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Breaking the Missional Code: Your Church Can Become a Missionary in Your Community
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Average Rating:  out of 17 Reviews
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Price: $17.99
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Sale: $10.80
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Manufacturer: B&H Academic
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EAN (European Article Number): 9780805443592
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Number of Items: 1
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Binding: Hardcover
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Author: Ed Stetzer::David Putman
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Publisher: B&H Academic
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Dewey Decimal Number: 291
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Publication Date: 2006-05-01
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Reading Level: 256
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Description: Across North America, many pastors are excited to see churches growing as they achieve their mission to connect the message of the gospel with the community at large. Still others are equally frustrated, following the exact same model for outreach but with lesser results. Indeed, just because a "missional breakthrough" occurs in one place doesn’t mean it will happen the same way elsewhere.
One size does not fit all, but there are cultural codes that must be broken for all churches to grow and remain effective in their specific mission context. Breaking the Missional Code provides expert insight on church culture and church vision casting, plus case studies of successful missional churches impacting their communities.
"We have to recognize there are cultural barriers (in addition to spiritual ones) that blind people from understanding the gospel," the authors write. "Our task is to find the right way to break through those cultural barriers without removing the spiritual and theological ones."
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Customer Reviews
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Review Summary: North America is a mission field! |
Date: 2008-08-02 |
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Details: 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. |
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Review Summary: A serious and inspiring read with a movie related title |
Date: 2008-01-18 |
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Details: This book is a MUST READ for any pastor/church leader serious about reaching people for Christ and not content to just "play church". |
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Review Summary: great job! |
Date: 2007-06-11 |
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Details: Book shipped fast, good price, book in great shape! Would use seller again. |
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Review Summary: Recommended with Reservations |
Date: 2007-05-29 |
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Details: This book is about how we do church. More specifically, it is about the need to reinvent or change the church in order to make it more attractive and welcoming to the culture where it is planted.
The book contains some very challenging and helpful information for church planters/pastors/leaders and local church mission teams. For example, the authors begin with a helpful picture of the U.S. changing "glocal" (global/local reality) culture and practical steps to identify the unreached/unchurched people in their community. I also appreciate the emphasis on discipleship and the acknowledgement and warning that we an actually attract a crowd without having a church.
Every church should continually examine human imposed traditions and customs, which can cause a church to stagnate and die. The church must be willing to grow, adapt and try new things to stay healthy and effective. However, the book puts too much emphasis on style, technique and marketing know-how. The authors point to the many "successes" of other churches as a defense of the importance of being missional.
My concern is that while these successful churches have found a niche in their community and experienced growth, some grow as s a result of marketing rather than conversion. When we reinvent the church in order to attract the world, there is a tendency to eliminate or compromise the gospel, because it is divisive, offensive and even foolish to the world. Breaking the Missional Code touches on this fact but continues to advocate style and technique over the importance and power of the gospel itself. There is a great temptation for niche churches to offer another, more palatable, gospel in order to avoid offense. The result can be that many people stay and even invite others for relationships and become members of a Christian club rather than becoming followers of Christ.
The second thing that tends to be eliminated in these churches is the teaching of the whole counsel of God. This is done in an attempt to be relevant and to avoid the controversial truths of Scripture. I find this to be the greatest weakness of this book. It focuses on what people want rather than what God demands. The one area of greatest need in any church is the clear and bold preaching of God's Word.
It does not take cleverness or slick marketing strategies to grow a church or to make the gospel more attractive to the world. It takes authenticity in the life of believers that they meet. See the advise given by the Apostle Paul to Titus for his ministry to plant a healthy church on the island of Crete. Mission is not some hidden code to be broken. It is the work of God in the life of His Church (believers) and found in the power of the gospel. The Word of God, not the latest marketing book, is our best source for reaching the lost and it is Christ Himself who will grow His Church.
I recommend this book as a resource to help leaders examine church traditions that may be a barrier to reaching others and as a tool to think about specific mission strategies. However, read it with a careful and discerning mind being careful not to compromise the non-negotiable God ordained standards for an effective and healthy church.
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Review Summary: Amazing |
Date: 2007-05-22 |
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Details: His book maps out what it really means to be a missional church. Also read his other church planting book, Planting Missional Churches |
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