Starting Missional Churches: Life with God in the Neighborhood edited by Mark Lau Branson and Nicholas Warnes is a collection of stories from church plants that are missional. The stories are not patterns to be mimicked, but rather case studies exemplifying the framework Branson and Warnes present as the Missional Change Process (Mark Branson, and N. Warnes Starting Missional Churches. 34). While the stories are all of church planters across the United States, the book is part a genre interested in rethinking ecclesiology. The book emphasizes the need in forming churches who are intentional about physical neighbors (missional formation), communal practices (congregational formation), and listening to God (spiritual formation) (Mark Branson, and J. F. Martinez Churches, Cultures, and Leadership. 61). In each story the church planters choose to move away from the efficiency models associated with church plants, things like the homogenous unit principle (Mark Branson, and J. F. Martinez Churches, Cultures, and Leadership. 61). Also important is the shift from experts with master plans to empowering every day people. Every day church members who are capable of listening and understanding God’s action in their communities, the blessing comes through their creative experiments in joining with God. Amidst struggles, difficult choices, and years of listening God is at work, this is the message of hope found in Starting Missional Churches.
Branson and Warnes selected these seven stories as unique and different ways people are attuning themselves to the work of God ahead of them in cities, communities, and neighborhoods. Each one highlights the God given creativity of every day participants in the faith communities they formed and were a part of. Common themes emerge that seem to be the work of the Holy Spirit nudging us to pay attention to these four priorities: 1) discerning God’s initiatives, 2) the neighbor as subject, 3) boundary crossing, and 4) plural leadership that shapes an environment (Ibid. 188-190). The authors help the reader gain a new imagination of what church can be and equips the reader with every day examples and new frameworks: PT cycle and missional change process.
The missional change process is becoming part of my toolbox because of the practical and hope filled stories in this book. Craig Brown’s values and ministry map have encouraged me to shift our churches vision conversations to see neighbors as subjects, and not objects of our ministry (Ibid. 70). The Bare Bulb coffee shop opened my eyes to a new imagination about hospitality (Ibid. 70). Kevin Doi’s detailed explanation of the process Epic Church went through in embracing their geo-physical place, the city of Fullerton, came amidst my own questions about embracing our church’s city. I currently live in Monrovia about twenty miles from where our church is located on the Glendale and Burbank city line. On the weekends the commute is not difficult, but I find myself more familiar with Monrovia business owners, neighbors I see on my morning walks or runs, than those in Burbank. About a month ago one of our church owned apartments onsite became available. The other church leaders asked my wife and I if we would consider moving into it. Only a couple months ago I was celebrating the fact I did not live “in the shadow of the church building” but reading Starting Missional Churches has awoken inside me a desire to join with God in my neighborhood. It was easy for me to ignore my Monrovia neighbors because I spent so much time on the road in Burbank. I believe the Holy Spirit is nudging me to join God in Burbank and gain new capacities for helping my church embrace our city.
Originally written and posted on my old blog on March 31, 2017