terms of its mission — being sent ones who take the gospel to and incarnate the gospel within a specific cultural context. The church exists, in other words, for what we sometimes call "mission": to announce to the world that Jesus is its Lord. "Mission is not just a program of the church. It defines the church as God’s sent people. Either we are defined by mission, or we reduce the scope of the gospel and the mandate of the church. Thus our challenge today is to move from church with mission to missional church." The Church has a mission because Jesus has a mission. There is one mission. "Missional church is a community of God’s people that defines itself, and organizes its life around, its real purpose of being an agent of God’s mission to the world. In other words, the church’s true and authentic organizing principle is mission. 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." Missional living is a term that is used in contrast with historical institutional churches. Church leaders as well as Christians in general have often regarded the Church as an institution to which outsiders must come in order to receive a certain product, namely, the gospel and all its associated benefits. Institutional churches are sometimes perceived to exist for the members and depend on pastors and staff to evangelize the lost. The "missional church", on the other hand, attempts to take Christ to "the lost" and its members are personally engaged in reaching their communities with the message of Jesus Christ. See also Inculturation Missio dei Anchor Gaslamp Missional community Mosaic Church Dan Kimball Emerging church Erwin McManus Mark Driscoll Brian McLaren Don Miller (author) Derek Webb Notes Further reading Theological and Philosophical Background John Bailey (Editor). Pursuing the Mission of God in Church Planting: The Missional Church in North America, NAMB (2007) David Bosch. Transforming Mission, Orbis Books, (1991) Neil Cole. Organic Church, Jossey-Bass (2005) David DeVries. Six-Word Lessons to Discover Missional Living, Leading on the Edge (August 2010). Michael Frost. Exiles: Living Missionally in