Theology: Mission Studies: Missional Church

This fifth Missional Church Series volume seeks to bring historical clarity, biblical and theological substance, and practical guidance to church planting. The nine contributors -- many of them experienced church-planting pastors -- offer diverse yet cohesive perspectives on the Spirit's missional church planting in our time. Section One presents three essays which address missional church planting as a theological practice, with particular attention given to the activity of the Holy Spirit within the context of God's Trinitarian life. Section Two grounds church planting initiatives in the generative soil of story. The two essays in this section narrate how specific congregations provide glimpses of the Holy Spirit in action, supplying the reader with hints for how history might lead to future expectations of the Holy Spirit's ongoing church planting activity. Three essays in Section Three focus on new frontiers appearing on the church planting horizon, and an epilogue provides a sermon which orients church planting efforts in witness that flows from the heart of God. In this book readers will find fresh insights into an exciting new future created and led by the Spirit. Contributors: Daniel Anderson Leith Anderson Paul Chung Mary Sue Dehmlow Dreier Todd Hobart Harvey Kwiyani Lois Malcolm Susan Tjornehoj Miroslav Volf

This project explores the relationship between worship, discipleship, and evangelism within the missional church movement. Engaging contributions from liturgical theology, Christian ethics, and post-Christendom evangelism, the book proposes a missional approach to worship that, when integrated with a praxis-oriented discipleship, cultivates Jesus' character among God's people. Along the way, the project attends to the Holy Spirit's transformative presence, the liturgical rhythms of remembering and anticipating, and the practices of hospitality and compassion. In the end, Cultivating an Evangelistic Character contends that the Spirit works through the integration of worship and discipleship to form God's people. In other words, God's people become evangelistic, or as Newbigin said, "the hermeneutic of the gospel."

How can pastors help to create missional faith communities that are willing to participate in God's healing of the world? Cultivating Sent Communities reimagines spiritual formation through the lens of mission, covering such topics as the role of Scripture, congregational discernment, and short-term missions and drawing on case studies from diverse contexts including Ethiopia, England, Leipzig, and San Francisco. Full of rich practical, theological, and sociological insights into forming missional churches, this fourth volume in the Missional Church Series calls readers to deepen the core practices that have defined Christians for centuries -- and to reclaim them within the context of cultural adaptation and innovation. Contributors Dinku Bato Nancy S. Going Scott J. Hagley David C. Hahn Allen Hilton Dirk G. Lange Richard R. Osmer Christian Scharen Dwight J. Zscheile.

A Future that’s Bigger than the Past sets out a vision for renewing the local church that is energising, realistic and practical for small and large congregations alike.

Many pastors and church leaders have heard the term "missional" but have only a vague idea of what it means, let alone why it might be important to them. But what does it actually mean? What does a missional church look like and how does it function? Two leading voices in the missional movement here provide an accessible introduction, showing readers how the movement developed, why it's important, and how churches can become more missional. Introducing the Missional Church demonstrates that ours is a post-Christian culture, making it necessary for church leaders to think like missionaries right here at home. Focusing on a process that allows a church to discern its unique way of being missional, it guides readers on a journey that will lead them to implement a new set of missional practices in their churches. The authors demonstrate that living missionally is about discerning and joining God's work in the world in order to be a witness to God's kingdom on earth.

There is a growing body of literature about the missional church, but the word missional is often defined in competing ways with little attempt to ground it deeply in Scripture. Michael Goheen, a dynamic speaker and the coauthor of two popular texts on the biblical narrative, unpacks the missional identity of the church by tracing the role God's people are called to play in the biblical story. Goheen shows that the church's identity can be understood only when its role is articulated in the context of the whole biblical story--not just the New Testament, but the Old Testament as well. He also explores practical outworkings and implications, offering field-tested suggestions for contemporary churches.

"As the Father has sent me, I am sending you" (John 20:21).With the reality of broad-scale secularization in the West and the attendant cloud of insignificance hanging over the church, is there any hope for the re-evangelization of the West? In this comprehensive theology of mission, Ross Hastings directs the fretful gaze of the church to the trinitarian commission of John 20. There we find Jesus granting peace to his disciples by breathing his Spirit on them. He formed them into his community of shalom. Leaving their locked room, these "sent ones" went out to participate in God's own ongoing mission to the world.Hastings also tackles the dual challenges of isolation from and accommodation to the surrounding culture. Building on the works of David Bosch, Lesslie Newbigin, Christopher Wright and Darrell Guder, the author corrects numerous dichotomies that hinder the church. In the power of the Spirit the gathered church is spiritually transformed and also scattered as it proclaims God's forgiveness and freedom.This comprehensive theology of mission opens possibilities for renewal of faithful effort as we join in Christ's mission to the world.

Historic changes are occurring in the convergence of worship styles throughout the Christian church. Christians across the theological spectrum are seeking to learn from their own tradition's roots and from the liturgical expressions of believers in other times and places. Here worship expert Clayton Schmit examines worship in church settings around the globe and provides a practical manual for shaping liturgies that are informed by and relevant to contemporary missional contexts. The book broadens current ecumenical worship conversations, reveals insights drawn from the church at worship in the world, and argues for a common understanding of a theology of worship.

All mission is local--the people of God joining the work of God in a particular place. In Starting Missional Churches Mark Lau Branson and Nicholas Warnes introduce us to seven missional churches while examining common challenges regarding their genesis. Using stories, interviews with pastors and a look at common preconceived notions of church planting in the West, this guide brings together resources of the missional church conversation with the creativity and energy of those who are experimenting with diverse planting activities and practices across the country.Curated by a pastor and a professor, this work highlights diverse modern examples of congregations focused on reaching their communities with a missional mindset. Learn from these stories how to build a vibrant, engaging church--one that generates redemptive witness in our neighborhoods and in our world.

The church is living in a time of massive, unprecedented change. Traditional institutions and structures are unraveling in response to rapid social, demographic and economic developments. The existing ways of being the church are no longer meaningful to many. How should the church respond?Many seek to address this situation by tweaking the established institutions, finding new structures, reorganizing congregations or renewing long-established practices. Some even argue that we need to abandon structures and institutions altogether. We regularly hear proposals for missional churches, organic churches, simple churches, fresh expressions churches and so on.Alan Roxburgh argues that we need to look deeper. Structures embody the core narratives that shape how people see the world. We cannot simply replace old institutions with new ones. We need to examine the underlying stories, metaphors and cultures that give organizations their meaningfulness. The crisis of the church today is a crisis not of institution but of imagination.In Structured for Mission, Roxburgh challenges the church to become a place where people are empowered to reimagine their religious life and experiment with new ways of being the church in a local context. We are living in a brave new world. Will the church be ready?

Missio Alliance Essential Reading List of 2015The cross means more than we've let it mean.Proclaiming the gospel and forming the faithful: these are the most practiced disciplines of the evangelical church. As central as these disciplines are, however, they are only part of the story. And as Christian Community Development Association CEO Noel Castellanos has learned over a lifetime of ministry and mission, the neglect of the gospel's full implications for the world has contributed to the erosion of communities and the languishing of poor and other marginalized people. In Where the Cross Meets the Street Castellanos shows the strengths and limitations of a narrowly focused church and broadens our imaginations to embrace a gospel that proclaims Christ and forms disciples. This life-giving gospel also demonstrates compassion, confronts injustice and restores individuals and communities to wholeness. This is the whole work of the cross; this is the privilege of those who follow the Word made flesh.