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It was a great privilege to be at LifePoint Church in Ozark, MO yesterday to worship and to speak about the Kingdom and its intersection with church planting and our new work in Tulsa, mercyview.

LifePoint is a city on a hill in southwest Missouri and Lane Harrison, their lead pastor, is the real deal leading this church community to be a hub for missional activity.

I’m honored to be in partnership with Lifepoint and look forward to the ways that we can serve one another for the sake of the Gospel. I also had the privilege to meet Seth Shelton, lead pastor of The Way Faith Church Community, a fellow brother in the church planting network I am part of, who is planting in Springfield, MO.

Here is a rundown of worship yesterday from LifePoint Worship’s Twitter account @lpc_worship. Note that it is in reverse order with the most recent tweets first…

We end our worship with “Here is Love” 11:54 AM May 16th via HootSuite

The worship team returns and we stand to sing “None But Jesus” 11:53 AM May 16th via HootSuite

80,000 people live within 3 miles of mercyview – which is on Cherry Street near a vibrant urban core. 11:52 AM May 16th via HootSuite

Brad shares his heart for the city he has been called to – Tulsa. 80% of people in that area do not attend church on Sunday. 11:50 AM May 16th via HootSuite

The USA is the 5th largest mission field in the world. No county in the US has a larger church population than it did 10 years ago. 11:43 AM May 16th via HootSuite

Church planting is the primary method seen in the New Testament used to extend the Kingdom. 11:42 AM May 16th via HootSuite

Could it you live where you live, work where you work, walk where you walk to be a herald of the Gospel? 11:41 AM May 16th via HootSuite

Our motivation to be on mission is not a what, it is a who – Jesus. 11:39 AM May 16th via HootSuite

That is what we are here for. To believe, experience, proclaim and enact the Gospel, with Jesus at the center of all we do. 11:38 AM May 16th via HootSuite

The Gospel of The Kingdom is a call to action. It is Good News to be believed, proclaimed, enacted and experienced. 11:36 AM May 16th via HootSuite

Because of American Individualism, we have a small Gospel. God’s intention is not simply to get us to Heaven individually. 11:35 AM May 16th via HootSuite

The Kingdom is not just limited to human hearts. It touches EVERYTHING on Earth. 11:33 AM May 16th via HootSuite

The Kingdom is not just Heaven – it is not just God’s rule and reign in spiritual space. 11:33 AM May 16th via HootSuite

In thinking off the Kingdom we need to think of authority and not locality. 11:31 AM May 16th via HootSuite

Understanding the Kingdom is essential to understanding Jesus. 11:31 AM May 16th via HootSuite

…to restore the Shalom of the created order that was ruined in the Fall. 11:30 AM May 16th via HootSuite

We see the story of God in His sovereign plan from Eden to Revelation… 11:30 AM May 16th via HootSuite

1 Cor 15:14 (http://esv.to/1Co15.14) if Christ had not been raised our faith is futile. 11:27 AM May 16th via HootSuite

In Mark 16, Jesus rebukes the disciples for their lack of belief in the resurrection. 11:24 AM May 16th via HootSuite

We must get our motivation correct. We are all busy, but does our business have any eternal significance? 11:21 AM May 16th via HootSuite

Our hope in eternity does not rest on what we do for God, but on what Christ has already done. 11:21 AM May 16th via HootSuite

What is our divine purpose? What are we here for? 11:19 AM May 16th via HootSuite

Brad directs us to Mark 16 (http://esv.to/Mk16.14-20) The Other Great Commission passage. 11:19 AM May 16th via HootSuite

Brad Andrews ( @bradandrews ) brings the message this AM. Check out his blog at http://transformission.com/ 11:17 AM May 16th via HootSuite

As the last song of the first set, we sing “Missions Flame”. 11:10 AM May 16th via HootSuite

We sing “Adoration” as we further our worship by giving of our tithes and offerings. 11:06 AM May 16th via HootSuite

Lane offers prayer for these men and the work they are doing. 11:05 AM May 16th via HootSuite

Seth ask for us to pray for the sacrifices that he and his family make, that God would continue to work on him, and for support for the work 11:02 AM May 16th via HootSuite

Brad’s church can be found here – http://mercyview.com/ 10:58 AM May 16th via HootSuite

Seth’s church can be found here – http://www.thewayfaithcommunity.com/ 10:57 AM May 16th via HootSuite

Lane introduces our church planting partners Seth Shelton planting Way of Faith in SGF and Brad Andrews planting mercyview in Tulsa. 10:55 AM May 16th via HootSuite

Lead Pastor Lane Harrison dismisses the kids and teachers. 10:50 AM May 16th via HootSuite

Dan Seawel leads worship this AM. We open with “My Savior Lives” and “Christ is Risen” // I am sensing a theme here /mch 10:47 AM May 16th via HootSuite


I have been waiting a long time to write this post…

For the last four years, my wife and I have been on the most exhilarating and faith-stretching journey we have ever been on in our lives.

In the spring of 2006, God sent a holy “interruption” into my life and called me to plant a church as the lead planter. In October 2006, I attended an boot camp to be formally assessed by an international transdenominational church planting network and since that time, I have been in a church planting internship and mentoring relationship with a local church here in St. Louis, The Journey. And I have needed every moment of these three years to prepare for the work God has for us.

At the beginning of our journey, we began to pray that God would create a burden for a people in the urban core of a mid-size Midwestern metropolis. God used our prayers and some providential conversations to lead us to a city with a unique personality and a unique set of challenges: Tulsa, OK. Specifically, He has led us to strategically land in the Cherry Street District which is set near downtown in the northern midtown area, defined by a portion of 15th Street dubbed “Cherry Street.”

I have been to Tulsa 8 times in the last two years to “exegete” the culture there and God continues to provide us with many providential relationships, a burden and love for the people of Tulsa, an emerging core group, and an overwhelming vision to plant a Gospel-centered, missional church in the urban core called mercyview.

Why share now?

Well, for the last four years as I have pursued this call, I have been working at Missouri Baptist University in St. Louis as professor of emerging trends in the church and worship. I’ve also had the privilege to intentionally disciple around 25 students that are a part of a paraministry of MBU. I was upfront with the committee that hired me at MBU about my future plans but I wanted to honor their commitment to me so I’ve tried to keep things discreet. Now that things have come together, I gave my notice to MBU last week and now I’m free to shout if from the rooftops.

All that to say, it’s official:

We are moving to Tulsa on Saturday, May 1 to a home on E. 16th Place, a block south of the Cherry Street District (the exact place we have been praying we could land as a family for the last couple of years) to begin the process of planting the gospel in the urban core of Tulsa.

Over the next few weeks, I would like to share more of my story with you, as well as our hopes and dreams for mercyview in the urban core of Tulsa, the High Plains region of the U.S., and beyond.

Our heart for planting in Tulsa can best be summed up by professor, author, and blogger David Fitch:

The landscape of post-Christendom demands we think about church planting with a new eye for faithfulness, truth and integrity. Church is the name we give to a way of life, not a set of services. We do not plant an organized set of services; we inhabit a neighborhood as the living embodied presence of Christ. Missional leaders now root themselves in a piece of geography for the long term. We seek to plant seeds of ministry, kernels of forgiveness, new plantings of the gospel among the poor of “all kinds” and then by the Spirit, water them, nurture them into the life of God in Christ.

We gather on Sunday but not for evangelistic reasons. We gather to be formed into a missional people sent out into the neighborhood to minister grace, peace, love and the gospel of forgiveness and salvation. If the old ways of planting a church were like setting up a grocery store, now it is more like seeding a garden, cultivating it, watching God grow it amidst the challenges of the rocks, weeds and thorns. [1]

Amen and amen…

=================

[1] David Fitch, “On Those Ones Who Would Go and Seed Missional Communities,” Reclaiming the Mission. Available from http://www.reclaimingthemission.com/on-the-ones-who-would-go-and-seed-missional-communities/. Internet.


The tall skinny kiwi, Andrew Jones, recently blogged about a new book that is coming out March 1 that he believes “is the most significant book on international mission” that he has come across in a long time. Big words…

The book is entitled The Meeting of the Waters: 7 Global Currents that will propel the future church and is written by Fritz Kling. According to Jones, Fritz has traveled to 40 countries to interview key leaders on these changes and the book is a result of those findings.

In his book, Fritz identifies seven trends that he believes will have a major impact on the church around the world. They are:

1. Mercy: Younger people of faith around the world increasingly demonstrate their piety and their love for others by serving–by feeding the hungry, addressing AIDS, rescuing girls sold into slavery, saving the earth, etc.

2. Mutuality: While Americans and the West had long been the leaders of worldwide “Christendom,” now Christians from countries all around the world have the education, access, resources, and confidence to share leadership with powerful countries like the US.

3. Migration: People everywhere are on the move, to meet economic needs, flee repression or combat, seek freedom or asylum, enjoy tourism, etc. While in the past Christian missionaries reached diverse people groups by ships or planes or trains, now everywhere in the world is more diverse.

4. Monoculture: Focusing on helping individual people in the unique cultures and countries in which they live, the Christian church has trained and sent missionaries around the world for a long time.

5. Machines: The importance of technology is not news to anyone, but its impact on Christian communities around the world has its surprises. Studies on technology and evangelism abound, so I highlight examples of how technology is radically changing disaster relief efforts.

6. Mediation: Many people say that the world is “flattening,” and that we’re all coming closer together. But the internet and available media are actually providing more opportunities, tools, and points for polarization and division. Who will mediate, and how?

7. Memory: In the shadow of so many game-changing trends, every country, region and village has its own “backstory” — those historical features, clues and codes that may be unseen but affect everything in those societies.

You can download the first chapter here.

Here is a promotional video about the new book:


Ed Stetzer continues to introduce the individuals who will be serving as framers for The Missional Manifesto, as well as speakers for missionSHIFT (the conference that I have the privilege to be working with him on) which takes place July 12-15 in Ridgecrest, NC.

Are you registered for the missionSHIFT conference? You don’t want to miss it. Register here.

Here are Ed’s recent introductions and the best soundbites from his interviews with each of them:

Dan Kimball

Dan Kimball is on staff at Vintage Faith Church, planted in 2004 in Santa Cruz, CA. He is the author of several books including They Like Jesus But Not The Church. He is a columnist for Leadership Journal and Outreach Magazine. He is adjunct faculty at several universities including Wheaton College, George Fox University and Western Seminary where he teaches on church and mission. Dan is part of the leadership core for Origins, a new network focused on evangelism and the mission of Jesus to new generations. He blogs at dankimball.com.

(Dan will serve as a “framer” for “The Missional Manifesto,” as well as speak on what evangelism looks like in the postmodern mileu)

Kimball:

“I have so much excitement and joy for the church at large right now. Just the fact that we are now becoming so much more engaged in dialogue about what being on mission means is a source of encouragement for me. I really sense that there is a wonderful stirring happening amongst so many people and leaders about this. So the one thing I think we are doing better at engaging in God’s mission is that we are really talking about it now, both theologically and in praxis and living it out. It feels like a tide is changing right now about all this in a very hopeful way. What incredible impact could be made as we unite and rally around God’s mission all the more.”

Hugh Halter

Hugh Halter is the national director of Missio, a ministry team committed to training, developing, and apprenticing Incarnational leaders for the church. Within Missio, Hugh co-directs the MCAP, an online collaborative training environment for Incarnational leaders, pastors, and church planters. Hugh is also lead architect of Adullum, a local movement of incarnational communities in Denver, CO. As co-author of The Tangible Kingdom, and the accompanying Tangible Kingdom Primer, Hugh is an advocate for disoriented God seekers and loves to inspire and re-orient leaders around the mission of God. I was happy to write the foreword for his next book, AND…the Gathered & Scattered Church coming out through Zondervan/Leadership Network/Exponential in April.

Halter:

“The biggest hope is in the conversations that are going on. It used to be a fight to ask people to consider moving away from purely attractional forms of church, but a much greater percentage want to move forward. What’s most exciting is how the existing church is not only in the conversation, but is asking for help and now innovating some really cool movements of incarnational community.”

Bob Roberts

Bob Roberts has earned degrees from Baylor Univeristy, Southwestern Seminary, and Fuller Seminary. He planted Northwood Church in 1985 that has since planted 140 churches in the United States. He has written for various periodicals and journals both faith based and secular international relations journals. He works with the United Nations and various State Departments of various governments around the world doing humanitarian engagement projects. He frequently travels to seriously challenged nations to help with development, engagement, and reconciliation. Their focus is to engage the society with the Gospel through the use of ordinary disciples vocations. Bob has written 4 books: Transformation, Glocalization, The Multiplying Church, and recently Realtime Connections: Linking Your Job with God’s Global Work. Bob speaks around the world on globalization, faith, church planting, engagement, and a variety of global affairs issues. He is married to his wife of 30 years Nikki, they have 2 children, Ben and Jill, a daughter-in-law Ashley, and an exchange student they consider their own – Ti.

Roberts:

“The motivation to be missional is good. The context of narrowing it just to the US, or traditional “missions” is dying. A new conversation is emerging that’s global, but I don’t think we get that in the US. My hope is that we learn to speak and live globally in the global era and missional is global incarnation…”


“We must be global Christians with a global vision because our God is a global God.”
– John Stott

=============================================================

Last week, I posted on the importance of understanding that God’s mission is a global mission. I promised you some brand new and soon-to-be-released books that will help you put the “mission” back in “missional.”

Recently released:

Paul Hiebert: The Gospel in Human Contexts: Anthropological Explorations for Contemporary Missions

Product Description:

While the gospel is timeless truth, it enters into ever-changing and widely varied human contexts. In order to meaningfully communicate the gospel to particular humans, those involved in cross-cultural ministry need to understand people and the particular influences–social, cultural, psychological, and ecological–that shape them. Further, we must understand ourselves and the influences that have shaped us, since our own contexts influence how we understand and transmit the gospel message. Therefore, we must master not only the skill of biblical interpretation but also the skill of human interpretation. That task is the topic of this book, the summation of a lifetime of experience and thinking by a world-renowned missiologist and anthropologist, the late Paul Hiebert.

Timothy Tennent: Invitation to World Missions: A Trinitarian Missiology for the Twenty-first Century (Invitation to Theological Studies Series)

Product Description:

This unique text is arranged in three parts according to the Trinity’s roles, relationships, and activity. Tennent questions whether missions as currently conceptualized is adequate and he challenges the reader by building the book around key theological foundations such as “missio Dei” and the “new creation” vision for the global church. This volume will call and enable the reader to understand how missions is biblically and theologically basic to Christianity, and how missions is essential to living out an abundant and impassioned life.

Coming soon:

David Hesselgrave + Ed Stetzer: MissionShift: Global Mission Issues in the Third Millennium (July 2010)

Product Description:

Veteran missionary David Hesselgrave and rising missional expert Ed Stetzer edit this engaging set of conversational essays addressing global mission issues in the third millennium. Key contributors are Charles E. Van Engen (“Mission Described and Defined”), the late Paul Hiebert (“The Gospel in Human Contexts: Changing Perspectives on Contextualization”), and the late Ralph Winter (“The Future of Evangelicals in Mission”). Those offering written responses to these essays include: Van Engen, Keith Eitel, Enoch Wan, Darrell Guder, Andreas J. Köstenberger, Hiebert, Michael Pocock, Darrell Whiteman, Norman L. Geisler, Avery Willis, Winter, Scott Moreau, Christopher Little, Michael Barnett, and Mark Terry.

Craig Ott + Stephen Strauss with Timothy Tennent: Encountering Theology of Mission: Biblical Foundations, Historical Developments, and Contemporary Issues (Encountering Mission) (May 2010)

Product Description:

This fresh, comprehensive text fills a need for an up-to-date theology of mission. It offers creative approaches to answering some of the most pressing questions in theology of mission and missionary practice today. The authors, who are leading mission experts, discuss biblical theology of mission, provide historical overviews of the development of various viewpoints, and address theologically current issues in global mission from an evangelical perspective. This readable yet thorough text integrates current views of the kingdom of God and holistic mission with traditional views of evangelism and church planting. It also brings theology of mission into conversation with ecclesiology and eschatology. Topics covered include contextualization, the missionary vocation, church and mission, and theology of religions. Sidebars and case studies enable readers to see how theology of mission touches real-life mission practice.


“We must be global Christians with a global vision because our God is a global God.”
– John Stott

=============================================================

I’ve heard my friend Ed Stetzer say many times, in so many words:

If we are truly interested in being missional– in joining God on His mission– our efforts should actually reflect His stated mission.

And His stated mission is to take the Gospel to the entire world and preach the good news to all of creation (Mark 16:15). God’s mission is a global mission that includes our neighborhood AND the slums of Calcutta.

Last year, Ed wrote on the five reasons why missional churches don’t do global missions. Here is what he said:

1. In rediscovering God’s mission, many have only discovered its personal dimensions
2. In responding to God’s mission, many have wanted to be more mission-shaped and have therefore made everything “mission”
3. In relating God’s mission, the message increasingly includes the hurting but less frequently includes the global lost
4. In refocusing on God’s mission, many are focusing on being good news rather than telling good news. (He has a great quote with this point: “…as many missional Christians have sought to “embody” the gospel, they have chosen to forsake one member of Christ’s body: the mouth.”)
5. In reiterating God’s mission, many lose the context of the church’s global mission and needed global presence

So how do you, as Ed says, put the “mission” back in “missional?” He has four suggestions:

1. Recognize it is God’s mission
2. Engage more strongly, as evangelicals, in social justice
3. Share God’s deep concern about His mission to the nations
4. Obey his commands to disciple the nations

Read how Ed expounds on the reasons churches don’t do global missions and his suggestions for correcting that here.

I would add one more idea to the mix: read books/articles on world missions. It will stir you, I promise. To that end, tomorrow I will post some resources that are soon-to-be-released that will help you put the “mission” back in “missional.”


Over the weeks to come, Ed Stetzer will be introducing the people who will be serving as framers for The Missional Manifesto, as well as speakers for missionSHIFT (the conference that I have the privilege to be working with him on) which takes place July 12-15 in Ridgecrest, NC. I will be re-posting Ed’s introductions in their entirety here on transformission each week.

Here is Ed’s next introduction:

I am very pleased that my friend Alan Hirsch will be joining us in the conversation leading up to missionSHIFT this summer (July 12-15 at Ridgecrest). Alan has been one of the leading voices in calling the church to live missionally and he will play a significant role in guiding the discussion regarding the Missional Manifesto.

I asked Alan if he could stop by the blog and answer a few questions about all things missional and what is happening in his life and ministry right now.

Ed: What do you see in the church that is giving you hope that we are doing better at engaging in God’s mission?

Alan: Certainly I see a newfound, system-wide, willingness to really rethink and even question some of what up to now we have considered sacrosanct. I have been an activist for missional-incarnational church for a long time now, and I have never before experienced such radical openness and real engagement with the ideas. Even more exciting is that many are willing to really try them out…to experiment and perhaps innovate new forms of church. Another thing that excites is is the talk about exponential. Why I get excited about this because when you really begin to take this seriously, it serves as a catalyst to think missionally about the forms of church, mission, and discipleship. It effectively forces us to take issues of how we are currently doing church seriously and sends us on a journey of discovery to find out new ways of being more effective–this is very much part of the missional journey.

Ed: Your website, The Forgotten Ways, uses the tagline “Developing Apostolic Imagination and Practice in Western Contexts.” Describe what that means. Especially “apostolic imagination.”

Alan: Yes, I believe that in this terminology of the Bible lies one of the keys to missional thinking and acting. I in no way wish to replace the role of the original twelve, so lets get that straight right up front. What I seek to do however seek to do is to revitalize and recover the very ethos and genius that is caught up in authentically apostolic ministry. I advocate for the recovery of apostolic ministry–I believe this very distinctive way of thinking and acting is crucial in our day. For instance, many of unaware that the word apostolic has the same roots as the word missional–the one is Greek (apostello) and the other Latin (missio) and they both mean sent. So if I said it another way, if we want missional (sent) church then we have to have missional ministry…and that must at least include the apostolic ministry. If Einstein is right in saying that if we can’t imagine it we can’t do it (and I think he is), then we certainly we need to learn to think apostolically again. This is what I mean by apostolic imagination.

Ed: Obviously, the word “missional” is spoken of, used by, and claimed by many groups. Instead of giving another definition for the word, can you tell the readers an example of where you and your wife are seeking to live missionally?

Alan: Currently we live and serve at edgy, somewhat experimental, church called The Tribe of LA. While Debs has a the formal role with the community, I am involved and very keen. I travel to much to be really useful. :) But Tribe is made of what we fondly think of as spiritual artists and vagabonds…These people are witnesses to Jesus in some of the craziest places of LA. One of the places they pop up at is called Burning Man, a radical annual arts festival of 40,000 people in the middle of the desert near Reno. It is a tribe that few Christians ever venture to engage but is really wide open for mission and evangelism. Tribe is the church in that crazy place and I love them for it.

Ed: In terms of missionSHIFT and the Missional Manifesto, what would be a great end-game in your mind for this event and process?

Alan: I think so much is bound up in understanding and appropriating the nest of paradigms bound up with the word ‘missional’. At the moment is is becoming the word of the month…and as I have noted above, while I am very excited about this newfound openness, my feeling (and experience) says that most people don”t really understand what it entails: that it involves a radical reconceptualization of just about every aspect of how we do church and mission. And so my hope is that the conference and manifesto serve to give needed definition and clarity to this very important idea.

Ed: Tell us a little about your upcoming projects (writings, books, travels)? What are you up to these days?

Well my latest book (written with my beloved wife Debra) is called Untamed and really is an attempt to articulate what it means to be a radically missional disciple of Jesus. It tries to identify (and remove) many obstacles in what it means to follow Jesus the way he intended, I feel very excited about it as I believe discipleship is a very strategic (and very missional) issue in the church of our day–if we fail here we will fail everywhere else.

I have also delivered a draft on a book with Lance Ford called Right Here, Right Now, which is a missionality-for-dummies kind of book. For so many people missional ideas seem very complex and the conversation way too academic. Right Here, Right Now brings it all home to the people of God–right where it belongs (out early 2011).

I have also just finished a manuscript with Mike Frost than can best be described a Theology/Missiology of Risk and Adventure (we haven’t got a name pinned down yet–out middle 2011).

I am finishing up a very serious, hefty, and I hope definitive, work into the nature and function of apostolic ministry in our day with a very bright church planter theologian called Tim Catchim.

And I am also starting a new book with Dave Ferguson called On the Verge. This is a unique look at what ten really adventurous megachurches are doing to integrate Missional-Incarnational approaches into the equation of the church. It therefore tracks closely with a process we are calling Future Travelers. On the Verge will also be the theme book/concept for Exponential 2011.

We are also launching Forge America, a training network aimed at developing incarnational mission.

So, you seem I have my work cut out for me!! Actually having written it out like this, I feel somewhat overwhelmed and in need your (and the readers) prayers….please pray with/for me.


Here are some excellent resources coming out in the next few months to assist missional conspirators:

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At Verge last week, Jeff Vanderstelt announced the launch of the GCM Collective Launching in March as a collective (originally comprised of Soma Communities, The Crowded House and Kaleo Church-San Diego) it will centralize resources to help communities exchange ideas, resources and encouragement in a move to being the church as a community, centered on the gospel on mission to the world.

According to Drew Goodmanson (of Kaleo Church), here are some ways to stay informed of the launch:

1. Sign-up at GCM Collective
2. Join the Facebook page and follow GCM on Twitter.

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M. Scott Boren: Missional Small Groups: Becoming a Community That Makes a Difference in the World (Allelon Missional Series) (July 2010)

Product Description:

Small groups are a great place to connect with other churchgoers, but many wonder, is this all there is? Is sitting in a living room, talking about a book or watching a video the extent of what we can do together? Isn’t being a Christian community about something more than this? Pastor and author Scott Boren thinks so. In this latest release from missional thinktank Allelon, Boren gives leaders and members of small groups the tools they need to make an impact on their communities. Beginning with a gentle critique of current small group models, Boren goes on to show how a uniquely Christian paradigm can set groups free to transform their communities. The final section of the book offers over twenty practices that groups can do to become more missional. Ultimately Missional Small Groups is about helping groups follow Jesus by equipping them to bring his message and healing to a hurting world.

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Dave Ferguson + John Ferguson: Exponential: How You and Your Friends Can Start a Missional Church Movement (Exponential Series) (May 2010)

Product Description:

The purpose of this book is to communicate a simple strategy that will engage every Christ follower and challenge every leader to become a reproducing leader. Our hope is that every church will become a reproducing church. This book will lay out a brief, but solid theology for a reproducing strategy and then give very practical ‘how-to’s’ for reproducing Christ followers, leaders, artists, groups/teams, venues, sites, churches and networks of churches.

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Eric Swanson + Rick Rusaw: The Externally Focused Quest: Becoming the Best Church for the Community (April 2010)

Product Description:

The Externally Focused Quest: Becoming the Best Church for the Community is designed for church leaders who want to transform their churches to become less internally focused and more oriented to the world around them. The book includes the clear guidelines on the ten changes congregations must adopt to become truly outwardly focused. This book is not about getting all churches to have an annual day of community service as a tactic but changing the core of who they are and how they see themselves as a part of their community.


Jonny Baker of the Church Mission Society (a group of evangelistic societies working with the Anglican Communion and Protestant Christians around the world), as well as co-author of Alternative Worship and blogger, recently reflected on the recommendations of the report, Mission Shaped Church edited by Graham Cary, since it was released by the Church of England 6 years ago.

Jonny Baker:

For anyone new to this area, a quick summary. in 2004, the Church of England published a report called Mission Shaped Church which recognized the creativity in mission around the fringes of the church and new emerging expressions of church. this was against the wider backdrop of cultural changes, decline in attendance of churches over around 20 years, and economic pressure but was a very hopeful recognition that something new seemed to be happening. this report has since sold around 27,000 copies and has had an unprecedented impact for a church report…

…the MSC report had a series of recommendations and how these have been carried forward…it’s easy to forget how much has happened in 6 years within a large institution that could easily have done nothing but has broadly embraced the notion that the future is not a one size fits all church but a mixed economy of church. (emphasis mine)

For what it is worth, Mission Shaped Church is a very helpful addition to the missional conversation. It’s a bit off the radar for those of us in the U.S. and many evangelicals will struggle because of its origins in the Church of England — but I would say to you, there is much to be gleaned from it. (One of my favorite “missional” quotes comes from this book: “Start with the Church and the mission will probably get lost. Start with mission and it is likely that the church will be found.” p. 116 — missiology precedes ecclesiology)

Baker goes on to list what he believes are the main achievements of the report since it was first published:

1. A change in environment – mission is on the agenda
2. Practice – there is lots going on and we need this to multiply
3. The church has legislated for a mixed economy
4. Training is developing through a mission lens
5. There is now a recognition of the need for pioneering entrepreneurial leadership

Baker also posts the report’s concluding statement:

A real journey begins when small teams or individuals decide to travel from the security of their familiar church life to be pioneers. Many have begun their journey but many more are needed if the non-churched are to be given the opportunity to follow Christ in their own language and culture today. Reflection on what has been achieved…and the new opportunities and resources now available, will enable us to discern how we can together take forward Christ’s mission to the whole of our society with its rapidly changing social structure and patterns of living. We have made a good beginning.

No matter you place on the globe, we have only just begun on this mission-shaped journey…

Read all of Baker’s reflections here.



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Husband and father of four, university instructor, seminarian, church planter, and conference architect.

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