McNeal compared the Church’s mission to an aircraft carrier. It’s not how many planes are stacked up on the deck, he said, it’s the kind of missions that are being flown.

Mission leadership consultant Reggie McNeal challenged participants in the New Wineskins Association of Churches Convocation at Windwood Presbyterian Church in Houston, Texas, Sept. 26-28, to think of “church” as a “who” rather than a “what” and as a verb rather than a noun.

McNeal defined the missional church as “The people of God partnering with Him in His redemptive mission in the world.” Observing that the institutional church has lost sight of that mission, he challenged it to get out of its rut.

McNeal was not a new face to many in the room as he has presented to both the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC) General Assembly and to the Presbytery of New Covenant where the NWAC was held.

“We’ve built this incredible Christian apparatus, and the result is that more and more people are saying ‘no thank you,’” he said. “You know in your gut that doing what we have been doing is getting tired.”

Lifting up Christians in the “10/40 Window” as evidence of God “showing up and showing off” in recent years, McNeal said they have a better understanding of the Church as a “who” rather than a “what.” The West, he said, is guilty of being a vendor of religious goods and services.

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