I am starting a new series on the book of Acts. I’m calling it “Acts: the Missional Pentecostal’s Handbook”. I paused for a minute before choosing that title to ask myself what I really mean by Missional Pentecostal. I was questioning whether or not I live up to the description Missional. No person (and certainly no pastor-we tend to be the most proud of all Christians) wants to hand other people (least of all the people they pastor and teach) solid proof that they don’t measure up to what they are striving to be. In this case I don’t have a choice. God has called us to be Missional Pentecostals, and He has called the soon-to-be renamed Orangetown Community Church to be a Missional Pentecostal Community.

So what does it mean to be missional? At the same time that I was questioning myself, I was also questioning whether I had an accurate understanding of the term. Most probably don’t know, but the term Missional has become quit a buzzword among pastors and church planters. Some famously Missional pastors/churches would include Tim Keller of Redeemer in Manhattan and Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill in Seattle. Missional refers to a paradigm shift that is taking place among many evangelical thinkers, pastors, and theologians. You might contrast Missional vs. Evangelistic as Dr. Tim Keller does in this short video. (Attention non-geeks: if you are viewing this in your email you have to go to the site to see the videos. Now that you know you are just a little geekyer!)

That is just a taste of what it means. For an in-depth treatment of the term you can check out this 3 page article by Keller.

That explains the Missional part, but I have attached it to another term: Pentecostal. The question that I am asking myself is whether there is a difference between a Missional Christian, and a Missional Pentecostal Christian? I suspect that there is, but it will require research to determine the exact difference. So what will I focus on as the subject of my research? The book of Acts!

My heart is so hungry to see my life become a 21^st Century edition of the kinds of Christians we see in Acts. They were full of the Holy Spirit and it translated into people getting saved and welcomed into a Christian community. Thier Christian community was characterized by a rich community experience. Frankly, I’ve never really had that. I have drips and drabs, tastes and teases, but I long to see a Missional Pentecostal Christian community established in Nyack.

By the way, let me give a little testimony. It seems to me that God is bringing this up, which always comforts me. The very minute I came up with the title for our Acts series, the very minute I was questioning myself and my understanding of the term I check out my RSS reader and found a new blog entry at Acts 29. What was the blog entry? It was called The Practices of a Missional Church. That is where I found the article by Keller which has pierced my heart. God is speaking. Listen and respond.

Please feel free to interact and comment on what I’ve wrote.