Here are five characteristics or “rules of order” for a missional community taken from Frost’s Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture.
- Bless. We will bless at least one other member of our community every day.
- Eat. We will east with other members of our community at least three times a week.
- Listen. We will commit ourselves weekly to listening to the promptings of God in our lives.
- Learn. We will read from the Gospels each week and remain diligent in learning more about Jesus.
- Sent. We will see our daily life as an expression of our sent-ness by God into this world.
Here are the Four Practices we developed for our church, which are grounded in Four Gospel Principles. These principles and practices shape all our City Groups (what we call missional communities).
SHARE life and truth through stories and Scripture
PRAY for one another and the city
ENGAGE people and culture of your community with the gospel
LOVE one another by eating and exercising hospitality



7 comments
Comments feed for this article
March 9, 2008 at 3:46 am
Joe Miller
Hi, my name is Joe Miller. Given your experience with church planting, I thought you might be able to provide some insight from your experience in church planting.
I am currently a church planter, and am doing some work on my Doctor of Ministry project through Talbot School of Theology. My project is focused on developing missional teams for church planting. I thought you might be willing to help by taking a short survey to share your expertise.
If you can help, please visit my website with details and the link to this 5 minute survey http://www.elnews.net/survey/Welcome.html
I will keep an eye out for the results.
Thanks and God bless,
Joe
November 5, 2008 at 4:59 pm
Dream Awakener » A Primer on Today’s Missional Church
[...] Five Charateristics of a Missional Community from Jonathan Dodson’s site Church Planting Novice taken from Frost’s book Exiles (Jonathan is a church planter and has many insights on missional living.) [...]
November 24, 2008 at 4:58 pm
» Church Planting Community MarcBackes.com: …laboring for the gospel as it transforms me, my city, and my world for all of eternity…
[...] Planting Community Posted in November 24th, 2008 by marcbackes in Church Planting I came across this post today from a guy named Jonathan Dodson who is planting a church in Austin, TX. In it, he shares “5 [...]
November 26, 2008 at 8:55 am
Coffee Break « fresh expressions…
[...] older post from Jonathan Dodson “5 Characteristics of a Missional Community” is making me [...]
December 23, 2008 at 7:54 am
top 8 missional blogs of 2008: #7 - jonathan dodson | transformission
[...] these: Five Characteristics of Missional Communities Pushing Missional Practices Through Everything How Missional is Your Church? Keeping the Global in [...]
March 24, 2010 at 12:54 am
phill
We are planting missional communities out here in Houston and have noticed that it helps with taking our people through the beatitudes. They are almost becoming the core values of the Missional communities we plant.
May 3, 2012 at 1:50 pm
Focusing Outward « Thinking Out Loud
[...] Frost’s Five Characteristics of a Missional Community is also worth [...]