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

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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.


Scot McKnight has a great series going on at his Jesus Creed blog on Paul’s missionary journeys called “Acts and Mission.”

In a recent installment, McKnight says this about Paul and his interaction with Festus in Acts 26:

Paul’s passion is for everyone to see the light of the gospel in the face of Jesus Christ, and that means even Festus is in his circle of compassionate gospel preaching. Festus thinks Paul’s lost his mind with his belief in the resurrection as a gospel fully conversant with the Jewish Scriptures. But Paul asks him if he believes the Scriptures. Festus wonders aloud if Paul might not be trying to convert him right then and there, and so he says that very thing. To which Paul says: I wish everyone would see the truth of the gospel in Jesus.

I see here the heart of a missional man: using every opportunity to point people to Jesus Christ.

Read the story of Paul and Festus in Acts 26:24-32 here.


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.


Michael Frost, author of Exiles and the upcoming, Jesus the Fool: The Mission of the Uncoventional Christ, is currently touring the U.S.

Frost is also the co-author of The Shaping of Things to Come and ReJesus with missional co-conspirator Alan Hirsch and serves as Vice Principal of Morling College and founding Director of the Tinsley Institute, a mission study center located at Morling College in Sydney, Australia.

As a part of his tour, Frost is speaking at local churches and this past Sunday, he spoke at Village Baptist Church in Portland on “Principles of Missional Living” from Acts 8. You can listen to the audio here.

John Johnson, lead pastor of VBC and also Associate Professor of Pastoral Theology, Director of Doctor of Ministry program, Western Seminary, reflects on Frost’s visit here.

For kicks, here is a full-length video from Frost that I’ve posted before. This is one of the best explanations of the missional church out there:


If you are a pastor, this is a must see.

Darrin Patrick, lead pastor of The Journey (my home church and where I intern) interviews my friend Ed Stetzer, President of Lifeway Research and Lifeway’s Missiologist in Residence, on what he sees as the pressing issues within evangelicalism today.

I believe this is Ed at his best, bringing prophetic insight to a wide variety of topics that should be of interest to those who love the church and the Gospel. Enjoy:


I recently had the privilege to be interviewed for an article by Jennifer Harris, news writer for Word & Way, on church and culture. The article was forwarded to me today from a friend. Apparently it popped up on the Associated Baptist Press website.

I encourage you to check it out: “Some churches help Christians view culture through spiritual lenses”


This is a treat via Adrian Warnock. Two full-length talks from Tim Keller at New Frontiers in London on transforming culture and the importance of cities for ministry and culture making.

In light of the growing momentum towards church planting in urban Tulsa, these videos capture the ethos of what I believe God is calling me to there. To be honest, Keller is the impetus for much of my thought on urban core ministry. Enjoy:


Tim Keller – Cultural Transformation from Newfrontiers on Vimeo.


Tim Keller – The City from Newfrontiers on Vimeo.


ddevito

“If you want to talk to somebody honestly as a human being, ask him about his kids, find out what his dreams are, just to find out for no other reason because as soon as you lay your hands on a conversation to steer it, it’s not a conversation anymore, it’s a pitch. And you’re not a human being you’re a marketing rep.”

-Phil, played by Danny Devito, from The Big Kahuna

I have begun meeting with an older mentor who is providentially working God’s truth deep into my soul. Last week, we met and he challenged me on the issue of what I “lead with.” Especially in conversations with those who don’t follow Jesus.

What do you lead with? Do you lead with what you do? Is what you do who you are? Or is what you are not defined by what you do? Is telling people what you do even important?

People are not commodities. Evangelism is not a recruiting scheme. Conversation and relationship should not be bait-and-switch.

We must be compelled by love.

See also: Doug Pollock: Ten Spiritual Conversation Killers



The first Midwest Acts 29 Quarterly of 2009 is tomorrow at The Journey – Tower Grove. I’m going to try to live blog it via the Cover It Live platform. I know it is difficult for some of you to travel to St. Louis, especially in these difficult economic times…

Here is a blurb from A29 about what the quarterly will focus in on:

Approaching Evangelism: Salt & Light

As Christians, our primary ministry calling is to bring the gospel to the broken culture. But, sadly, as pastors, church planters, and church leaders we can lose touch with this call while navigating the other demands of local church ministry. Throughout the history of the church we have seen movements that have reacted to this issue by becoming wholly focused either on making the gospel attractive to the culture or through incarnating the gospel within the culture. Does there have to be an either/or response to our call? How can we keep personal evangelism a priority for ourselves and our congregations while shaping a church culture that expresses an attractional facet of the gospel?

Our teachers for the first session focusing on The Shape of an Attractional Culture will be Darrin Patrick, lead pastor for The Journey, and Jonathan McIntosh, Teaching and Hanley Rd. Campus pastor for The Journey.

Our teacher for the afternoon session focusing on Jesus-Style Evangelism will be pastor, teacher, and author Jerram Barrs, Professor of Christian Studies and Contemporary Culture and Resident Scholar of the Francis A. Schaeffer Institute at Covenant Theological Seminary, St. Louis, MO.



Ed Stetzer & David Fitch – a missional conversation from Missional Tribe on Vimeo


From Missional Tribe:

Shot in Chicago in November of ‘08, Part One of this 45 minute conversation features Ed Stetzer and Dave Fitch discussing what they each mean by the term “missional”. They also spend some time discussing attractional vs missional – and whether missional church, as it seems to be presently framed is “interested in converts.”

A very good conversation between two PhD’s, who are also church planters, teachers, authors and missional instigators in their own right.

This video was produced by Toronto’s mkpl.tv – Producer, Imbi Medri. Director/Editor, Bill Kinnon. It is made available under a Creative Commons License – Attribution – No Derivative Works. Copyright Holders: Medri Kinnon Productions Limited, Ed Stetzer, David Fitch.


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