, the greater the contribution of this skill set to his or her triumph.

This is good news for anyone who would like to see success in life shared widely, rather than given to a lucky few who happen to be born into a fortunate, charmed set of circumstances. One way to give every child a greater chance for career success – and a good life in general – would be to have curricula in social and emotional learning (see http://www.casel.org/) a standard part of schooling. Data shows that children who are systematically taught social and emotional skills like how to manage their distressing emotions better, empathize and collaborate do better: have fewer problems like substance abuse and violence, like school more and pay more attention in class – and score significantly better (11%, on average) on academic achievement test scores.

The best news: the benefits are greatest in those schools where children need this boost the most, like those from the poorest families. That’s the rest of the story of success. END

Need i say more!? Thats the end of the story.

How Sustained Economic Progress Underscores Energy Innovation

We currently live in a world where prosperity/sophistication/affluence and poverty/destitution/inadequacy surprisingly co-exist. This isn’t an unusual state that our world is in, but what’s unusual is the staggering number of people that are in the former state, i.e. impoverished!

Dipal Barua, Managing Director of Grameen Shakti (and Deputy MD of Grameen Bank, i.e. right hand man to Muhammed Yunus, The Nobel Prize laureate) was awarded the Zayed Future Energy Prize ($1.5 million) for his pioneering work in facilitating the provision of solar powered lanterns to millions of homes that do not have access to electricity in Bangladesh, and empowering indigenous entrepreneurs to help service these same devices in these communities. This helped to radically cut-back the hazardous and hardly effective use of low intensity naked flames as light sources. Kids can now do their home-works at night; entrepreneurs can now work better after sunset and many other possibilities have become a reality.

World leaders have since realized the potential catastrophe that could result if the current state we are all in persists. Many of us would be surprised to learn that much more than a billion people have never experienced the joy of electricity, or the use of electrically powered devices; let’s not even begin to consider these colleagues of ours having access to the internet, or even making telephone calls.

On this premise, many nations (at least those that care to look, perceive, understand and act) have embarked on a host of empowerment/enlightenment/development programs aimed at mitigating, perhaps overturning these unacceptable conditions existing amongst humans with supposedly equal rights (at least that’s what we have inscribed on documents such as our Sovereign Constitutions, or the UNs “Universal Human Rights Declaration”)

A host of economic development and rural empowerment programs have been enacted by Development Strategists in National and Multilateral Development agencies and not-for-profits all around the globe and these are being implemented and monitored by experienced executionists. One of the core challenges we however face in our time, has been the unprecedented surge in human population. This essentially translates into much less accessibility to and availability of fixed resources per head. (Examples of relatively fixed resources are Water, Land, Air, and Subsurface Resources including metals and fossil fuels and some more). Hence, we are left with no option but to find ‘better’, i.e. ‘more efficient’ and ‘conservative’ ways of utilizing these limited resources fairly.

We humans are great learners, and have an extraordinary ability to adapt to changes that we recognize (or more accurately, changes that we choose to recognize). Take a peek at a city like London. The average apartment is so small (relatively), that a middle-class first time visitor (or immigrant) from Nigeria would begin to wonder whether the houses were built for high school students. But the reality is London has had to adapt to the surge in population, and by implication, such huge demand (and fixed supply) for real estate because of her esteemed status of “Leading Global Commercial Nerve Center”.

My focus here is on energy, and I want to point out that significant and sustained economic advancement would remain an elusive dream if we do not ensure that energy is reliably available, and not at a high cost to help power entrepreneurial and development activity. (‘High cost’ refers to whatever we have to pay for it, be it in strict economic terms, or in less definite terms such as the destruction of our ecological and environmental systems).

I’ll be swift to point out that renewable/alternative energy technologies are not designed to replace fossil fuels and other traditional sources we’ve been familiar with. Rather, the purpose of exploring and developing these technologies is to complement and expand /diversify our energy base. The pace of anticipated economic development that is required to bring out millions (perhaps billions) out of extreme poverty would create enormous increase in energy demand that legacy sources would certainly not be able to cope with.

Furthermore, even if additional reserves of legacy energy sources (such as coal, gas, crude-oil, bitumen and some more) are discovered in large enough quantities, and are exploited to keep up with rising demand, then we may end up sacrificing the critical life support systems of our planet altogether in the name of ‘economic growth’. Already, scientific data has provided more than enough evidence to support the proposition that human activities have exacerbated CO2 (and other GHG) concentrations in our atmosphere, resulting in a climate imbalance that threatens both aquatic and terrestrial life.

CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage) technology, Geo-Thermal energy, CO2 reinjection into petroleum reserves for EOR (Enhanced Oil Recovery), The CDM’s (Clean Development Mechanism) Emissions Trading (of Carbon credits using “Cap & Trade” to help orchestrate flow of funds from the culprits, i.e. industrialized economies, to developing economies and in the process cutting back net-global emissions), and the new-improved Nuclear Technology, have all proven to hold significant promise for clean energy. Japan for instance, derives about 30% of its energy needs from nuclear technology. Though Nuclear technology has been quite controversial (particularly with respect to dilemma of dealing with nuclear waste), we have to understand that just about only 10% of global nuclear waste is a product of the civilian applications of nuclear technology, and the technology has been greatly improved. (Please do not ask where the other 90% of nuclear-wastes came from). Also, Iceland has exploited geo-thermal energy to take care of more than half of her energy needs.

The readily and abundantly available energy of the Sun and Wind provide massive opportunities for even larger scale implementation than earlier mentioned sources. CSP (Concentrated Solar Panel) technology is being utilized for the MASDAR project (www.masdaruae.com) in Abu Dhabi, UAE. CSP is about seven times more efficient than traditional solar panels, and holds great promise for harnessing solar energy.

The path we face now is that of entire cities being powered by solar, wind and other forms of abundant, long-lasting renewable energy sources. Admittedly, many of these projects require enormous financial and human start-up capital (tell me which project doesn’t require that!), but once they are up, marginal costs of keeping them operational decline steeply. Worthy of note is that many rural areas, especially in the developing world currently do not even have the luxury of a nearby grid. Grid expansion projects require enormous capital, and are usually the exclusive domain of national governments. However, renewable energy technologies (such as solar and wind) do not have to be fed into a grid.

Independent projects could (and ought to) be implemented and replicated in several remote communities, implying partial elimination of grid expansion/distribution costs over large areas.

Efficiency is an absolutely important aspect of energy production, transmission and usage. A research conducted in a region of the United States showed that the average grid was about thirty years of age. This sounds more like a case of powering today’s economy with yesterday’s energy solutions. A lot of energy is actually wasted during transmission on in-efficient grids. (I wonder how much energy we lose on our poorly maintained grids in Nigeria, and Africa). Investing in grid-efficiency, and efficient usage of other energy sources have been proven to hold the potential for achieving 25% of the emission reduction targets that have been set for 2050 (i.e. returning global emissions to 1990 levels). We now have to think deeply when making choices about which cars to purchase (but this has little to do with my desire to purchase a BMW when the money comes – BMW has a technology that converts the heat energy generated when you apply your brakes to electricity, which is then harnessed for other uses in your car plus a low-resistance rolling technology that allows your wheels to roll with so much ease, reducing the energy needed to overcome gravity and friction. BMW ought to pay me for this!)

We need to be innovative. We need our economies to continue developing rapidly. We need energy, and more energy. We also need to take care of our planet (except someone has found another one). We need as many as possible to have fair access to 21^st century technologies and resources, powered by reliable and renewable energy sources. Who knows whether the next Nigerian Nobel laureate is playing around in some remote village, waiting to be a given a well deserved opportunity for self-expression?

“Outliers” – A book written by Malcolm Gladwell brilliantly ties success (what many call genius) to opportunities (Time and Chance). Take nothing away from successful people; they worked hard and were rewarded, but they were presented with opportunities at dead accurate times that many did not have. Indeed, to whom much has been given, much is expected. If we want ‘much’ to come out of our societies, then we must present ‘much’ to our citizens. I’m excited NNPC has partnered with Masdar (The Future Energy Company, whose parent is the famous Mubadala) in aligning Nigeria with the Clean Energy movement. Great things lie ahead.

Renewable energy provides great opportunities that must be embraced now, and I dare say is the FUTURE of ENERGY. Well done MASDAR!

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Missions: How contemporary interpretation has distorted its true meaning

The sole reason for Christ's incarnation, and subsequent crucifixion and RESSURECTION has been to establish His Father's kingdom upon the face of the earth by being a witness unto The Truth and redeeming All of mankind from Sin and Death.

In essence, He came to pursue and accomplish a pre-earthly and pre-determined mission, that had already been finalized by the Father before time began => 1Pet 1:20
From His birth to His ascention, christ pursued the Father's original intent absolutely devoid of any form of variation. He had a mission, and pursued it with ALL that He was given.

As disciples of Christ (xtians) we have been handed a specific mission - Go on and be effective witnesses in this lost, earthly and ephemeral world.
In essence, our faith isn't just designed to be a part of our lives, or what we do on particular days, or what we come together to do. Simply put, our faith ought to encompass the totality of our lives.

I came across a question recently that got me thinking: which of these has ownership of the other - The church or the mission?
Better still - Which is Christ's principal objective - To establish a church, or to save the world's lost?

We live in times where churches globally, place adverts and commercials in media in a manner that makes it difficult to differentiate her from commercial organizations and businesses. Some go a step further to advertise available "products" and "services" that should be difficult to ignore by any rational citizen. However, subtly, the true message of redemption and complete brokeness required for a transformed life is gently obscurred.
Before veering off-course, let's return to "The church and Missions" and see which ought to drive the activities of the other.


Alan Hirsch gives us critical spiritual insight into defining "MISSIONAL"

- DEFINING MISSONAL

It has become increasingly difficult to open a ministry book or attend a church conference and not be accosted by the word missional. A quick search on Google uncovers the presence of "missional communities," "missional leaders," "missional worship," even "missional seating," and "missional coffee." Today, everyone wants to be missional. Can you think of a single pastor who is proudly anti-missional?
But as church leaders continue to pile onto the missional bandwagon, the true meaning of the word may be getting buried under a pile of assumptions. Is it simply updated nomenclature for being purpose-driven or seeker-sensitive? Is missional a new, more mature strain of the emerging church movement?

It's time to pause and consider the origin and meaning of the word that is reframing our understanding of ministry and the church. This tree diagrams the roots of the word missional and how its reach has expanded into different areas of ministry. Alan Hirsch, a self-described "missional activist," also provides a concise definition of the ubiquitous term.
There are consequences when the meanings of words become confused. This is particularly true within a biblical worldview. The Hebrews were suspicious of images as conveyors of truth, so they guarded words and their meanings carefully. Part of theology, therefore, includes guarding the meaning of words to maintain truth within the community of faith.

This is why I am concerned about the confusion surrounding the meaning of the word missional. Maintaining the integrity of this word is critical, because recovering a missional understanding of God and the Church is essential not only for the advancement of our mission but, I believe, also for the survival of Christianity in the West.

First, let me say what missional does not mean. Missional is not synonymous with emerging. The emerging church is primarily a renewal movement attempting to contextualize Christianity for a postmodern generation. Missional is also not the same as evangelistic or seeker-sensitive. These terms generally apply to the attractional model of church that has dominated our understanding for many years. Missional is not a new way to talk about church growth. Although God clearly desires the church to grow numerically, it is only one part of the larger missional agenda. Finally, missional is more than social justice. Engaging the poor and correcting inequalities is part of being God's agent in the world, but we should not confuse this with the whole.

A proper understanding of missional begins with recovering a missionary understanding of God. By his very nature God is a "sent one" who takes the initiative to redeem his creation. This doctrine, known as missio Dei—the sending of God—is causing many to redefine their understanding of the church. Because we are the "sent" people of God, the church is the instrument of God's mission in the world. As things stand, many people see it the other way around. They believe mission is an instrument of the church; a means by which the church is grown. Although we frequently say "the church has a mission," according to missional theology a more correct statement would be "the mission has a church."

Many churches have mission statements or talk about the importance of mission, but where truly missional churches differ is in their posture toward the world. A missional community sees the mission as both its originating impulse and its organizing principle. A missional community is patterned after what God has done in Jesus Christ. In the incarnation God sent his Son. Similarly, to be missional means to be sent into the world; we do not expect people to come to us. This posture differentiates a missional church from an attractional church.

The attractional model, which has dominated the church in the West, seeks to reach out to the culture and draw people into the church—what I call outreach and in-grab. But this model only works where no significant cultural shift is required when moving from outside to inside the church. And as Western culture has become increasingly post-Christian, the attractional model has lost its effectiveness. The West looks more like a cross-cultural missionary context in which attractional church models are self-defeating. The process of extracting people from the culture and assimilating them into the church diminishes their ability to speak to those outside. People cease to be missional and instead leave that work to the clergy.

A missional theology is not content with mission being a church-based work. Rather, it applies to the whole life of every believer. Every disciple is to be an agent of the kingdom of God, and every disciple is to carry the mission of God into every sphere of life. We are all missionaries sent into a non-Christian culture.
Missional represents a significant shift in the way we think about the church. As the people of a missionary God, we ought to engage the world the same way he does—by going out rather than just reaching out. To obstruct this movement is to block God's purposes in and through his people. When the church is in mission, it is the true church.


(Alan Hirsch is a missional activist and the author of The Forgotten Ways.)