Lexington—Burgin Baptist Church reaches out to its community through random acts of kindness and serving the high school across the street from its building.

In addition to sponsoring a First Priority Bible club at the school, the central Kentucky congregation will host a baccalaureate service for graduating seniors this spring. Members have also volunteered at the concession stands during basketball games.

Trinity Baptist Church in Lexington has a “Meals on Wheels” site and is involved in serving mentally and physically handicapped youth and adults. The church has members from more than half a dozen nations, part of what Pastor Jay Robison called an intentional effort to become multi-cultural and multi-racial.

In suburban Louisville, members of Phos Hilaron Church take one Sunday each month for “service worship.” Instead of a worship service, they go into the community to serve, most recently helping clean up baseball fields April 13 for the South Oldham Little League in Crestwood.

All are examples of being a missional church, a topic that consultant Reggie McNeal emphasized during a 2006 visit to Lexington for a conference hosted by the Kentucky Baptist Convention.

Although his most recent seminar April 12 emphasized personal development, the missional leadership specialist with the Dallas-based Leadership Network still mentioned missional activities.

Noting that host Immanuel Baptist Church had an executive chef, McNeal said the church could use the chef’s abilities as the cornerstone of an after-school program that would provide food and tutoring for needy children.

Fortunately, since 2006 the prolific author noted that he believes the church as a whole has turned the corner toward a more mission-focused outlook.

“I’m delighted to announce that in my opinion the tide has turned,” McNeal told the Western Recorder. “That information hasn’t reached everyone yet and it will take years to show up. (However), at the tectonic plate level there is a fundamentally different conversation emerging with the church. That’s my biggest sign of hope; people are beginning to ask better questions.”

Though declining to name specific examples, McNeal is finding more churches that are “adopting” schools and providing needed assistance. Others are setting aside weekends aimed at service to the community and streamlining church activities to give members more time to serve. Some are opening their facilities to the community or not building so they will have more resources to help others, McNeal pointed out.

Todd Probus, pastor of the new Mosaic church in Versailles, said McNeal’s seminar was a reminder that a church is not a country club, but a hospital that needs to reach people and connect with their needs.

Although Mosaic plans to be missional after its launch in September, the pastor noted that during his talk, McNeal pointed out an important aspect of such a congregation.

McNeal said “missional churches are made up of missional people,” Probus recalled. “That takes the commitment on the part of a lot of folks to say, ‘I’m going to lead a missional life.’ If that happens, then you’ve got a missional church.”

Noting that McNeal covered the missional topic thoroughly in his previous Lexington appearance, Pastor Carl McCray of Burgin Baptist Church explained that the April 12 seminar was more about the individual.

Still, the pastor said it contained application to his church. He particularly liked McNeal’s idea of using a different scorecard and considering how to accomplish goals that are important to God.

“By maybe going through the process of looking at the scorecard as a church and seeing what we need to do,” the pastor said of plans to utilize what he learned. “Such as the leadership of the church saying, ‘This is what we want; how do we get there?’ And then making those steps that (God) shows us.”

Others gleaned personal application from McNeal’s session, like Mary Ruth Jaggers of Phos Hilaron.

“I (learned) that it’s okay to take care of yourself and find value in just being a child of God … just being who He created us to be,” she noted. “As far as what I can take away from today, finding the value in people—that God created each of them for a specific purpose and has something great in mind.”