When the church is in mission, it is the true church. The church itself is not only a product of that mission but is obligated and destined to extend it by whatever means possible. The mission of God flows directly through every believer and every community of faith that adheres to Jesus. To obstruct this is to block God's purposes in and through his people.

But herein lies the rub: Christianity has been on a long-term trend of decline in every Western cultural context that we can identify.

At some point preoccupation with safety can get in the way of living full lives.

Go among the people. Don't assume you know what church looks like.

More data is not always the answer.

A missional church is a church that must live the dialectic. It must stay in the journey.

Put simply, the church finds itself in a post-Christendom era, and it had better do some serious reflection or face increasing decline and eventual irrelevance.