Thank God for Ed Stetzer. As a missiologist with NAMB he has an evangelical, cooperative spirit reflected both within and outside of our Convention, and he understands what it means to be missional. I believe his work and writing will prove to be one of the good things God is doing in the SBC to bring about the health so many of us pray for.
Ed and David Putman have written Breaking the Missional Code as a practical look at how our churches can effectively engage their communities as the sent people of God. They argue that the key to reaching your church’s community with the Gospel is to break the “missional code,” or to understand your cultural context and the biblical principles that will most effectively impact the people.
You cannot grow a biblically faithful church without loving people and preaching the Gospel. But loving people means understanding and communicating with them. Preaching the Gospel means to proclaim a gospel about the Word becoming flesh – and proclaiming that the body of Christ needs to become incarnate in every cultural expression.
(pg. 15)
The book is built upon the missional principle that each church must function as a missionary people exegeting their culture in order to better present the Gospel. Our sending agencies understand this well, but our North American churches often presume both that they understand the culture and that what they have always done is the best way of presenting the Kingdom of God to their community. But as Ed points out in Chapter One, The Emerging Glocal Context, the culture has changed, and is changing and our understanding of our context will impact the way we communicate Jesus. He is not arguing that the modern era has completely passed, or that there is one formula for the church to follow. This is not a book for postmodern ministry. It all comes down to where you live, the soil your church has been planted in.
The issue is that you have to decide where you are living. Are you in a community firmly entrenched in the worldview of modernity? If you seek to lead your church to reach postmoderns, you will first need to convert people to postmodernism and then to Christ. Is that really our mission?
Maybe you are in an area of the continent more comfortable with traditional approaches and churches. Great! Become missional in that context, not a trendy community somewhere far away. For too many, they love their preferences and their strategies more than they love the people God has called them to reach.
(pp. 6, 7)
Though they do a good job of explaining the basic concept of what “missional” means, the book spends most of its pages applying the missional principle in practical ways. This is the aim of the book. It is not heavy academic or theological work, but wants to be a helpful tool for churches who are beginning to sense that they are speaking a different language than the people God has sent them to reach.
Though some of it is semantics, I was uncomfortable with the way some things were expressed. It is possible to import too much meaning to the words people use, but those looking for doctrinal precision may have raised eyebrows in some areas. One area I plan on addressing in a later post is that of worship. It is not that I disagree with the authors, but I would say it differently.
Some may come away with the idea that large successful churches are missional, and smaller churches are not. Stetzer and Putman do not make this point, but it can read that way in a couple of places. The authors are also very generous in deeming differing churches “missional” and “incarnational.” Maybe too generous.
In the end the book is worth reading, especially for pastors. It is a helpful tool for those who want to evaluate their church in the area of missional engagement and find some solid direction (especially in the latter part of the book). But in terms of understanding the whole missional conversation it is not the place to start. I would encourage you to read Darrell Guder’s, Missional Church and Craig Van Gelder’s The Essence of the Church. These books spend more time establishing the biblical/theological foundation of the missional church.
Other reviews:
@ Welcome to the Story
@ Cross Connect
I am the Lead Pastor of Redeemer Fellowship; husband to Jen; Dad to Katherine, Elias, Madeline, and Kilian. If you're in town you can probably find me in the local coffee house or running through the neighborhoods.
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A valuable review, Joe. Thanks. I’ve linked to it from my blog.
thanks for linking back to my review. i appreciate it.
Helpful Joe. I’ve had many of the same observations. I hope to get a review up next week before the SBC.
I like the emphasis of the book being very practical, but I wonder if most of those reading the book need a primer on the topic first. The vast majority of people throwing the word around need more foundational help than the book affords.
I found the book extremely helpful in teaching an approach to church to our staff. I had to provide a more developed definition (theological, etc) for “missional” prior to discussion with staff. We worked for literally 10 hours dealing with “who we are” before touching “what we do.” Still learning, but pretty much refuse to use the term “missional.”
That sounds great Eric. Why not use the word? Does it carry certain baggage for your guys?
Thanks, Joe, very gracious and good thoughts. Our focus was practical but a good theoretical and theological basis is essential. I would also suggest “The Shaping of Things to Come” to your reading list.
See you in Greensboro. Come by the NAMB booth and say hello.
I will Ed. Steve and I will also be at the Younger Leaders thing as well. Looking forward to seeing you there!
No baggage, but I think the term communicates something different to my people. They (almost automatically) think “missional” is missions. I asked them define several terms in prep for the retreat: missional, incarnational, transactional, etc. The result was that missional meant missions.
I use the term with definition, but as a single-word descriptive, it becomes subsumed under the many programs that we have enjoyed for years. Trying to lead the people to a “new way of living” as church, I think, calls for me to utilize “new way of description.”
BTW, thanks for your blog (And Steve Mcoy as well). Very refreshing and challenging.
I get what you’re saying. Thanks for reading the blogs man. God bless over there in VA.
Thanks for this review. I just bought this one. I am trying to read as much as I can this summer before school starts. This one is on the list.
Joe, I agree with the primer idea. In Driscoll’s Confessions book he gives a primer to his thinking in Chapter Zero. A helpful idea.
Bottom line: Ed Stetzer is the man
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