Stage 3: Missional Culture
All of our church members have been Learning to Play by experiencing God’s mission! Let’s make sure our church continues to follow His lead for years to come!
The Goal: Integrate missional rhythms into the gatherings and schedule of the church.
God’s mission isn’t limited to a program, event, or trip. Like prayer, worship, scripture, or fellowship, mission is a central part of God’s Kingdom’s culture. To move from learning to play the game to being a team that actively plays together, we need to make a clear plan to integrate mission into the ongoing rhythms of our church. Why? Because our rhythms cultivate our culture.
When our church practices something consistently with value, priority, and celebration, it becomes part of “what we do.” It becomes part of our church’s culture. Similarly to familiar practices like prayer, worship, scripture, fellowship, teaching, giving, or announcements, we need to decide how we will integratemission into our Sunday morning services, small groups, and additional, existing “other spaces.”
Integrating missional rhythms cultivates a missional culture.
Coaching a missional culture produces the fruit of missional people.
Coaches establish the culture for their team. They decide and schedule the important rhythms that help their team to grow. So to coach a thriving, missional culture that is following the Lord’s lead, let’s examine a process that can help our church’s leadership team decide when and how mission will be practiced.
Section Shortcuts:
How a leadership team can create missional culture:
1. Review and Celebrate Church’s Mission Engagement
The next time your church’s leadership meets to pray, plan, and review your church’s gatherings, discuss:
⛲️ How is every member sharing God’s love with one another?
💡 How is every member talking about their individual Jerusalem Missions?
🏘️ How is every member connecting with people and places in our Judea Mission?
🤕 How is every member caring for the hidden and hurting in our Samaria Mission?
2. Examine Recommendations and Examples for Gatherings
After assessing how church members are already engaged and growing, look at the following recommendations of integrating missional rhythms into Sunday morning services, small groups, and additional other spaces. Pray and review the models to see which ways the Lord will lead you to integrate Overflow practices as well as Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria Mission into your gatherings.
There is no secret formula or perfect model. That’s not how God works. Everything is about relationship,
following His lead. Rather, we share these examples and ideas to assist you as coaches in creating space
for every member to continue to follow God’s lead together. Below are general recommendations, models,
and examples based on churches that practice missional culture from around the world.
Sunday Morning Services
(Primary Weekly Worship Gathering)
General Recommendations
The Goal: Facilitate rhythms for every church member to learn to be an active player on God’s mission.
⛲️ Overflow
Practice every week. Select practices that help every member grow in loving one another.
💡 jerusalem
Discuss together at least once a month. Small groups may work better as weekly rhythms.
🏘️ judea
Go and connect with neighbors at least once a month. As we follow God’s lead, we’ll see
natural, relational rhythms emerge to foster deepening relationships.
🤕 samaria
Go at least once a quarter. This will vary depending on the logistics of each church. As small
groups develop deeper connections, this will also inform how to best integrate Samaria Mission into
Sunday morning services.
3 Church Models of Missional Sunday Morning Services 🎡🧩⛲️
🎡 Rotating Model
Recommended for churches with strict time schedules
Every week, select a consistent time of the service to focus on mission, as we practiced with 5 Minute Mission. Rotate through each of the missional focuses each week.
1st Sunday: Overflow Practices– informed by what we currently need to learn on mission.
2nd Sunday: Discuss our Jerusalems – Creating space to process and pray.
3rd Sunday: Overflow Practices– informed by what we currently need to learn on mission.
4th Sunday: Go into our Judea – Connect deeper with those closest to where we worship.
5th Sundays: Dismiss early to visit our Samaria friends in small groups. Less frequent on Sundays, but never forgetting the hidden and hurting.
🧩 Full Integration Model
Recommended for churches with flexible time schedules
Each missional focus would have a time within the Sunday morning service.
The five most common times for a missional practice on
Sunday morning would be the following:
- The start of the service
- After worship/before the message
- During the message
- After the message
- Leaving the service
A church practicing a Full Integration model chooses which of those times
best connect to each missional focus. For example:
- Pray for specific Judea and Samaria needs at the start of the service
- Practice Overflow after worship
- Discuss Jerusalem Missions at the end of the message
- Break into small groups to alternate connecting with neighbors in our Judea and Samaria to leave the service
⛲️ Fountain Model
Recommended for churches examining structure of primary gathering
In The Activation Starter Kit, we use a three-tiered fountain to illustrate God’s love overflowing from our
lives personally to one another’s in the family of God and then to our neighbors. To practice this model,
the service gets divided into three blocks of time.
- The first block of time is focused on our personal relationships with God.
This can include worship, prayer, scripture, and giving - The second block is focused on our relationships with each other.
This can include announcements, interactive teaching, Overflow practices, prayer, and ordinances. - The third block is focused on our relationships with our neighbors.
This includes the missional practices for our Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria Missions.
Small Groups
(Smaller, secondary gathering time i.e. small groups or midweek service)
gENERAL RECOMmENDATIONS
The Goal: Develop building deeper relationships with our neighbors in a consistent, team context
Small groups have more flexibility than Sunday morning services, and usually have a greater emphasis
on building deeper relationships with each other built into their purpose. The reason Start This Sunday
doesn’t start with small groups from the beginning is because our goal is activating the full Body of Jesus.
Small groups usually have lower total participation than Sunday morning services, but offer important
opportunities to develop mission consistently, in the context of a neighborhood and team.
Introducing Mission to Small Groups
We recommend small groups using the same Mission Game Plans from Stage 2: Learn to Play the
Game. This is especially helpful for recontextualizing our Judea and Samaria Missions. One practical
suggestion is to lead the Game Plan right before the main discussion/teaching time of the gathering.
Creating Missional Rhythms
Working from your small group gathering’s preexisting format, identify the best times to practice each
missional focus. Each section is written for the context of a weekly gathering. Adjust the timing
recommendations to how often your small groups gather.
⛲️ Overflow: Integrate as often as possible
● Loving one another as the family of God is one of the primary purposes for small groups.
● Identify how any existing relationship-building interactions already help us love our neighbors.
● Review each segment of the gathering for opportunities to integrate Overflow practices.
● Make a list of which new Overflow practices would be important to introduce.
● Make a list of which Overflow practices would be good to practice regularly.
💡 Jerusalem: At least 10 minutes, every week
● Identify which time of the gathering is best to have consistent, weekly Jerusalem conversations.
● Small groups are the best preexisting environment to check in with each other about living life on
God’s mission every day.
● No preparation needed– just discussion and prayer time to develop our Jerusalem awareness.
● Groups can ask the same question each week, “What’s happening in your daily life of mission?”
● Every person should share. If there isn’t enough time for everyone, make the groups smaller. Try
to have a minimum of 3-4 people so a diversity of perspectives can be heard.
🏘️ Judea: At least once a month
● A neighborhood-focused community that prays, cares, and serves makes a huge difference!
● Based on the Mission Game Plans, continue following up on the connections that develop from
walking around the place where the small group gathers, following God’s lead.
● Pay special attention to the closest people and places around the small group’s gathering.
● Greet or bless our Judea neighbors as the first or final segment of a Judea-focused week.
● Warm greetings, thoughtful questions, or small gifts can go a long way when following up with
neighbors by name.
● During small group prayer times, pray for neighbors by name and specific needs for wholeness of
the neighborhood.
🤕 Samaria: Once a month
● Following the Mission Game Plans, regularly visit our new friends from our Samaria Mission.
● Depending on the location, visiting Samaria neighbors may replace the normal small group plans.
● Depending on the situation, our Samaria neighbors may enjoy adapted versions of our usual
small group practices.
● Use simple, fun, relationship-building activities to keep visiting rhythms sustainable.
● Discover with Persons of Peace and Samaria friends which visiting opportunities can best happen
during the small group’s existing gathering time.
Other Spaces
(Additional, existing church gatherings i.e. prayer night, recovery ministry, youth outings)
gENERAL RECOMENDATIONS
The Goal: Understand integrating mission into other preexisting gatherings, and anticipate new
opportunities.
⛲️ Overflow: Examine all additional, existing gatherings of the church to think through opportunities to
intentionally prioritize growing deeper relationships with each other.
💡 Jerusalem: Not recommended as a starting focus for Other Spaces. Small groups and Sunday
morning services are the priority to establish consistent rhythms of Jerusalem awareness.
🏘️ Judea: As we build relationships throughout our neighborhood, we can anticipate new
relationship-building opportunities through events, celebrations, community projects, meetings, invitations,
and local needs. For a sustainable start, pray to discern God’s lead and respond as a team.
🤕 Samaria: Similarly, as we make new friends across social lines, we will find important
relationship-building opportunities through events, celebrations, project invitations, and helping with
needs. Anticipate these developments, and pray to discern God’s lead and respond as a team.
3. Discover and Brainstorm Practical Ideas
Below we’ve organized several concrete ideas on how to live out each missional focus. Each focus has a
section containing ideas and frameworks to continue healthy rhythms of missional culture. We hope they
can spark many moments of seeing which ways God is leading you into next! God loves us so much that
we get to be important parts of His powerful move! He’s empowered. He’s leading. Let’s go!
101 Actions to Overflow
Our opportunities to love one another are as numerous as the different ways we can live life together. In
Overflow practices we see the convergence of loving one another and preparing to love our neighbors.
Building deeper relationships with another can be simple, but it’s not always easy. As coaches, we may
need a few concrete ideas to help us brainstorm how to best facilitate Overflow practices. To help us get
started, we’ve adapted this statement from The Activation Starter Kit to emphasize this point.
God’s family is not meant to merely gather together, but to rejoice, learn, laugh, remember, look
forward, memorize, discuss, welcome, invite, decide, examine, exhort, encourage, listen, bless, stand, pray,
succeed, reflect, compliment, analyze, question, brainstorm, explain, greet, inquire, understand, create, try,
bear, mourn, discover, cry, develop, meditate, start, finish, defend, accept, deliberate, challenge, hope,
reconcile, confess, forgive, prophecy, affirm, recover, seek, ask, fail, investigate, admonish, disciple, study,
reexamine, rethink, inspire, prioritize, share, maintain, help, give, sing, read, write, worship, play, exercise,
dance, comfort, practice, eat, drink, clean, watch, walk, observe, prepare, celebrate, explore, grow, serve,
go, see, compete, travel, receive, plant, shop, cook, landscape, build, paint, repair, visit, organize, move,
decorate, donate, and love together
Consider each of these action words as an opportunity to spark ideas for interactions, conversations,
connections, and activities. Below we’ve used 20 of the action words to create examples of Overflow
interactions you can lead in your church’s gatherings.
Simple Interactions
Share a story about a time where you laughed the hardest.
Brainstorm fun ways to
celebrate a member of the church.
Listen to a high point and low point from this past week of someone.
Discover a specific subject that you both would be interested in
learning.
Rejoice about an area of life that is healthy.
Deep conversations
Discuss how words of affirmation are meaningful in our lives. Give examples.
Meditate on a scripture where Jesus describes God’s love for us.
Bear someone else’s burden by listening and praying
Develop concrete, first steps for an area of life where you’d like to grow in discipline.
Question patterns “of the world” that may contradict patterns of
God’s Kingdom.
Simple
Actions
Share a website, app, or book that you find helpful in everyday life. Explain how it’s helpful.
Write a short poem together about a mutual interest.
Drink tea or coffee and discuss your ideal way to rest and reflect.
Play a fun multiplayer game that doesn’t require preparation.
Introduce an exercise to someone else that you find to be helpful or fun.
Plan
Activities
Plan a time to explore a local place together. Take photos of the journey.
Plan a time together to serve someone who needs a helping hand.
Plan a time for families and singles to cook a favorite meal together
Plan a time to plant a decided flower or vegetable at each
other’s homes.
Plan a time in the upcoming two weeks to shop for groceries together.
Questions
Another simple way to build deeper, Overflowing relationships is through asking questions. Here are three
different categories that can spark dozens of conversations. Each are questions that help us to get to
know each other, hear about important moments in each other’s lives, and highlight our uniquenesses.
Get to Know Each Other
What is your story?
Who are some of the most
important people in your life?
What was an important moment of
celebration in your life?
What is a moment where you felt the most a part of a team?
Reflect on Important Moments
Share about a time you felt inspired.
Share about a time you felt seen.
Share about a time you felt cared for.
Share about a time you felt understood.
Learn Uniquenesses
How do you enjoy receiving love?
How can someone best check in
on you?
How do you enjoy serving/helping
others?.
What kind of encouragement means the most to you?
💡Understanding Our Jerusalem Mission
We Learned to Play the Game by creating our Jerusalem map, and learning the prayer/care/share
framework. Now we are Playing the Game by creating ongoing spaces to discuss and develop our
Jerusalem Missions
To impact our Jerusalem Missions as a church, we only recommend one practice: Jerusalem Circles– a
consistent time to talk and pray about opportunities to serve and bless those in our everyday lives.
There’s no preparation needed. Here are 7 elements of effectively practicing Jerusalem Circles.
1. Time. Every person should have an opportunity to share. Smaller groups may help manage time.
2. People. Review who the Lord has been highlighting in our personal lives, keeping in mind being
light and salt everyday. He’s the leader of Jerusalem Missions.
3. Lens. Use the lens of prayer/care/share to help people learn how to express God’s heart to their
Jerusalem neighbors. Explore whichever other missional frameworks you find helpful as needed.
4. Pray. Prayer is critical. Pray for the names and circumstances the Lord highlights to everyone.
5. Weeks. Look back on the last 7 days, then look forward to the next 7 days. This is a helpful way
to examine life with our Jerusalem neighbors. It gives a clear timeframe to prayerfully consider.
6. Awareness. Consistency increases awareness. As we continue our rhythms of meeting together,
we will remember more often how God wants to use us every day, but that awareness will take
different time for different people.
7. Teamwork. Paint a picture of everyone encouraging each other to follow Holy Spirit’s lead. We
want to avoid the feeling of performance or striving in our Jerusalem Missions. Rather, let’s cheer
each other on into faith-filled steps of obedience with God.
🏘️ Connecting to Our JUDEA Mission
We Learned to Play the Game by creating our Judea map, doing research, observing people and places
with the Lord, and following up on who He highlighted. Now we are Playing the Game by creating
ongoing spaces to connect and develop relationships in our Judea Mission.
We want to continue to be present and connect regularly with neighbors in our Judea. Some neighbors
may be cautious about meeting someone for the first time. It may also be stretching for many of us! In
those cases, it’s helpful to have a clear, disarming greeting prepared. Here are a few examples:
1. Greet our neighbors: “Hello! We’re from (identify church) right here in the neighborhood. We’ve
been discussing that in order to love our neighbors, we should meet our neighbors! So we
wanted to say “hello!” How are you doing today? What’s your name?”
2. Bless our neighbors: “Good morning! My name is (each person says their name). We’re hoping
to encourage each of our neighbors today. How’re you doing today? Anything we can help you
with today? (Or if possible, ‘Can we pray for you for you about anything today?’)”
3. Learn from our neighbors: “Good afternoon! We’re friends from (church) who meet on (street
name) every week. Recently, we’ve wanted to start learning more about our neighborhood. Do
you mind if we ask you, What do you enjoy about this neighborhood? Do you have a favorite
restaurant? Is there anything you would want to see changed in the neighborhood? What is your
dream for this neighborhood?
Contextualize and adapt the above greetings and questions as helpful. As we coach church members
through a Judea Mission, giving examples of a friendly greeting that everyone can learn for meeting a
new neighbor is very helpful, as this can be the most intimidating step to overcome for many members.
The following are common places we may come across in our Judea. If the Lord highlights any of these
places, here are some ideas for how to start building connections with people there.
1. Houses: Greet with a flower for each neighbor. Focus on learning their names.
2. Apartments: Introduce yourselves to the owner or manager. Offer practical help like cleaning or
decorating for a season or holiday.
3. Grade Schools: Meet teachers or administration. Find any needs the school has that can be
helped by our small group.
4. University/College: Meet a community organizer who can let you know an upcoming game, play,
concert, or performance your group can attend. Meet and congratulate students afterwards.
5. Shops/Vendors/Stores/Restaurant/Market/Mall: Offer workers and managers chocolates with
an encouraging note. Let them know they have neighbors who care.
6. Other Faith Building: Meet a leader and introduce our group. Offer the idea of dinner together
where we could discuss the health and wellbeing of the neighborhood.
7. Government: Contact the office to let them know that we are a local group that would like to
serve the needs of the neighborhood. Discover any neighborhood needs from their perspective.
We will find similar opportunities to build bridges with neighbors at offices, parks, health services,
recreational places, transportation hubs, media buildings, and art venues.
🏘️ THE JUDEA BRIDGE-BUILDING PROCESS
We can follow the same process to build bridges in each location the Lord highlights.
1. Meet a contact person and introduce ourselves
2. Discuss our hope of seeing our neighbors and neighborhood connected and thriving
3. Offer a simple act of kindness to initiate relationship with neighbors at that location
4. Discover next steps to bless, serve, and encourage our neighbors into wholeness
5. Discuss as a church group how we can follow up with those next steps
This is not a formula, but a clear path for the laborers to enter the harvest. The Lord is leading, moving,
and opening doors! He’s prepared each of us to share His love with our neighbors. Let’s create a clear
path for His supernaturally-gifted family to follow His lead! What if all of our neighbors had a personal
connection to God’s Kingdom in action?
🤕 Deepening Our Samaria Mission
We Learned to Play the Game by discussing social lines of separation, doing research, learning from
Persons of Peace, and making new friends. Now we are Playing the Game by creating ongoing spaces
to develop relationships in our Samaria Mission.
Our Samaria Mission, like the others, is all about relationships. As we connect with neighbors living with
some challenging situations, we may not be able to offer a definitive solution to solving their challenge.
But to each person, we can offer friendship. We can take the journey with them. To examine the meaning
of the word “compassion,” we can even suffer with our neighbors. The love that God shows us is the love
we share with each other, and the love He is calling us to share with our Samaria neighbors.
We can use many of the practices and ideas we’ve already explored in Overflow, Jerusalem, and Judea,
but there are also very unique aspects to Samaria Mission. To effectively build relationships in our
Samaria, we must continue to follow God’s lead and learn from Persons of Peace. Persons of Peace
can help us create paths of relationship in the appropriate ways.
Let’s examine some groups of people from our local community. We’ve chosen groups that Jesus
highlighted in Matthew 25 as well as groups identified by the volunteer movement, Serve the City. Here
are some ideas for simple, personal ways we can connect with our Samaria neighbors.
1. Meet a contact person and introduce ourselves
2. Discuss our hope of seeing our neighbors and neighborhood connected and thriving
3. Offer a simple act of kindness to initiate relationship with neighbors at that location
4. Discover next steps to bless, serve, and encourage our neighbors into wholeness
5. Discuss as a church group how we can follow up with those next steps
This is not a formula, but a clear path for the laborers to enter the harvest. The Lord is leading, moving,
and opening doors! He’s prepared each of us to share His love with our neighbors. Let’s create a clear
path for His supernaturally-gifted family to follow His lead! What if all of our neighbors had a personal
connection to God’s Kingdom in action?
1. Hungry/thirsty: Sit down at a table with them and share a meal and drink.
2. Foreigner/Stranger/Refugees: Welcome them and have conversations learning about each
other’s cultures.
3. Without essential needs/clothing: With Person of Peace, prepare an essential item to share
with neighbors in need. Follow up with a conversation over tea/coffee.
4. Imprisoned: Ask questions to discover topics that we’re both interested in learning more about.
5. Sick/Hospitalized: Bring an interesting or fun book to read together. Discover their favorite book.
6. Homeless: Share some warm food together. Discuss people we have found to be inspiring.
7. Elderly: Learn to cook one of their favorite recipes. Make sure you get the details just right.
8. Disabled: Bring a few game options to play together. Discover the best kinds of games to play.
9. Victims of abuse: Paint the nails of women who were rescued from abusive situations.
10. Children with needs: Bring paint, crayons, or markers to create drawings together.
Serve the City International is an excellent example of an organization who cares for people in need in
personal ways. They share that doing practical projects, sharing food and drink, making art, highlighting
beauty, playing games, and creating conversation spaces are all practical ways to show simple acts of
kindness that lead to friendships (www.servethecity.net).
Serve the City International is an excellent example of an organization who cares for people in need in
personal ways. They share that doing practical projects, sharing food and drink, making art, highlighting
beauty, playing games, and creating conversation spaces are all practical ways to show simple acts of
kindness that lead to friendships (www.servethecity.net).
🤕 The Samaria Bridge-Building Process
Just like our Judea bridge-building process, we can understand a similar process for our Samarias.
1. Meet with a Person of Peace to learn about a particular group of people
2. Discuss a vision of seeing our each of our neighbors connected and thriving
3. Use simple act of kindness to initiate relationship with new friends as directed by Person of Peace
4. Discover next steps to journey with our Samaria neighbors towards wholeness
5.Discuss as a church group how we can follow up with those next steps
4. DECIDE AND SCHEDULE RHYTHMS INTO CHURCH CALENDAR
We’ve reviewed and celebrated where we are. We’ve examined recommendations and examples for
Sunday morning, small group, and other space mission integration. We’ve discovered and brainstormed
practical ideas for continuing each missional focus. Now it’s time to decide and schedule.
The Lord is leading His people. As coaches, we want to create every opportunity for our members to
follow His lead. The Lord is the primary focus of our gatherings. So let’s make decisions as church
leadership to position every member of the church to follow His lead.
In the Appendix, we’ve included a short form that can assist the leadership team through examining each
gathering and deciding how to integrate each mission focus. We recommend using your existing church
calendar system and communication channels to include all missional rhythm decisions.
Now that our members are being coached into a missional culture, let’s get ready for the
transformation that God wants to do through His missional people in our Jerusalems, Judea, and
Samaria!