God’s Plan

We can only discover the essence of God’s Plan through the Scriptural revelation of:

The Bigger Picture

Through this revelation we discover that God expected from his people in the Old and New Testament to reveal certain missional lifestyle- or behavioural patterns. Our research of these Biblical patterns in the midst of the context and realities of the 21st century, directed us to cluster them as follows:

1. Universal patterns
2. Contextual patterns
3. Transforming patterns

1. The Universal Patterns reflect those properties which are universally valid and relevant for the church through the centuries. These patterns are relevant in all cultures, circumstances, economic or social conditions. They need not be contextualised to be applied but should drench the day to day lifestyle of God’s people wherever they are. These patterns were as valid for Abraham and his descendants as it is for the Church of the 21st century.

• God’s missional people demonstrate a Kingdom lifestyle
• God’s missional people know who they are
• God’s missional people yearn for numerical growth
• God’s missional people live the Gospel

2. The Contextual Patterns on the other hand reflect those properties which are universally present but need to be contextualised and applied in such a way that the church will be relevant to its unique calling, culture, circumstances, economic and social conditions. Without continually reflecting on them, the church loses its ability to be relevant and transformational within the context where God has placed it to fulfil his Plan. The contextual patterns should primarily be demonstrated by the leadership.

• God’s missional leaders lead by following
• God’s missional leaders translate calling into vision
• God’s missional leaders turn vision into action

3. The Transforming Patterns of the church result in outcomes which lead to transformation in communities, societies, towns, cities, countries and the world. These transforming patterns bring about change and are a signal and herald of the coming Kingdom.

God’s Missional People make a Difference

The challenge for the church today is to develop and display a lifestyle which reflects these missional patterns. In doing so, the dream of the whole church taking the whole gospel to the whole world will become a reality. Only then will there be harmony between our existence, our calling, our purpose and God’s eternal Plan. Only then will God’s people experience fulfilment and vibrant enthusiasm for being a living sacrament in the world.

Our approach to develop a corporate lifestyle, through which these patterns are reflected, is to break down these patterns into building blocks. These building blocks represent Biblical truths which form the foundation for every pattern. They therefor affirm the pattern and will ultimately ensure that it becomes part of a daily lifestyle.

To help the church advance towards reflecting these missional patterns in its corporate life, we developed an indicative instrument – the MissioMatrix. We are well aware of the fact that the characteristics and lifestyle patterns of the church cannot be objectively measured, we do however believe that a critical and introspective assessment of ourselves can help us on our journey to become progressively more what God intended us to be. For this assessment we use the Biblical truths or building blocks as reference. The MissioMatrix does not claim to present us with a fixed, undisputable measurement of how the church performs missionally, but rather facilitates a process of earnest reflection. By repeating this process of assessment, using the indicative instrument and continuous realignment, a growth spiral can be generated through which the church can experience a fresh sense of purpose and fulfilment.