Date of Award

2-2017

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Ministry (DMin)

Department

Seminary

First Advisor

Nijay Gupta

Second Advisor

David Phillips

Abstract

Missional communities are failing. Missional communities are failing because they do not contextualize the nature, function, and historical forms of the church. Specifically, missional communities fail due to lack of leadership, gospel proclamation, incarnational living to a particular people, and mission dependence on the Holy Spirit. All of these things stem from not putting the nature, function, and historical forms of the church before modern forms.

Missional communities will begin to thrive if communities will not just copy forms of other missional churches, but if they will contextualize the nature, functions, and historical forms of the church in their own settings. A thriving missional community will have trained leaders who lead their communities to live in unity, proclaim the gospel, live out Jesus incarnationally to a particular people, and practice dependence on the Holy Spirit.

In this written statement we will first look at the pitfalls that cause missional communities to fail. Then we will look at the approaches churches have taken to address the problem of missional communities failing. We will then explore ways in which we can move from failure to thriving as a missional community. This paper will describe a program that addresses the issues of missional communities failing through a comprehensive coaching process. The coaching process will help leaders avoid the pitfalls that lead to failure, helping them to install practices that lead to a thriving missional community.

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