Breaking the Missional Code

By Ed Stetzer and David Putman

You can be equally called, gifted, and passionate and yet experience different levels of success due to the model of ministry being used. In other words, the way you do things does impact your ability to reach your community effectively. Breaking the code means discovering the principles that work in every context, selecting the tools most relevant for your context, and then learning to apply them in a missionally effective manner. Evangelism is telling people about Jesus; missions involves understanding them before we tell them. Missional thinking focuses on doing missions everywhere.

Breaking the code means that we have to recognize that there are cultural barriers (in addition to spiritual ones) that blind people from understanding the gospel. Our task is to find the right way to break through those cultural barriers while addressing the spiritual and theological ones as well. One of the biggest cultural barriers we face is the emerging “glocal” context. Most churches chose to keep its culture and lose its community. The world has changed and we live in a world that has transitioned from the modern era to one that is “post.” Postmodernity is the rejection of the modern view of life and the embracing of something new. It is important to note that the shift to postmodernism has not happened everywhere—it has not yet impacted many in the church culture because the church culture acts as a protective shield, unmolested by a secular culture’s music, literature, and values. Our churches need to decide whether they will be outposts of modernity in a new age or embrace the challenge of breaking a new cultural code. For many, evangelicals have become a voting block rather than a spiritual force.

In general, the church’s influence is declining both in the culture and among its own people. Our growing cultural diversity requires a church within the reach of every people group, population segment, and cultural environment if we are to be faithful to the Great Commission. As more and more North Americans identify themselves with ethnic or national backgrounds, the story is about more than just the broader culture. In addition to the many unreached people groups or ethnic groups that now call North America home, people can be identified and segmented into many population segments. People are bound by common experience. It is this common experience, when significant enough, that becomes a foundation for long- term social bonding and interaction. We must also consider cultural environments as part of our missionary mandate if the gospel is to be planted effectively among all people. We must recognize that while the broader culture has changed, most evangelical churches have not.

The spiritual landscape of North American culture is falling apart and coming together again at the same time. Spirituality is up, while church attendance is at an all-time low. Breaking the code answers the question, “Why are certain churches and ministries experiencing phenomenal success and massive growth in the midst of the apparent crisis within the North American church?” Many code-breaking churches are having a phenomenal impact. These leaders represent a new breed of pastors in North America. They have the ability to read the culture and translate ministry into a biblically faithful and culturally appropriate expression of church. Any genuine attempt at missional effectiveness begins with a calling from God. Above all else, we need to be called by God to a certain people. The call to people is essential because it helps us escape the trap of technique. The key to breaking the code of a community is to have the heart of the Father for that community.

In order to break the code, you must seek to understand the culture before you chose your model. As you decipher your own community, you may discover similar methods and models that have been used effectively in other like-minded communities. We have discovered that when the growing core of leaders, the pastoral leadership, and the community are from the same tribe, then the potential for impact is significant. A second principle relates to the similarity of certain population segments from one geographical area to another. In other words, wherever there is a people group, population segment, or cultural environment that is like the original church or ministry, then the methods, models, and techniques are often transferable. Every church must find its unique call and vision. For most churches, this happens accidentally. Churches that break the code seek to communicate the Word and connect through worship with local people and culture. If a church does not regularly examine its culture, it ends up as a culture unto itself.

Jesus gave four directives that outline the missional mandate of the church. We are sent on mission by God (John 20:21). We are exhorted to be on mission where God has placed us now, and our job is to “break the code” wherever we are. Being a code-breaking church means that often we are called to engage a culture that is not our own preferred culture. Our job is to take the gospel to each community, not hold on to our preferences. When we are functioning as God’s church sent on mission, we will go into different cultures, contexts, and communities. We will proclaim a faithful gospel there in a culturally relevant way, and we will worship in a way that connects in that setting. Jesus’ instructions mean that we must go to all the people groups in the world (Matthew 28:18-20). The word peoples represent every ethno-linguistic people group around the world, all the different ethnicities present in our cities, and even the different generations that live in our communities. No longer can we see them simply through the lenses of ethno-linguistic people groups, but we must adjust our sight to see them through the lenses of people groups, population segments, and cultural environments. Jesus said that we are sent to all peoples (Acts 1:6-8) and we are sent with a message (Luke 24:46-48). It is not about us! It is about Jesus saying,”As the Father has sent Me, I am sending you” to “Go and make disciples of all different kinds of people” with a message of “repentance and forgiveness of sin” as a people who have “received the Holy Spirit.”

The church is one of the few organizations in the world that does not exist for the benefit of its members. The church is the instrument and the vessel that God has chosen to use to reach your community. Today, we live on a mission field made up of all kinds of people—and they do not respond to the same approach. Insightful pastors will seek to lead churches as missionaries. The missional church is not just another phase of church life but a full expression of who the church is and what it is called to be and do. Being missional means to take the gospel into the context where we have been called … and to some degree, to let the church take the best shape that it can in order to reach a specific culture. You can’t be missional and pick what you like at the same time. Moving beyond preference requires a new motivation and outlook. Rather than providing methods to grow a church, missional thinking helps the church leader to wrestle through who God has called him or her to reach.

Change always happens, and most change is out of our control. What we can control is our response to a changing culture. The most important thing we could do was not to present the newest program or idea but to seek to understand the people we were called to reach and develop processes to reach them. Churches are recognizing that they need certain processes to help them accomplish their purposes. Those processes are universal the purposes are universal, but the plan to accomplish them varies from place to place. A church that implements processes recognizes that the local congregation should function just like a human body. Every part is influenced by every other part. Pastors are spending more time asking why the people in their community have not yet responded. They are deciphering their communities and bringing the unchanging gospel to each community. Instead of importing styles and models, more pastors are genuinely asking the same questions that missionaries do. Christology (our understanding of Christ) should shape our missiology (our understanding of his mission) and should our ecclesiology (our expression of church).

Leaders that break the code are recognizing that “nonrelational evangelism” is a contradiction. They are moving from attracting prospects to incarnating the gospel in their context. A church that is incarnational is interested more in the harvest than in the barn. People are realizing that God is using many different kinds of methods and models to reach different kinds of people. The answer is not to make all of our churches look alike. The answer is to have everyone seeking the same thing: to glorify God by being an indigenous expression of church life where they are. The most important qualifications for leaders are God’s call and a changed life. Church leaders who break the code have decided that the most important thing is to empower and release their church family for kingdom impact. These churches give themselves away rather than serve their own needs. The size of our churches is less important than the transformation of community, nation, and world through church multiplication—not just people gathered, but people sent.

You cannot separate evangelism and discipleship. We need missional churches that are focused on serious disciple making, not just leading people to make a decision. As the evangelical church matures, it is beginning to understand that all healthy things reproduce. Some churches are realizing that giving themselves away for multiplication is better than just constantly trying to gain a few additions. There is never a “good” time to send money, people, and energy somewhere else. Nevertheless, it is the only true way to engage in God’s work of exponential expansion of his kingdom. There have been few true people movements to Christ and his church in North America. It seems that our culture tends to turn movements into monuments before they spread too far.

Breaking the code is not about programs; it is about values. Code-breaking leaders think differently, and this results in churches that make a difference. For each leader and their churches, breaking the code includes spiritual formation discipleship, reaching the unchurched/unreached, evangelism, culturally relevant expressions of church, and spiritual warfare. Values of leaders and churches that break the code spring from the firm knowledge that following Jesus is a way of life that transforms us to be the incarnation of Christ in every culture. There are at least six areas that intermesh with leadership effectiveness: leader’s calling, character, competency, comprehension, commitment, and courage. They are motivated by the need and a sense of calling to a certain people or place. They throw themselves at the challenge of creating environments where the gospel can be planted and flourish. They lead out of a high sense of moral authority. When people observe this kind of character over the long haul, they become willing to invest themselves in the leader’s vision and dreams. As a leader takes risks and either succeeds or fails, he learns from each situation and uses that information to plan for the future. Each experience helps build a new level of confidence and competence. Leaders do whatever it takes to learn and prepare for success and significance.

Breaking the code is hard work and requires an incredible amount of commitment. Leaders who break the code have a high level of courage in regard to making the tough decisions. Those who break the code are committed to developing processes, raising up leaders, and building organizational structures that produce true disciples. Therefore, breaking the code involves understanding what it means to make and multiply disciples and then being able to apply it to one’s context. As a disciple, we too are to model life as Jesus did. We are to invite people to come follow us as we follow him. Loving like Jesus loved is a commitment we must have toward all people, regardless of their relationship to us. Love is passed on as they see us demonstrate it in all kinds of environments and situations, in spite of our circumstances. Those who break the code are not only committed to making disciples; they are committed to multiplying disciples.

Churches that focus on the unchurched/unreached often create a degree of discomfort among some churched/reached. The more effective we are at removing image and cultural barriers the more effective we will be at reaching the unchurched/unreached. Those who break the code are committed to culturally relevant expressions of evangelism. We can no longer just appeal to people to come “back” to an institution of which they do not remember being a part. Asking people to literally change their world-view after simply hearing the gospel, with no previous exposure to a Christian worldview, is usually unrealistic. The gospel has and always will continue to travel best along relational lines. Churches that break the code focus on building environments in both large and small groups, both on and off the campus, where the gospel can thrive. Churches that break the code put a high premium on experience. In a missional context, individuals often begin the discipling process long before conversion. This takes place as they actively experience community and participate in the ministries of churches that are breaking the code. While there are places where you only want believers and church members to serve, there are many paces you can plug in those who are on the journey. We have found that when people are involved in ministry, something happens that speeds up the process of their spiritual journey. When we develop churches that speak the language of their community and at the same time hold true to the changeless truth of Scripture and the gospel, we become successful at breaking the code. Our churches become truly indigenous to their context, and the gospel is able to flow unhindered by cultural barriers.

Contextualization of the gospel is needed in every culture, but it seems to be in particular need in the West today. The idea behind indigenization is that a church should spring forth out of the soil in which it is planted. It is indigenous in that its leadership, expressions, forms, and functions reflect that of the context. At the same time, it serves as a transforming agent in the very culture that sustains it. We have found that when the pastoral leadership, core of the church, and community all line up, the potential for the church to take on an indigenous form is significant. By far the most controversial point of this whole discussion is the way the message is communicated. We may start in a different place, but the context of the message needs to be Christ and the fullness of Scripture. If there is no point of connection, the message is simply meaningless facts rather than life-changing truth. In our highly spiritual world, we must look for cultural bridges that we can cross in order to carry the good news to a spiritually hungry people. Worship must take on an expression that reflects the culture of the worshiper if it is to be authentic and make an impact. When it comes to worship, a good starting point is to determine the purpose of worship. As God works in the lives of men and women, they have already begun their spiritual journey, and conversion is one step, albeit the most important one of all. Worship gatherings are designed to create space where people can experience God and progress at their own pace. In addition to recognizing that conversion is only part of the disciple-making process, it is important to note that churches that break the code are serious about conversion and make a big deal about people going public with their faith, and they recognize the importance of continuing spiritual growth.

When churches seek new ways to reach their communities, it means they are open to seeing God at work in fresh new ways. As churches have sought to break the code in their contexts, they have considered multiple expressions, locations, or venues as a key to their strategy. There is a tremendous increase in interest in house churches among evangelicals. A house church, it is not part of a larger church; it is a church. As it grows, it will multiply, not enlarge. Finally, the house churches often exist in networks; they are not isolated, independent groups of Christians. They are related to other house churches in a regional area. These churches often meet together for fellowship with other house churches, but it is not usually on a weekly basis.

Part of going is relational not the memorization of certain presentations and strategies. There is nothing more important related to fulfilling the Great Commission than a church which understand that this commission is central to its mission, has structured its ministry around the centrality of this mission, has created an environment that welcomes outsiders into this mission, and deploys insiders in fulfilling this mission. There are two conversions-one temporal and one eternal. The first conversion is the conversion to community. With few exceptions, people come to Christ after they have journeyed with other Christians-examining them and considering their claims. Unbelievers can and should be invited into the community, but they cannot be part of the church. A person becomes part of the church with the second and eternal conversion, the conversion to Christ. The church must become a safe place for people to experiment with and experience different aspects of the Christian faith. As such, follower of Christ must have a heart for engaging and loving people of different values, experiences, and worldviews. They must also be equipped to engage people who are both far away and near to Christ. In most cases, secular people are ignorant of the gospel. God is at work in the lives of those outside the church and invites us to join him. People are incredibly open to engaging in spiritual practices and having spiritual conversations. Those outside the church are most often reached relationally.

Prayer is an essential part of the conversion process for those outside the church. With this awakening of spirituality has come a tremendous openness to prayer. Those outside the church must overcome identifiable barriers in their journey toward the gospel. The way disciples are made is not always linear. The process is much more organic in nature. Searching is the first function. God draws men and women to himself by working in their hearts-drawing them toward himself. The church has an image problem. Common complaints that those wage outside of the church is that church is boring, irrelevant, judgmental, and arrogant. Those outside the church often feel like they have arrived at a convention of aliens when they attend their first church service. They simply do not understand what is taking place. If this follower of Christ participates in a community of faith that makes it is business to engage the lost culture in a relevant way, then a safe place is often provided for him or her to explore the claims of Christ. Without a commitment to being open to Jesus Christ as the one and only way, there can be no true Christian commitment. Churches that break the code have realized that they need to provide culturally relevant forms of church that allow people to progress toward total commitment.

Christianity is about what God did for man through Christ in order to give us unconditional approval and acceptance. Therefore, as Paul suggests, the gospel is the stumbling block that only the Spirit can eventually overcome-although he uses us in the process. Belonging is an important part of the discipleship process. It is impossible to be in a healthy relationship with God and not be in a healthy relationship with others. Belonging and becoming are obviously interdependent, but at the same time, it is possible to belong and not become. When a person becomes a new follower of Jesus Christ, growth is often certain and fast. Becoming like Christ means to serve others and to give our lives away in doing so for others. In order for people to become devoted followers of Jesus, they must hear and experience the gospel in a context they understand. When the gospel is contextualized, the potential for an indigenous church is maximized. When this happens, exponential growth of believers and churches is possible.

Churches need to rediscover their passion for God and his mission. From a renewed passion for reaching the lost will flow other areas such as: Worship that honors God and connects with the disconnected; partnering with believers and seekers to reach the disconnected in a safe place; connecting new disconnected people to a faith process. Worship cannot be the end of a breaking-the-code strategy, but it is a good beginning. When we create a God-centered and culturally appropriate worship service, it helps us to begin the process of seeking God for other changes that also need to come. Since most people come to Christ today through community, experience and service we must connect them with a meaningful biblical community. It is important that the church sees herself as God’s missional agent in the world, bringing life and community transformation.

Every process, program, and strategy becomes part of what it means to be God’s missionary agent to the world. Missional churches find diverse ways to encourage people to visit and then stay. They invest in their unchurched friends and invite them to consider the church and the Christ of the church. Building a positive image in the community often postures one’s church to be that place in time of crisis or need. Getting people to come takes work, but making them feel comfortable takes a plan. It has been our experience that people form an opinion about their church experience soon after they arrive on campus, most often before our first song or the message is heard. Most people will visit the main worship service before visiting anywhere else. So to connect with people, you have to move them from the worship service to the small group. The best opportunity for getting people to connect exists on campus while they are there in a larger nonthreatening setting. Churches that are having the greatest success assimilating attenders into small groups are providing additional nonthreatening steps. Moving someone from guest to member takes two things: a commitment to Christ and to his church (though not necessarily in that order). Both of these things are best done through a membership class that every person goes through. If we have connected to them to Christ, involved them in a small group, helped them to commit to membership, and offered real and significant relationships, discipleship will occur organically. However, every church needs to be sure that every one of its members has encountered biblical teaching on the key habits of discipleship, reading Scripture, prayer, small group, tithing, witnessing, etc.

Church planters are learning their contexts before choosing their methods. You have to know people before you reach them. They are learning from others without copying them. They are finding new methods and models by learning from their predecessors. The planter must have a clear vision of what God is directing and be able to communicate that vision. More and more today, churches are being planted with teams. Church planters who ultimately get the job done have a capacity for raising the resources necessary for the task. Prior to engaging in a church plant, a planter must ensure that the entire family is on board. Good support systems and healthy, balanced approach are essential to the long-term health of the church planter and his family. One of the criteria for selecting a church planter is his commitment and ability to build a ministry team. By ministry team, we are referring to one or more people who feel called to commit their life and ministry to the church-planting endeavor. You have to have a significant number of team players committed to the church plant before you are ready to launch. They are simply people who have bought into the vision no matter where they are in the process.

Whatever the means, the salary support issue should be settled before church-planting activities get started. In addition to salary support, there are also costs related to start-up. The third resource issue relates to operational budget. Once the church is launched, it is important to begin developing good givers and tithers out of the local congregation. While those on the outside tend to give to salary and start-up expenses, those on the inside will more likely to support the ongoing needs of the church. It is important to understand that it will cost more than you think. When it comes to church planting, we most often have a tendency to underestimate the cost. A good beginning point is to understand that people give to people. Those who are most likely to support your church plant will be people who are closest to you. In addition to people giving to people, it is important to note that big vision attracts big resources. When raising resources outside your relational networks, it is important to understand that money attracts money.

Determining the right place to plant is a key to long-term success. There are certain individuals who have cross-cultural gifts; for most of us, we fit best within our particular tribe. The heart of breaking the code is finding people groups, population segments, or cultural environments where God is already at work planting or developing culturally relevant churches. It is the value of connecting with the unchurched that brings them to a common point and becomes the foundation for cooperation. While vision is way out in the future, the mission is a reality we live in every day. The strategy describes how we are going to accomplish the mission of our church plant. A good strategy defines a process for accomplishing our mission. Results are simply short-range goals that we are committed to achieving. One of the key milestones is creating awareness and identity within the community. When a church plant goes public, it is often synonymous with launching the mission of the church. This public phase is often accompanied by weekly worship gatherings, assimilation, and sending. Putting an assimilation process in place prior to going public assures a long-term impact. Look for creative ways to involve new people in simple tasks. By far one of the most positive means of assimilating people is through small group involvement. By far the best means of assimilation is through relationships. If we are to fulfill the Great Commission, church planting will have to be part of every established church’s vision and strategy.

Some that are breaking the code have started exploring new ways of doing ministry in partnership. Networks have become a major part of church life in North America. These early networks will open a floodgate of church alliances. Ministries also exist that specifically help form and connect such networks. Denominational structures are being (in some cases) abandoned for networks where all the churches are the same style and paradigm. Churches are choosing to network, cooperate, and do missions in a new way. Denominational agencies and leaders are faced with great challenges and opportunities right now. Denominational structures and servants can embrace the present and future of missional church life in North America-by casting a vision for a new tomorrow, lifting up apostolic heroes, conducting relevant research, supplementing the local church in equipping apostolic leaders, networking learning communities and reporting their results, providing financial resources for apostolic leaders, and helping leaders see beyond their own cultures. When denominations are focused on churches, churches will network with them and other partnerships for kingdom impact.

A church is theologically sound and missionally appropriate when it remains faithful to the gospel and simultaneously seeks to contextualize the gospel (to the degree it can) in the worldview container of its hearers. To be biblically faithful and contextually relevant church, the missional church does not reject scriptural commands, only cultural barriers. Serious biblical reflection is required to break the code without compromising the faith. Contextualization means that we present the gospel and live life together in a missionally appropriate manner. When we talk about missional churches we are not referring to a certain form, expression, model, type, or category of church. We are talking about a church that seeks to understand its context and come to express that understanding by contextualizing the gospel in its community. The truest expression of this mission church is that it fully represents Christ in its context, maintaining biblical integrity so that gospel moves unhindered. There are a good number of young (and not so young) leaders who some classify as “emerging” that really are just trying to make their worship, music, outreach more contextual to emerging culture. Although some may consider them liberal, they are often deeply committed to biblical preaching, biblical eldership, and other values common in conservative evangelical churches.

Code-breaking leaders ask the right questions of the right people. The right people are the many unreached and disconnected people now living in North America. Code-breaking leaders understand that the future is already happening. Code-breaking leaders learn their way forward. Breaking the code requires going where few are willing to go. Breaking the code where is has not been broken comes with a huge price. Leaders and churches that break the code understand that it is just plain hard work. Leaders who are willing to leave the security of the familiar must get used to being alone, for it is always lonely on the front end vision. If you are committed to breaking the code, you have to understand that there are going to be times when it is lonely. Perhaps the greatest price one pays is spiritual. Leaders committed to breaking the code must prepare for spiritual warfare. They must take time to surround themselves with prayer and support. They must submit themselves to a high level of accountability. Leaders who break the code seldom if ever do it alone. It is the nature of those who plant churches or desire to plant churches to want to be paradigm breakers. However, this thing of not doing it alone seems to be the decisive difference in those who want to do it and those who actually get it done. Leaders who break the code know how to build a team and achieve a shared vision. They have the gifts, skills, and experience to maximize their team. They are unique in that they can see the big picture, but they can also implement the details through people. Leaders who break the code see the big picture, define the process, and stay focused. Leaders who break the code are constantly sitting back and evaluating their current ministry, work and processes, and envisioning the future.

Before anything else, you must be called to a community. We are convinced that a key problem in many churches and among their leaders is that they have not truly heard from God. We need God-called leaders who are passionate and ready to persevere in the ministry to which God calls them. A healthy code-breaking church or leader loves the people and their community. We need to love the culture where God sends us and not be longing for the way it as somewhere else. You must care about the community if you are going to reach it. You should begin to care about the context in such a way that people in the community see your love and consider you an advocate. Before anything that is truly of God can be born, your own preferences have to die. Until you know your leadership readiness, you will find countless excuses for why you cannot break the code. Get to know and understand the community and the people whom you are called to reach. Part of our job, as we exegete to understand our mission field, is to connect meaningfully with those who already are relationally invested in the community we are seeking to reach. Determine who influences the people that God ahs called you to reach. Make a point of connecting with them and introduce yourself to them. As a code-breaking church leader, your purpose is to discover bridge networks over which the gospel can travel. You must look for people with already existing relational networks. God is already working in your community. Contact churches that are already reaching people in your community. Find out what they have done. The more you discover and learn about people groups and community, the more effective you will become in relating to and communicating with all the people in your area.

Bringing missions and evangelism together means realizing that the church is the missionary, and it exists on the mission field. Therefore, the mission of the church to fulfill the Great Commission does not get relegated to a program of evangelism, but it becomes intricately woven through the entire fabric of the local church. If it does not speak their language, address their needs, overcome their obstacles, and allow them to experience community and faith over a long period of time, they will likely move on to something other than the church. Therefore, when the church sees itself as the missionary, it calls forth the best of the church in terms of partnership and cooperation. When the church of Jesus Christ functions as the missionary, it will not be content until there is a New Testament congregation within the reach of all people in its given context. The existing church must accept the responsibility for sending out its emerging leaders to pioneer new approaches to reaching their generation. We must empower our own children to become missionaries to their own generation. We must learn to see the hidden people of North America. In order to break the unbroken code, we must send apostolic leaders into the North American mission field to break the code! Apostolic leaders in today’s context are the missionary pioneers of previous days. They force us to redefine the role of the church as a missionary church that is responsible for sending out apostles and lay apostles into the harvest field.

An Executive Book Summary prepared by

Thomas L. Law, III, DoM

Tarrant Baptist Association
Ft. Worth, TX