Launching Missional Communities: A Book You Have To Read

I have a book that I’m telling you that YOU HAVE TO READ.  Launching Missional Communities: A Field Guide by Mike Breen and Alex Absalom is required for an community of faith that wants to jump the curve from intuition to movement.  Before I brag a bit more of the book, let me explain our context.  Context provides meaning.

As best as I can tell, the grassroots energy and momentum within the GCC movement is at an all time high.

We’ve been working together for more than a two years, reeducating ourselves on what it means to BE THE CHURCH, not just GO TO CHURCH.

We’ve been working together for more than a year, reorienting ourselves around a new vision.  This open source process has involved thousands of us.  The religious gurus didn’t go up on the mountain and come back down with “the vision.”  Together, through countless conversations in smaller settings and hundreds of exchanges via email, we been asking, “What is the Spirit of God saying to our church?”  God did not develop laryngitis at the end of the first century.  The Spirit is still leading, guiding, prompting, and yes, speaking to his people.  When we listen together, we increase the chances of clarifying and amplifying what God is actually saying, while diminishing our own personal misperceptions that take us off course. This new vision was birthed as hundreds of us listened to the wild and untamed Spirit of God.   What is the Spirit saying?

Together, we are RAISING THE BAR…

BE THE CHURCH

ACTIVATE THE CAMPUS

REPRODUCE AT EVERY LEVEL.

We’ve been dreaming and working our way through the new vision on the weekends. You can check out the full vision statement here. The closing words of our vision proclaim,

We will launch and equip Granger Community Church start-ups all over the globe. All expressions – micro, mega, multi, rural, suburban, urban, multi-ethnic, local, domestic and international – will be united by the same mission and DNA.  We will be a movement of more than 100,000 missional followers of Jesus gathering as 2,000 reproducing churches.

Let me clarify again what we mean by “start-ups” and “2,000 reproducing churches.”

 

When we see the word church, we get stuck. We think of a destination, a building, and a formal religious event. We think of professional clergy. But, we’ve been relearning that church is not a destination, but a daily way of life.  Church is not a building, it’s a body – your body. Wherever you are as a follower of Jesus, the church is there.  We take church with us everywhere because in the deepest way possible we are the church.  Furthermore, church is not an event, is an every day mission in every area of life and every domain of society.

 

So, we want to produce not 2000 buildings with professional clergy running religious services, but 2000 platoons of people living a daily way of life built around an everyday mission – the mission of Jesus.  What does that look like?

The Greek word for church is ecclesia. This word is used three ways in the New Testament.  One use of the word describes a larger gathering of the church within a specific city, like the church in Corinth.

To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, …Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 1:2-3 (NIV)

But in the early church, these larger gatherings were actually made up a collective gathering of smaller units.  These smaller units were platoons of people who were doing life together, being the church together 7 days a week. The second use of the word ecclesia refers to these missional communities of 20-50 people.

Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus. They risked their lives for me…Greet also the church that meets at their house. Romans 16:3-5 (NIV)

So the church in Rome wasn’t just a gathering of hundreds of loosely connected people who visited a building for a service once a week. The larger gatherings were made up of coalition of these missional communities. Rodney Stark in The Rise of Christianity, documents the exponential growth of the church from 1000 in 40 AD to over 33,000,000 by 350 AD. How did it happen? He credits this missional communities strategy.

We’ve experienced the same reality in our church planting movement in India over the past ten years. What started as a group of 15 of us has exploded into a movement of more then 950 churches including over 120,000 people.  Most of the growth in the movement has happened through “small and reproducing.”  In other words, sure we have some larger churches.  We have one megachurch in our movement and quite a few churches that number 100-800.  But, most of our churches are these reproducing missional communities of 20-50 people.  They have been reproducing like rabbits.

So, we’re bringing that reality back home right here in Indiana.  We’ve got great training materials to help launch missional communities in India, not it’s time to back-translate it for the western context. I’ve spent the last year searching for the best examples and best training materials I can find from pioneers here in the West.   I read 1-2 books a week, so as you can imagine, I’ve been through A LOT OF material.

What I’ve discovered is that there is a ton of material out there on theory, but very little on actual practice.  Where’s the best book that really unpacks how to launch a missional community? I found it!!

Launching Missional Communities: A Field Guide is that book.  We’ve been strongly encouraging every committed member of GCC to read The Forgotten Ways Handbook by our friend Alan Hirsch.  The next book on the list is Launching Missional Communities. I can not recommend it more highly.  Our training of missional communities will be strongly influenced by this book as our future unfolds.  If you ready to learn how to build a community of people who can BE THE CHURCH, pick this book up immediately.  This book walks through the nuts and bolts of launching, growing, multiplying, and making disciples through missional communities.

This is a book by practitioners for practitioners. Mike and Alex have lead a movement through the St Thomas’ Church network in Sheffield, England that has swelled to thousands – with many campuses and different expressions – all built from the grassroots through missional communities. This movement is now one of the largest and fastest growing churches in Europe. 

Expect to see more posts from me in the future featuring Mike and Alex’s outstanding resource.  You can buy online now or look for it in our bookstore.

Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. I had to! The book is amazing. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Comments

[Kristinruther]

Alan thinking challenges us and it is so good that he is traveling and speaking at so many locations. His message needs to be spread and shared. I have heard rumors of Mike Breen from my missional friends at Forge. I'll look into this book! This movement is catching on. Praise God!

[Rob Wegner]

Agreed! The movement is spreading and it is unstoppable.

[Matthew E. Parrott]

First of all I am excited that GCC has decided to focus on missional communities and to actively engage with those who wouldn't otherwise be found in church. However I am a little confused about some of your comments. First of all:

The religious gurus didn’t go up on the mountain and come back down with “the vision.”

I am not sure what you are trying to say here. You seem to be saying that this method is neither effective or correct, to which I wonder why? Many ministries actively have the church leadership get away for a few days to pray and receive God's vision for the ministry. Obviously God called Moses up the mountain to speak to him, pass by him, and give him the 10 commandments. If you hold to dispensationalist theology (which I disagree with), then maybe this comment in it's context makes sense. However, your next comment seems to indicate that your aren't (or at least not totally) since you clearly believe that God still speaks today.

God did not develop laryngitis at the end of the first century. The Spirit is still leading, guiding, prompting, and yes, speaking to his people.

If God is still leading, guiding, prompting, and speaking to His people, why not just listen to what He is saying. Why not have church leadership get together and pray for direction? I don't mean to indicate that GCC did not do that, rather I am curious to why your example of going up on the mountain and coming back with God's vision wasn't an option? My point is not really about what your doing or your methods, instead I just wanted clarity regarding your statements. As someone who very much believes that God speaks today, I have no problem with people going to a quite place and asking God for direction, it's necessary. So your mountaintop comment comes across a little offensive. Since you believe that God speaks today I thought that maybe wasn't your intent, so I am just wanting a bit of clarity on what you are trying to say.

[Christopher Oakes]

Any suggestions on how I can obtain a copy? Amazon doesn't have a lot of options.

[Rob Wegner]

Chris,you can order them at www.missionalcommunities.tv

[Rob Wegner]

Matthew, great question. It's both/and, not either/or. I fully believe that a leadership team of a faith community should get away, be still, pray, and seek God's guidance. In addition, I think the leadership team must find a way to include as much of their church as possible in the listening process for future vision. Honestly, I don't see many local churches include that second process. Usually, the pastor and a few key leaders go away and come back with the vision. I'm not saying that is wrong. I'm just saying as we include the church in that process, which we did over a year long process that included a web portal, focus groups, countless conversations and email, I believe you increase the clarity. Hope that clarifies. thanks for the comment.