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The Missional Church in Perspective: Mapping Trends and Shaping the Conversation
In this book, two leading ministry experts place the missional church conversation in historical perspective and offer fresh insights for its further development. They begin by providing a helpful review of the genesis of the missional church and offering an insightful critique of the Gospel and Our Culture Network's seminal book Missional Church , which set the conversation in motion. They map the diverse paths this discussion has taken over the past decade, identifying four primary branches and ten sub-branches of the conversation and placing over one hundred published titles and websites into this framework. The authors then utilize recent developments in biblical and theological perspectives to strengthen and extend the conversation about missional theology, the church's interaction with culture and cultures, and church organization and leadership in relation to the formation of believers as disciples. Professors, students, and church leaders will value this comprehensive overview of the missional movement. It includes a foreword by Alan J. Roxburgh.
208 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 9, 2022
Much of this book was too verbose and not written in vernacular that was easy for a layperson to understand. However, it did explore and explain the extensive meanings of “missional.” Overall, I was encouraged to find that my vision for change in our church is backed up by their research; that what I have intuitively been pushing for as a method of church renewal from the grassroots-relational networking level is the most sticky and successful avenue for changing a church’s DNA.
January 4, 2016
The Missional Church in Perspective - Van Gelder and Zscheile - is the first book that explores the development of the term "missional" by documenting the broad historical and theological contributing factors, and thoroughly exploring the recent literature. In fact, it ventures even more widely than this, in exploring also the conversation in the online world, and in the academy.
Part 1: The History and Development of the Missional Conversation.
This section serves as the main survey to date, and anchors the book primarily in the the great text published in 1998 by the GOCN: Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America. And this is no ordinary survey, but a lucid and rich exploration of the six main themes in that text, as well as an exploration of the dischordant elements. Beginning on page 53, the authors note a lack of integration in key themes, and weaknesses (or omissions) in the Trinitarian rooting (the classic east vs the west).
This section also raises a fundamental question reaching back to the discussion of missio Dei in the 1960's - an issue that is not directly addressed in the classic text of 1998. There are two approaches to the missio Dei, broadly speaking: a specialized view that understands God as working in the world through a redeemed people who are called and sent, and a generalized view that understands God as working in the world beyond the church through secular history. In part this divergence hinges around the relationship of the church and the kingdom of God.
The authors nuance this divergence, breaking the two views into two sub-approaches each, and then offering a third, integrated view (56-57). The integrated view runs as follows:
The church participates in God's continuing creation and redemptive mission. People in the church pursue God's mission in the world both as cocreative creatures engaging with God in the Spirit's continuing work in all creation and by bearing witness to the reign of God. (The authors expand on this integrative perspective in chapter 4.) Various authors (chapters) of Missional Church came down in various places on their general approach to missio Dei, with chapters 6 and 7 (Dieterrich and Roxburgh) arguing the integrated view.
Equally important, Missional Church (1998) developed a variety of approaches to the relationship between church and culture (59ff). One respondent to the 1998 text felt that the overall approach was a counter-cultural model, but in reality there was no such unifying theme. Roxburgh's contribution made it clear that the church is deeply embedded in culture, where Hunsberger's contribution emphasized the responsibility to build a contrast society.
In chapter 3 (MCiP), taking a cue from Ed Stetzer, the authors chart the recent literature as a part of a missional tree. In that illustration, the 1998 book serves as the trunk; church and missions/mission Trinitarian missiology, missio Dei, reign (kingdom) of God, church’s missionary nature, and missional hermeneutics serve as the roots. The recent literature is grouped by theme to serve as the branches: discovering, utilizing, engaging, and extending. The key issue is found in two related questions: the extent to which we are dealing with human agency, and the extent to which God's agency is operative and discernible within human choices.
A variety of authors, traditions and studies are related to these branches: each branch and its associated subbranches are explored in relation to the “biblical and theological themes” that inform them and in relation to recent and representative literature (69). The dividing line between branches revolves around the extent to which one starts with the mission of the church and the extent to which one starts with the mission of God.
As an example, many conversation partners are utilizing missional; these authors are actively attempting to identify implications of God as a sending God as key to understanding the role of human agency. In the sub-branches of utilizing can be found people like Will Mancini, Reggie McNeal, and Ed Stetzer. On a related sub-branch are found Frost & Hirsch, Gary Nelson and Mark Driscoll. Odd to see these men on the same sub-branch! The connecting point is the emphasis on Christology over Trinity, and the implications that this is missiology as an applied, rather than a theological, discipline (78-80). (For more on the implications of the starting point, and my argument that Christology is not the root, see part 3 of my ReJesus Review).
Part 2: Perspectives That Extend the Missional Conversation.
This section seeks to apply the wealth of information in the first part to the contemporary church through chapters focusing on theological frameworks, engaging culture, and church life and leadership. Chapter four in particular should prove interesting, and I will continue working my way through the book.
Related Video: Roxburgh and Van Gelder, "What is Missional Church?"
Part 1: The History and Development of the Missional Conversation.
This section serves as the main survey to date, and anchors the book primarily in the the great text published in 1998 by the GOCN: Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America. And this is no ordinary survey, but a lucid and rich exploration of the six main themes in that text, as well as an exploration of the dischordant elements. Beginning on page 53, the authors note a lack of integration in key themes, and weaknesses (or omissions) in the Trinitarian rooting (the classic east vs the west).
This section also raises a fundamental question reaching back to the discussion of missio Dei in the 1960's - an issue that is not directly addressed in the classic text of 1998. There are two approaches to the missio Dei, broadly speaking: a specialized view that understands God as working in the world through a redeemed people who are called and sent, and a generalized view that understands God as working in the world beyond the church through secular history. In part this divergence hinges around the relationship of the church and the kingdom of God.
The authors nuance this divergence, breaking the two views into two sub-approaches each, and then offering a third, integrated view (56-57). The integrated view runs as follows:
The church participates in God's continuing creation and redemptive mission. People in the church pursue God's mission in the world both as cocreative creatures engaging with God in the Spirit's continuing work in all creation and by bearing witness to the reign of God. (The authors expand on this integrative perspective in chapter 4.) Various authors (chapters) of Missional Church came down in various places on their general approach to missio Dei, with chapters 6 and 7 (Dieterrich and Roxburgh) arguing the integrated view.
Equally important, Missional Church (1998) developed a variety of approaches to the relationship between church and culture (59ff). One respondent to the 1998 text felt that the overall approach was a counter-cultural model, but in reality there was no such unifying theme. Roxburgh's contribution made it clear that the church is deeply embedded in culture, where Hunsberger's contribution emphasized the responsibility to build a contrast society.
In chapter 3 (MCiP), taking a cue from Ed Stetzer, the authors chart the recent literature as a part of a missional tree. In that illustration, the 1998 book serves as the trunk; church and missions/mission Trinitarian missiology, missio Dei, reign (kingdom) of God, church’s missionary nature, and missional hermeneutics serve as the roots. The recent literature is grouped by theme to serve as the branches: discovering, utilizing, engaging, and extending. The key issue is found in two related questions: the extent to which we are dealing with human agency, and the extent to which God's agency is operative and discernible within human choices.
A variety of authors, traditions and studies are related to these branches: each branch and its associated subbranches are explored in relation to the “biblical and theological themes” that inform them and in relation to recent and representative literature (69). The dividing line between branches revolves around the extent to which one starts with the mission of the church and the extent to which one starts with the mission of God.
As an example, many conversation partners are utilizing missional; these authors are actively attempting to identify implications of God as a sending God as key to understanding the role of human agency. In the sub-branches of utilizing can be found people like Will Mancini, Reggie McNeal, and Ed Stetzer. On a related sub-branch are found Frost & Hirsch, Gary Nelson and Mark Driscoll. Odd to see these men on the same sub-branch! The connecting point is the emphasis on Christology over Trinity, and the implications that this is missiology as an applied, rather than a theological, discipline (78-80). (For more on the implications of the starting point, and my argument that Christology is not the root, see part 3 of my ReJesus Review).
Part 2: Perspectives That Extend the Missional Conversation.
This section seeks to apply the wealth of information in the first part to the contemporary church through chapters focusing on theological frameworks, engaging culture, and church life and leadership. Chapter four in particular should prove interesting, and I will continue working my way through the book.
Related Video: Roxburgh and Van Gelder, "What is Missional Church?"
May 7, 2019
A bit heavy unless you are already a connoisseur of the missional church development and theology, but worth it if you want an overview over the whole missional debate.
June 8, 2012
This book was Craig Van Gelder's attempt to gain some control over the missional church conversation. Apparently, it's all gotten too practical for him. As is normally the case for this author, he makes some great points but his attention to irrelevant theological concepts along with an overly-systematic approach gets in the way. In the first part of the book, he argues for his theological foundations for understanding the missional church, placing them over and against others in the field. But then, in part 2, he goes on to draw practical implications for the life and practice of the church, and in doing so, he comes down in the same place as all the other authors he had spent the first part refuting.
January 28, 2012
I'll just say that I really enjoyed the second half of the book. It raises excellent questions and insights on what the church should be. The first half of the book was good (especially the first chapter) but I found the author's 'missional tree' to be a little confusing. Over I'd say this would be a good bood for pastor's to read as they're seeking to lead their congregations into the 21st century.
April 29, 2013
An important and incredibly insightful book for anyone interested in understanding a significant Christian movement that has been growing over the past couple of decades. The separation of the movement into dissent groups is very helpful in understanding why the word missional is used in so many ways, and their proposal for areas of missional theology and leadership still worth exploring is helpful for any academic or church leader looking to move further down the missional path.
July 25, 2012
Ten years later, "missional" has become less of a clear theological category and more of a buzz word for everything "relevant." Van Gelder and Zcheile sort out the current landscape.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews