Since the discovery of our nation in 1492, our natural frontier has appealed to explorers, pioneers, and settlers.

Today, while our natural borders have been settled, our cultural borders have been decimated and a new land has emerged.

Explorers who arrive in this unknown region, the region that lies just beyond the edge of all that has been known, have found it to be mysteriously different than all they knew of America before. The new land is a frontier that is a transition zone where speculation and opportunity beckon the hearts of explorers to leverage their optimism into the opportunity and their faith against the restraints of fear.

Today, while our native boundaries haven’t changed so much and their names remain the same, there is a new territory that is calling for the explorers of God’s Kingdom and the pioneers of Truth…to engage. This frontier has a new spiritual landscape. In this new place, true North is not certain among its inhabitants, because they are sons and daughters of hedonism, paganism, & pluralism and their doctrine of Political Correctness has given them permission to live without “absolutes.” I believe this new frontier and its inhabitants presents God’s people with a fabulous opportunity for evangelizing lost people. We have before us an incredible opportunity to establish “missional” colonies (ecclesia) of outreach and evangelism. The vigorous work of planting new churches in this frontier of our culture is matched only by the joy we receive in making new disciples for Christ. To engage the lost and bring them Jesus through evangelism is to be the hands and feet of God’s love. It’s our expression of love when we serve and engage in the work of winning, building and making disciples; to see them flourish into a viable, worshiping, missional community of believers.

To build a “missional” church means that we don’t assume we can do what we’ve always done, because where we are is not where we’ve been. The change in climate, landscape, and culture demand that we integrate into this new frontier (reality) enough to engage the non-believer who inhabits this culture. To be “missional” is to be more than Christians using “Christian jargon” and “Christian trappings” to convey a different worldview, with different values and lifestyle.

To be “missional” means that we get it – we are in a new time, new place, new territory, with new people, many of whom have no clue about Christ and His redemptive work. In fact, most people in this new frontier are babies of a materialistic culture, serving a pantheon of gods. So, everything we do is toward the “mission” of being a Christian Gospel missionary who serves a culture of people who are not Christianized and who have foreign sensibilities.

We are missional when we love the city and the people of the city enough to leverage our lives, fortunes, and future for their souls. Let’s be on mission for the salvation of our America, her people are worth our struggles and trials.

Will you join me and live on the cutting edge of this new exploration, to live on “mission?”

― Wendell Hutchins II