For the first time we in the West are living in what has been called a "post-Christendom era." Most people throughout the Western world have seen what the Church has to offer, and they have found it wanting. The current credibility gap has made it hard to communicate the gospel with clarity and authenticity. Paradoxically, this is the case even though it is currently a time of almost unprecedented openness to the issues of God, faith, and meaning. This is a time when the need for, and relevance of, the gospel has seldom been greater, but the relevance of the Church has seldom been less. If ever there was a time for innovative missionary effort in the West, it is now.
This raises enormous challenges for people in the West. This book explores why the Church needs to recalibrate itself, rebuilding itself from the roots up. The case is built around real-life stories gathered from innovative missional projects from the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and England. These spirited experiments of Gospel community serve to point out just how varied a genuinely incarnational approach to mission can, and indeed needs to, become. They present vital nodes of missional learning for the established Church as it seeks to orientate itself to the unique challenges of the twenty-first century.
Michael Frost is the founding director of the Centre for Evangelism and Global Mission at Morling Baptist Seminary in Sydney, Australia, and he is the author of several books, including Seeing God in the Ordinary: A Theology of the Everday. He is a leading commuicator and evangelist, and he speaks internationally on issues associated with spirituality and mission.
Alan Hirsch is the National Director for Forge Mission Training Network, and he oversees missional leadership development for his denomination in Australia. Known for his radical approach to mission-in-the-West, Alan Hirsch is a teacher, church leader, and key mission strategist for churches in the UK and New Zealand. His local church, South Melbourne Restoration Community, is a model of incarnational mission and ministry in postmodern settings.
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4.5 out of 5 stars
Reviewed by Donald (Arlington), April 04, 2008
This book should be a must read for anyone who is a pastor/church planter. Although I found myself disagreeing with the authors in multiple places, this book paints a picture of what the church will look like in the future. If read critically and one gives the authors a fair reading, this book should change the way church is done.
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