Let's say I was going to read a different book every week for the next 20 weeks trying to get an overall and yet balanced sense of a missional church that reaches out, assimilates in, is interested in true conversion and evangelizes, mobilizes for mission, multiplies, does traditional missions, and serves the community and the world...
In short, those of you who are missional experts, what am I missing that is oh so obvious???
1. The Shape of Things to Come, Hirsch, Frost
2. The Missional Church, by Guder and friends
3. Treasure in Clay Jars: Patterns in Missional Faithfulness, Lois Barrett
4. Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, Resurrection and the Mission of the Church, Tom Wright
5. The Open Secret: An Introduction to the Theology of Mission, Lesslie Newbigen
6. The Mission of God, Christopher Wright
7. Announcing the Kingdom: The Story of God’s Mission in the Bible, by Glasser, Van Engen, Gilliland
8. Emerging Churches Gibbs, Bolger
9. The Prophetic Imagination, Bruggemann
10. The Politics of Jesus, Yoder
11. Exclusion and Embrace, Miroslav Volf
12. They Like Jesus but Not the Church, Dan Kimball
13. Irresistible Revolution, Shane Claiborne
14. Breaking the Missional Code, Stetzer and Putman
15. Surprising Insights from the Unchurched, Thom Rainer
16. The Forgotten Ways, Hirsh
17. The Prodigal God, Keller
18. The Missional Leader, Roxburgh
19. God's Missionary People, Van Engen
20. Generous Orthodoxy, McClaren
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13 comments:
Perhaps Piper's "Let the Nations Be Glad"
Ken I think would add
. THE ONCE & FUTURE CHURCH ... Loren B Mead
. THE ESSENCE OF THE CHURCH ... Craig Van Gelder
. THE MISSIONARY CONGREGATION, LEADERSHIP & LIMINALITY ... Alan J Roxburgh
. POST-CHIRSTENDOM
. CHURCH AFTER CHRISTENDOM ... Both Stuart Murray
. THE McDONALDIZATION OF THE CHURCH
. After McDonaldization: Mission, Ministry, and Christian discipleship in an age of uncertainty ... both by John W. Drane
Is should have said that I was disappointed with Gibbs EMERGING CHURCH book at least the UK section in which they seemed to focus on some pretty marginal people and omit some of the main figures in the MC scene in the UK
Dear James,
that would depend entirely on who you think the main uk EC (MC) guys are. Emergents don't recognise someone like Chalke as Emergent.
Ken, interesting post. Can you clarify for me what you think is missing that is supposed to be obvious - are you talking about books or are you talking about missio Dei and the very missional character of God?
Here are some of my missional book recomendations that have not already been mentioned. These are all great resources.
-Bible and Mission by Bauckham
-Hope for the World by Brueggemann
-Announcing the Reign of God by Arias
-Cultivating Missional Communities by Dietterich
I think I would add Schnabel's "Paul the Missionary".
I would suggest replacing Yoder's Politics of Jesus with Body Politics: Five Practices of the Church Before a Watching World.
Also, I strongly recommend John Flett's forthcoming book from Eerdmans, which may be titled something like "God is a Missionary God"
Thanks all. Josh, we're waxing and polishing the first course of IWU's MDIV, "The Missional Church." A lead writer has covered all the topics in the sixteen week extravaganza:
1. outreach
2. assimilation
3. conversion
4. mobilization
5. evangelism
6. church multiplication
7. traditional missions
8. service
But now we're looking to give it a little of that missional buzz by dialoging with the flood of missional material and blogging out there as well as the "classics."
I wanted to make sure we hadn't missed any "must know" missional material (which of course changes every day!). And of course there are some other things on this list that are just good stuff even if by old fogies like Tom Wright.
Thanks John. I have been thinking, where in the MDIV curriculum can we look at Yoder. This seemed to be the best place.
Ryan, I don't know where you got Chalke from in my post, didn't mention the guy amongst others I was thinking of Jason Clarke
Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission - David Bosch
Is one I would add to the list...
Ken,
I would recommend David Fitch's The Great Giveaway. He's a great thinker on missional Christianity. I'd also look at his blog www.reclaimingthemission.com.
You may also want to look at some stuff by Hauerwas, like Better Hope or Resident Aliens. I think he does a nice job brining to light some issues facing the church in its current mission. He can also be quite pastoral.
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