Moving Forward in Mission: Introducing Missional Life to a Rural Newfoundland and Labrador Pentecostal Church through Shared Narratives and Missional Experiments

Abstract

This study investigated the role, if any, that narrative research, appreciative inquiry, and missional experimentation have in helping people in a local church to understand their participation in the mission of God. The church engaged in this study was King of Kings Pentecostal Church, a church of approximately 75 people located in Kings Point, a rural Newfoundland and Labrador community. This project employed the use of a Church 360 Survey from the Roxburgh Missional Institute, focus groups, and planned missional experiments, to gauge people's perception of their involvement in missional life as well as attempting to lead them forward in that life. Upon completion of this process, it was discovered that mission was indeed a core value in the lives of many of the people of the congregation. Powerful, vibrant, stories of past and present mission came forth as representing a theme that both main demographics (over and under 50) were very passionate about. The planned missional experiments revealed a difference in understanding of people's perception of mission. This variance was a major theme that emerged in the post-experiment surveys. The results displayed a non-uniform understanding of mission between the over and under 50 groups. The surveys revealed that both groups deemed missional living as a necessary component of Christian living, but the people over 50 years of age connected mission with a verbal sharing of the Christian faith, whereas those under 50 years of age discerned their involvement in mission as they served the unchurched in more social manners. The study concludes with a summary of the significant findings of this project and some important missional postures that may aid a rural congregation in successfully introducing them to aspects of missional living.