Surprise the World: The Five Habits of Highly Missional People

by Michael Frost

Gifted evangelistic leaders should be training their congregations to speak about Jesus conversationally when questioned about how they deal with suffering, or why they spend their vacation serving the poor, or why they’ve opened their home to refugees, or why they’re fasting during Lent, or why they’ve made career choices that allow them to contribute to the greater social good.

We need to become a godly, intriguing, socially adventurous, joyous presence in the lives of others.

Transfer that idea to faith. Faith, then, is not an act, a single choice, or even just a belief system; it is a habit.

French philosopher Pierre Bourdieu referred to this as habitus.

Habitus is the way a society helps people to think, feel, and act in determinantal ways, which then guide them.

We need to be fostering a set of habits among Christians that will in turn shape their values and beliefs.

Sometimes called “missional rhythms” or “missional practices,” missional habits are those habits we foster in our lives that, in turn, shape our missional outlook. By missional, I mean all that we do and say that alerts others to the reign of God.

“Mission is more than and different from recruitment to our brand of religion; it is the alerting of people to the universal reign of God through Christ.”

In other words, mission derives from the reign of God. In that respect, the ideas of our mission and God’s kingdom are irrevocably linked. Mission is both the announcement and the demonstration of the reign of God through Christ. Mission is not primarily concerned with church gr...

Missional habits aren’t just strategic, they’re consequential: Because of the universal reign of God through Christ, we bless, we open our tables, we listen for the Spirit, we learn Christ, and we are sent out on this evangelistic task.

we listen for the Spirit, we learn Christ, and we are sent out on this evangelistic task. That being said, if our only habits as Christians are going to church and attending meetings, they’re not going to connect us with unbelievers nor invite their curiosity about our faith.

My point is this: If you want to be a generous, hospitable, Spirit-led, Christlike missionary, don’t just try to learn those values—foster these habits!