Missio Café

The following entry is excerpted from my ministry newsletter.

Over the past several months, I have been conducting a class for some of the young leaders at our local church.  I have called the class missio, based on the Latin word for “sending” which is the root of our word “mission.” 

The theme of the class has been the mission of the church.  In the first section, we explored some of the themes in Scripture which help us understand that God’s mission encompasses all of life.  We as God’s people are to introduce His shalom into every sphere of human existence, demonstrating that Jesus reigns over all. 

Another major section of the course was on discussing what kind of understanding of the church is necessary to fulfill this mission, so we looked at a model of the church as a “missional community.”  One of the key points made in this section is that members of the church are not supposed to be a passive “audience,” but are instead active agents of mission.  But so often the church here (like the church elsewhere) puts enormous emphasis on the Sunday morning service, and then conducts it as a program that makes most people behave like an “audience.” I wanted the class to consider whether there might be alternative ways of organizing corporate worship in such a way that was more participatory and active.

So, we tried an experiment.  Based on some ideas I’d encountered in my reading, we worked together to organize an experience that we called “missio café.”  In one of the rooms of our house, I set up tables and chairs like a small coffee house.  We held the gathering one Saturday evening, and used candles for our primary lighting.  We had snacks and drinks available, because we wanted to keep the atmosphere informal and community-oriented.  The theme was on prayer, and we did a lot of experiential stuff to explore that theme.  We sang songs together on the theme of prayer.  We had a Bible lesson where I shared briefly, but also gave the participants opportunity to dialogue together about prayer and anxiety, and then we ended the lesson with a responsive reading which collectively asked God to take our anxieties from us.  We used instrumental and reflective music as background, especially while the participants explored different “prayer stations.”  These prayer stations included a place where they could write their anxiety on a piece of paper and then burn it in a small bowl, a “prayer wall” where they could write out their prayers directly to God, and a station devoted to the story of Hagar, leading people to think about how God hears and sees the needs of the marginalized.  We also had artwork around the room (created by one of the students) that suggested various social problems people could pray for.

Whew!  I told my students clearly:  I’ve never done anything like this before.  I had no idea how it would turn out, and I was nervous for about two days before the gathering!

But in a special, amazing way, God used that time to give young people an opportunity to interact with Him in an active, intense way.  It was an experiment, and I don’t know if we’ll ever do it again, but I feel so privileged to have had the chance to witness people entering into God’s presence in a fresh, creative way.