Get to know your community. Compare your church population with that of your surrounding community to assess your church’s current effectiveness in penetrating its mission field. Learn what needs community members have, and decide to offer your church’s resources to help meet them.

Ask some members some key questions. Enlist some members of your congregation (preferably a mix of newer and older members, and including at least one youth and one young adult). Then ask them to respond to these questions: “How does your church help you be transformed into the image of Christ?”, “Through which means does our church prepare you to carry out God’s mission?”, and “How does our church best glorify God?”. Discuss their answers, and brainstorm how disciples can transfer their learning, skills, insights, and values into the world and how they can bring experiences and skills from the world into the church.

Be church and be changed. Understand that what drives missional churches is a unified passion expressed through four dimensions: loving God by worshiping and obeying, living His mission by serving and sharing, loving people by embracing and inviting them, and leading them to follow by equipping and empowering them. Practice throughout each week what you preach on Sundays.

Have a high threshold for membership. Don’t make membership a casual thing at your church. Strive for a unified community of members who take their faith seriously. Clearly communicate your church’s expectations for members, and let potential members communicate their expectations of the church. Strive to have significant numbers of seekers identify your church as their faith community. Have various entry points through which new members can become part of your church, and describe them to potential members. Let people know the benefits of membership. Ask members to hold each other accountable for living faithfully. Reach out to nominal church members and encourage them to live out their faith in deeper ways.