What kinds of opportunities can my church work on to best help me grow into the missional life?

Create opportunities.

This just came to me, I haven't had time to develop it, so bear with me, but one of the biggest stumbling blocks for me in doing this is because it's so foreign an idea, even in my own life. When you say "do this," my first reaction is often, "OK...how?"

Maybe St. Matthew needs to do more intentionally as a church to create the opportunities for others to get out and grow and demonstrate what that means.

EXAMPLE
Your small group planned that bowling event a while back that turned out so well. It was St. Matthew members getting out into the community just to be there and interact with it, and it sounds like the feedback from those you encountered was positive. Now, as you mentioned, St. Matthew is starting up a bowling league which will get them out into those places on a more regular basis, where they will hopefully continue to make a name for Christ in the community.

I know of another couple who have been trying to plan a St. Matthew karaoke night to do the exact same thing. Hopefully, God blesses that endeavor as well.

Because this whole missional life thing is so strange to us, it might help if St. Matthew could help to create more of those types of opportunities (extra-church events that are focused on involving its members in the community on ITS terms with the intention of starting to build relationships). That way a)we can start to get a feel for what is meant by that and b)we can see examples of how to do it (hopefully on a micro level).

I don't know. Maybe I'm way off. Maybe my response is more indicative of my "not-knowingness" than anything useful, but there it is. Hopefully, it at least generates something else.

We have a huge missional living opportunity already in place at our church where we can get to know non-christians. I have made some wonderful friends through International Ministry classes. They come into our church nervous and scared, but know that this will help them be able to survive in a new country. The change I have seen in the "newbies" during the 9 months of class has been nothing short of God's work. They see Jesus' love in action. Is that what missional living is?

I have really grown spiritually and relationally through the conversation class. Amy does a fantastic job with the lessons. She makes it so easy to build relationships so that by Christmas (2-3 months) we are able to talk about Jesus' life. I find this amazing given the Japanese culture view of Christianity.
If anyone is interested in learning more about International ministry I'd be happy to share my experiences or you could, of course, contact the Int Ministry office.