Missional communities are apostolically-shaped communities where the wonders of God are seen but where the wonders of God sometimes provoke persecution of the people of God. But persecution provokes courage on the part of the missional community. Read Acts 5:27-32:

Having brought the apostles, they made them appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest. “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,” he said. “Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.”

Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than men! The God of our fathers raised Jesus from the dead–whom you had killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel. We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”

Missional communities that follow in the lead of the apostles are filled with courage to declare the gospel of resurrection in the teeth of opposition.