So, here’s the reality of the situation: The church as we know it, as we have known it the past twenty or thirty or fifty years, has stayed the same. The consistency of what happens within the church walls is probably a good thing, because when something works than you stick to it right? My wife will seldom order something different when she knows the perfectly filling, tasty entree at a restaurant. But, what if her tastebuds change and she wants more taste? What if she discovers that that same entree leaves her hungry when the check comes? Well, those who sit in the pews have slowly become that way. People are changing but the church is not changing. People are becoming more globally minded, or even multi-generational, and churches and pastors are getting sideswiped with these millennials.
Not only that, but we have so tainted the church as she was meant to be. We have bogged it down with schedules and inward-looking agendas. The church was never meant to be built up; she was meant to build out. Expand her walls until it covers the entire world!
Rob and Jack are practitioners for practitioners sake. They are speaking from experience and jam-pack their book with firsthand accounts from their combined thirty years of vocational ministry at Granger. They have a heart for the kingdom, not just for people-pleasing. They offer a systematic study of their philosophy, first noting the problem that motivates them and their visioneering response (In Paradigm Shift). That is only the beginning. Rob & Jack then discuss missional church life in local and global contexts.
Hands down, the book is written about the make up of the church and written for church leaders. I’d encourage you to pick up this book only if you have already been introduced to the missional church mindset (check out Alan Hirsch, Forgotten Ways).
OFFICIAL BOOK DESCRIPTION:
The church was never designed to be a fortress for the righteous, but a flood of revolutionaries, bringing the Good News of the Kingdom to broken lives and broken communities. Today, millions of Christians are awakening to the holism of the gospel call, expanding their understanding of mission beyond just touching individual lives to impacting and transforming entire communities with the message of God’s grace.
If this calling toward movement and transformation is to be realized, it will require some earth-shaking shifts – ‘Missional Moves’ – that fundamentally alter our understanding of the church and how its mission is lived out. This book provides a plan of action for your church that will empower you to unleash each member on a mission, both locally and globally.
Missional Moves describes 15 tectonic shifts that unleash missional energy and have the power within them to transform churches, communities and the world. These shifts are explored through the compelling story ofGranger Community Church, one of America’s best-known attractional churches that is on ten year journey toward apostolic movement.
They don’t teach you this stuff in seminary. You only learn this through blood, sweat, and tears on the frontlines. Granger Community Church has seen thousands move out on mission in redemptive movements locally and globally. From Monroe Circle Community Center, a hub for neighborhood renewal in the inner city, to a movement of over 1000 reproducing churches in India that include more than 120,000 people.
or find it on Amazon.com!
**This book was free from www.crossfocusedreviews.com with my promise to post an unbiased review.
