Does Your Church "Smell" Like Mission?
Reflections on becoming a missional church
James R. Krabill

West Africans are probably right. Mealtimes are not meant for talking, but for eating. If something needs to be said, it can wait until the meal is over. Had I followed such advice and talked less at the table, I would likely not have gotten myself in trouble. Let me explain.

It all began over lunch at an Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Conference ministers' and elders' meeting when someone asked me to summarize what I was discovering in my many church visits about the status of mission and outreach in the congregations of our district conference. That is when, instead of continuing to eat like I should have, I opened my mouth and commented that "it doesn't take long when I visit a church to determine how important mission is to the life of the congregation."

Some churches just "smell like missions," I said, "and some don't."