Breaking the Missional Code: Your Church Can Become a Missionary in Your Community

Main Idea of the Text: The book is a practical explanation of the missional agenda for reaching out into communities in the name of Christ. Three Top Ideas of Greatest Benefit: 1. The explanation of the emerging church movement was superb. There is always debate on what the emerging movement actually is, but the author breaks down the movement into three parts. It was helpful to undertand that there are relevants, reconstructionists, and revisionists. The missional movement is not the emerging church movement, but it is one of the practices of an emerging church. 2. The information about the nature of Paul being missional was helpful in dealing with those who are tied to tradition. Paul operated with sensitivity to culture. He understood the Athenian position on reality and the underlying spiritual interests; he looked for positive points within their worldview and encouraged others to find true fulfillment in Christ. The statement, "the church must reflect its culture" in some ways is powerful for change. 3. The idea of starting small groups in the building for a temporary time with the plan of moving them to homes is a helpful idea. It may lead to less resistance and may make people more comfortable at first. Small groups can be scary, so introducing them in a safe environment before spreading out is wise. Three Ideas of Major Disagreement: 1. It seems that the majority of missional material is advocating the planting of churches. This is a great idea, if it is done intentionally. In talking with one emergent movement congregation in Castle Rock, I found out their problem is that everyone wants to be a church planter. The congregation is having problems building momentum because everyone launches out with a new church plant in the small area because of the "call of God." Church planting must happen, but revitalization must happen as well. It seems that the church plant is the most popular strategy for growing a congregation. 2. There was a lot of information concerning the discipline of people before they are saved. There is an aspect in which people must be included in kingdom business before they feel comfortable with the faith community. On the other hand, people must be aware that by becoming a Christian, the full portion of God's blessing is not upon them. It seems that the normative pattern is for the Holy Spirit to be given during conversion. If there is full acceptance, there might never be something for the non-Christian to strive for. 3. There is a fine balance between God speaking the people's language and God being crude. People might tolerate a PG-13-rating pulpit, but it is still wise to preach in a G-rating. Recommendation of the Book: I would recommend this book because it is one of the best expressions of the missional movement. The ideas are clear and helpful.

If I took away one thing from this book, it is that North America is a mission field, and we must treat it as such. Ed Stetzer is an experienced church planter who did research for the North American Mission Board (NAMB) at the time that he wrote the book, and now does research for LifeWay Christian Resources and also consults with NAMB. David Putman is also an experienced church planter. Stetzer and Putman challenge the reader to see North America as a mission field, and use the same techniques in North America that international missionaries use-- particularly understanding the culture and context of your environment and making sure that you do not allow cultural barriers to prevent you from getting the message to people. Too often, pastors have tried to imitate the methods of other successful pastors like Rick Warren or Bill Hybels, rather than trying to discover the unique culture of their own community (which is what they call "breaking the missional code") and then applying that knowledge to designing ministry for their own community. The authors stress that every community is different, and within each community there are different cultures that need different kinds of congregations. A truly missional church will recognize this and seek to plant other churches for other cultures, such as ethnic groups, postmoderns, multi-family housing dwellers, etc. The authors stress that in today's culture that is changing from modern to postmodern, we should no longer see missions and evangelism as separate activities, nor should we see discipleship and evangelism as separate. To "break the missional code," we must see that postmodern people will often come to the gospel through a slow process, through building relationships and through Bible teaching, since they often come from a culture that is ignore of the Bible, although open to spiritual things. Postmoderns may actually worship, participate in community projects with a church, attend Bible study and listen to sermons for a year or two before being ready to make a commitment to Christ. Thus the missional church must see that missions and discipleship are part of the process of doing evangelism. This was a thought-provoking and challenging book. Every church leader would benefit from reading this book.

When Ed writes something - I always read it. His research is thorough and his reasoning exceptional. Having also known David a few years, and also realizing both of them are practitioners makes the book worthwile. Many people are talking about and defining missional - David and Ed give practical examples of it. It's one of the first books to do that and will go a long way toward educating and showing people

t gives you facts and principles and looks to movement from those. Instead of painting a picture and inspiring you towards that. It would be a great textbook for young pastors or church planters. And I'm quite sure it will be used in that capacity in the near future. But much of the book seems somewhat common knowledge for anybody familiar with Bosch or Newbigin. And for those who have done a lot of reading in the area of missiology, the book will perhaps show you how "missional theology" comes into practice, especially in the emerging North American cultural landscape. And it will certainly be of help to those who are just beginning to think about what it means to be a missional community. If this book were written by anyone other than a practitioner like both of these guys, I would probably just pass it by. But by the very fact that both of them have so many years of church planting experience, have planted multiple churches from the ground-up, and have been knee deep in hands on practice for all of these years, it gives their voice incredible weight and credibility. And forces me to listen and read with an open mind. All in all, I think it is an excellent book from two practitioners who know a thing or two about the things that work and don't work. And two guys who admit that they have made their share of mistakes, but who have also learned a great deal in the process of planting missional churches. I think this book is especially important to anyone who is interested in planting churches in North America in the coming years. And that would be me. And yes it was helpful and worth reading.

Dr. Ed Stetzer is one of the most important Christians in the country thinking through the issues that arise when the gospel and a culture intersect. There is a great buzz lately about being holistic missional Christians engaging culture but very little insight on what that means or how that is achieved. This book is a very important and timely contribution, particulary for those Christian leaders in the emerging church conversation. This book combines the best of biblical thinking and practical insight to help you interpret your culture so that Jesus can be most effectively introduced to people. Most importantly, Ed is not simply giving prescriptions for reaching a culture but rather principles for reaching any culture with the mind of a professor and the heart of a church planter.