We understand a Missional Community as a ‘family of disciples on mission, who gather around Jesus and the Gospel in the everyday stuff of life.’
Missional communities often go by different names, but they are distinguished by their willingness to work out together how to love God, love each other, and love their neighbours.
find out morePeople need Jesus, yet so many live dislocated from this most essential relationship. God is busy reconciling people to Himself and has commissioned us to participate. We’re hopeful when we remember there will come a day when ‘the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea’ (Hab 2:14). We long for that day of Gospel saturation, working together with the Holy Spirit to see every man, woman, and child have an encounter with Jesus in word and deed in every place where God sends us.
Check out the link below. We’d love for you to join us. Please get in contact if you have any questions or would like to start the process.
Jesus gives us his priorities for the kind of communities that his followers would form.
- As a spiritual family, adopted by grace, as sons and daughters of God, we must love and serve each other sacrificially, just as Jesus loved us by laying down his life.
- As disciples of Jesus we must learn what it looks like to apply the Gospel into the everyday stuff of life, and learn how to speak the Gospel to each other in order to build up the church.
- As missionaries we must become witnesses of Jesus to the people the Holy Spirit sends us to live among, showing the Gospel in how we love them and each other, and sharing the Gospel in our willingness to give Jesus as the answer to every human longing. Jesus never sent his disciples on mission alone, so as a missional community we always works together to see the Gospel go out.
There are no prerequisites to starting or joining a Missional Community, and you have the freedom to initiate a new one any time! It’s about relationships, not a formula. However, we do offer a variety of resources if you want help finding or planning a community. If you’re ready to start one, go for it! See if there’s a Missional Community church near you here or we’d love for you to inform us about your community so we can keep in touch with you and potentially connect you with other people in your region who are also looking for community.
ResourcesIf you want to join an existing Missional Community, get in contact below and we’ll get in touch with you as soon as we can about which Soma Church or Missional Community might be the best fit based on your needs and what you want to contribute.
find a soma churchMissional Communities are a response to Jesus’ instruction to make disciples and do life together. That’s why being part of this kind of community is our passionate desire for each member of the church. We want everyone to participate in a collective kingdom vision. We believe that Jesus came to offer life for all. While the people of Jesus experience richness and growth in community, they also partner in sharing the love of Jesus with those who don’t know him yet.
aboutNo, we see God using all kinds of approaches when building His church. That said, where disciples are being made we believe you’ll find some of the common Missional Community priorities present (e.g. Gospel/Word, Community, Accountability, Spiritual Disciplines/Liturgy, and Mission). These commitments may come in different avenues, in different sized groups…but when Jesus is exalted, the Gospel is preached, the church is living together faithfully and accountability, and the lost are loved and evangelized, you will find disciples making disciples. We seek to remain faithful to these commitments in Missional Communities. We celebrate other ways God is using to build His church.
There are a number of ways to do this
- Simply visit a Missional Community church
- Attend a Soma School (these won’t start in Australia until 2022, they are week-long immersion experiences at particular Soma churches. They are happening each year in the USA – see www.wearesoma.com)
- You can do an internship at certain Soma churches, like Soma Blue Mountains.
- There’s also a 6-week Soma Immerse running in the USA for young adults.
The everyday emphasis of the entire church living as a family on mission together is clearly displayed throughout the New Testament. In the book of Acts, the church is characterized by daily engagement in worship/discipleship, close connections, affection, and material solidarity (Acts 2:44-47 and 4:32-35). The church was in direct proximity to not-yet-believers such that ‘the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.’ This demonstrates that the church was living together daily, and living as a witness among unbelievers daily. This was the default mode of the church for the first few centuries prompting some to describe this mode as a Forgotten Way rather than an innovation in the church.
Yes. Steve Timmis, CEO of Acts 29, and his co-author Tim Chester have written two books that articulate a similar vision for holistic discipleship (Total Church and Everyday Church). Tim Keller in his seminal ecclesiology, Center Church: Section #6, which is entitled “Movement,” describes many of the priorities of a church mobilizing people for mission in something like Missional Communities. See also the Austin Stone, Verge Network, 3DM, and The Underground (Tampa, FL).
Absolutely not!
ResourcesWe encourage each church in Soma Australia to give 10% of their income towards church planting in Australia and overseas.
joinNo. We see ourselves as firstly a family, and also a movement. See the ‘About’ page.
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