I’m reading a great book right now. Frost & Hirsch’s The Shaping of Things to Come is a powerful, challenging call for the church of Jesus to reclaim her missional roots. The emerging postmodern landscape requires the church to redefine itself as a missionary movement rather than an institution. The authors note that we are currently living on the precipice of the greatest spiritual awakening in the history of Western culture. While some are bemoaning the pervasive loss of morality in society, Frost & Hirsch point out that people are actually asking more spiritually minded questions than ever before. How will we — the church — answer these questions? Will we continue to adhere to a tired, dying attractional model of ministry? Or will we embrace a missional stance to embrace our culture without compromising the gospel? This book reminds me that we — the church — are the hope of the world. It also challenges the way we think about “doing” church. Follow the link on the right to Amazon’s page and order a copy of this fine book.
Seems like the “we” questions keep on coming up, right Scott?
already & not yet 
Pretty foundational question. I have this book and keep meaning to read it.
Good book…read it last semester. Glad you’re enjoying it.-Lucy P.
by “embrace our culture” do you mean accept where we are at and begin there or ‘accept’ as in its okay? We talked about this idea in class last week, about how there is a “silent majority” that agrees something needs to be done but nothing does. It is odd, probably shouldn’t be though, that we are discussing Nehemiah and talking about taking a stand and starting to make a difference instead of just sitting around and wondering who is going to do something. Looks like a good book, I might borrow it from you when I am done with ‘Real Sex’.
I found Abby Kate reading your book the other day! She even had a pen to mark her findings!
Jon,By “embrace our culture”, the authors mean we need to start with people where they are. We need to put aside our petty battles about issues and be about the business of being Jesus. You spoke about this idea a few weeks ago with your blog about dressing up for worship. A truly missional church wouldn’t concern itself with issues like that. We’ve been too concerned with these kinds of issues for too long. A missional church realizes this and commits itself to not allowing these kinds of petty things to come in the way of someone’s salvation. I think you’d like this book. I’ll let you borrow it when I finish.I think you’d also like Trolls & Truth. It’s by this dude who started ministering to the homeless guys living under a bridge in Texas about 10 or 12 years ago. Now he meets regularly with several hundred people in that same spot. This “church” doesn’t look like our institutional model, but it’s the body of Christ nonetheless. Another one you’d like. I’ll loan it to you when you’re done with Real Sex.
Jason, did you read Trolls? It’s great stuff. I’m going to see Jimmy Dorrell tomorrow. I’ll tell him about your plug. It’s getting a lot of play.I’m thinking about giving it away for the 100,000th hit on my blog.
Trolls is great. Tell Jimmy I deeply appreciate his ministry and his willingness to share his story. He challenges me to a deeper understanding of the Lord’s church. 100,000 hits. You’re so popular.
By the way, I think you’d really love the Frost & Hirsch book. It’s a tad academic, but it’s still really good.