Preaching Selected Biblical Texts to lead Forest Baptist Church, Forest, MS, to be a Missional Church

Abstract

In chapter 1, Forest Baptist Church is described. The church needed to transition from being a mission-event church to being a church whose members live missional lives in their community. This required a new approach to its entire ministry.

In chapter 2, the biblical mandate of God's missional purpose is explored. Throughout the Old Testament, God's missional purpose is revealed. Then Jesus, in his incarnation, was completely missional. Finally, the early church modeled the missional approach.

Chapter 3 focuses on the process of applicational preaching through applying selected biblical texts to the situation at Forest Baptist Church. The sermons in the project were designed to lead the church to deal with the pertinent scriptural issues that would lead to a "missional" approach to ministry.

In chapter 4, the methodology used in the project is presented. Chapter 5 includes an analysis and evaluation of the project's implementation. These two chapters could serve a field guide for any church seeking to make a similar transition to being missional.