In his book The Present Future, Reggie McNeal reveals the contrasts in the different ways leaders can think about the church and its ministry. McNeal reveals the different paradigms that pastors can have as they fulfill their ministry in the church. Being missional is first a shift in thinking about the nature of the church. Once a missional understanding is adopted, the way we do church begins to change.
- A missional church stresses community transformation over growing the church.
- A missional church strives to turn members into missionaries over turning members into ministers.
- A missional church focuses on recovering Christian mission over doing church better.
In the above video, Tim Keller also offers some insights about the missional church. Keller explains why this label – Missional – is not just new slang for being Evangelistic.
For those who want to explore a little more, let me suggest reading Timothy Corwin’s blog post Being Missional: Is There Really a Difference? Tim is pastor of The Rock Church of Saint Louis, and has written several thoughtful pieces about the missional church.
GRACE & PEACE 
It’s an interesting post Dennis. I like what the Bible tells us: in Acts 1:8, Matt 28:18-20, and various other places through out the entire Bible. Our lives as Christ Followers are to be lives that model Jesus and follow him. As we hear, study, apply, and live in community with other Christians, God’s Word by the Holy Spirit transform us. I’m not really sure if being “missional” isn’t just another “term” used in relation to “making Disciples” (2 Tim 2:2) As you have pointed out in other posts language and words are important. It seems to day, even the “Church” has it’s own use of “new” terms and words for old principles. Just put in different ways. But then putting a different lable on it does help define the issue a bit. I am though reminded that any organization, be it Church, the Business world, Government, the Military, etc all have their own set of terms and language and it tends to change over time to fit the culture in which we are. “Missional” seems to be (at least to me) to fit in the cool language of the Church today. At least a lot of discussion around “missional” these days. I heard one Pastor say: ” don’t tell me about being Missional but show me lifes that are being transformed !”