Missional Life Communities (MLCs)
MLCs are places where one can be known, supported, and challenged to go deeper in their relationship with each other and to grow as followers of Jesus. It is a great place that provides a real opportunity to discover or live out our God-given calling and to missionally engage our community.
MLC OBJECTIVES AS A “FAMILY WITH A PURPOSE” ARE:
a. Be INCARNATIONAL - Living among those we aim to reach so as to build meaning relationships (John 1:1-18)
b. Be ATTRACTIONAL - distinct by abstaining from sinful habits but displaying the good works (1 Peter 2:9-12)
c. INTERCEDE for our communities we do life together (1Timothy 2:1-7)
d. SHARE the message of the gospel to them verbally (Romans 10:14-17)
The first priority of Communitas is to LOVE GOD with all you have got!
The second one is to LOVE PEOPLE and be an inclusive community.
God commands us to love one another - Demonstrate it!
An authentic community is a vital block of the church for fulfilling God’s mission on earth. Communitas in SCC is implemented through Missional Life Communities (MLCs). MLCs are small groups where we can love God and love our neighbour - together as a missional community we grow in our faith and are a blessing as we serve our sphere of influence or neighbourhood.
Every member needs to be a part of a MISSIONAL LIFE COMMUNITY.
Real community is a great way for individuals to get to know people within the church, and provides real opportunity to live out or discover our God-given calling and to engage in mission to our community. They are communities of people who find they have a similar heart, focus or calling in life and are a form of ‘extended family’. They each have a distinct missional target - either a neighbourhood (geographic) or a network (interest or demographic) – this missional focus could include communities reaching out to students, the marginalised, youth or children, marketplace communities, couples, the elderly, local neighbourhoods and many more.
SIZE MATTERS!
These ‘missional life communities’, are generally made up of between 8 and 15 adults. Most missional life communities are made up of smaller groups called Life Transformation Groups (TLGs). TLGs are essentially discipleship groups that emphasize on spiritual growth, spiritual foundations, accountability, character formation, and living the mission. The missional life community is like the extended family – small enough to care but large enough to dare!
MLCs are not a substitute for Sunday Celebration gatherings.It is important to gather as the people of God – a celebration – but these communities would, on an agreed cycle or orbit, be sometimes gathered as a missional life community in the missional context on any other day on a regular basis, namely monthly.
These communities are based on ‘living the mission of reaching people, restoring the broken communities, and reconciling man to God’. Each MLC has a missional dimension. How each of these dimensions are expressed will be unique to each community and will be shaped by the particular missional context that it exists in.
HOW OFTEN SHOULD AN MLC MEET?
An MLC decides how often it should meet but the conditions are – It should meet preferably in a home or any in the marketplace/open space if doing an activity. Secondly, it should not always meet for Bible Study! There must be some ACTIVITY every quarter that involves DOING something missional outside the four walls of the church building.
Some MLCs are more effective meeting every week but others can meet every month (which is ideal, and some can plan for a major activity or project every quarter.