Frost, Exiles

Michael Frost, Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture. Hendricksen Publishers, 2006.

Referenced in: Missional Lifestyle, Discipleship, Spirituality – Frost and Hirsch

LifeandLeadership.com Summary

This was the first book to follow the popular work Frost co-authored with Alan Hirsch, The Shaping of Things to Come. It is not necessarily a sequel, but it reflects the same spirit of helping Christians get their bearings in the post-Christendom era. Exiles is one of several volumes by Frost and Hirsch on Missional Spirituality and Discipleship. Each conveys similar themes as their titles on Missional Communities and Missional Strategies.

Exiles is a hard-hitting critique of the modern church. Frost does not claim to be church-bashing or prophetic, but many may perceive him to be one or the other or both. He says:

“This book is written for those Christian who find themselves falling into the cracks between contemporary secular Western culture and a quaint, old-fashioned church culture of respectability and conservatism. This book is for the many people who wish to be faithful followers of the radical Jesus but no longer find themselves able to fit into the bland, limp, unsavoury straitjacket of a church that seems to be yearning to return to the days when ‘everyone’ used to attend church and ‘Christian family values’ reigned. This book is for those who can’t remain in the safe modes of church and who wish to live expansive, confident Christian lives in this world without having to abandon themselves to the values of contemporary society. This book is for those Christians who feel themselves ready (or yearning) to jump ship but don’t want to be left adrift in a world where greed, consumerism, laziness, and materialism toss them about endlessly and pointlessly. Such Christians live with the nagging tension of being at home neither in the world nor in the church as they’ve known it. Is there some way of embracing Christ-centered faith and lifestyle that are lived tenaciously and confidently right out in the open where such a faith is not normally used? I think so, but it will require a dangerous departure from the standard church practice.” (3)

Essentially, the book lays out the “departures from standard church practice” that are necessary as the church engages the post-Christendom era. In this era, Christians must rediscover themselves as exiles and experience Christianity as it was intended: “a radical, subversive, compassionate community of followers of Jesus.” (8) Frost argues that we must follow Christ, who was a subversive in his day, in the midst of the “host empire.” He argues that when we do this, Christians will follow the call to action based on the following promises:

• We will be authentic. In a world of hyper-reality, themed environments, false celebrity, and fake experience, exiles will live out the promise of being honest, genuine, and real.
• We will serve a cause greater than ourselves. Exiles will not throw themselves headlong into the standard operating policy of the empire by being primarily concerned about their own needs. They will band together to fashion communities of love and service.
• We will create missional community. Exiles will hold out the promise that it’s possible for humans to unite with others, offering their individual gifts and learning from each other, while committing to a common task.
• We will be generous and practice hospitality. Beyond conventional hospitality, exiles will put themselves at the service of the hungry and the needy.
• We will work righteously. Exiles promise to do everything, including the most secular work, as an expression of their being sent by God into the nooks and crannies of the host empire. (81)

He continues:

My chief interest is that we see a flourishing of myriad new Christian faith communities that embrace the following six values:

1. To seek an approach to spiritual growth that values inward transformation over external appearances
2. To value a spirituality that seeks not to limit our God-given humanity, creativity, or individuality; to value diversity and difference over conformity and uniformity
3. To enjoy from-the-heart, honest dialogues and avoid relationships marked by superficiality and hidden agendas
4. To strive to be completely honest with God and appropriately transparent with others about our inmost thoughts, hopes, dreams, emotions, shortcomings, failings, transgressions, struggles
5. To seek to welcome back mystery and paradox over easy explanations; to live with questions that have no easy answers
6. To work to honestly recalibrate our lifestyles, diets, spending patterns, and commitments to reflect our hope for a more just, equitable, and merciful society. (100-101)

He elaborates that these exilic communities must work on having the following seven characteristics:

1. It will be a community of heartfelt praise, not the fake mouthing of sentimental worship songs;
2. It will be a community of authenticity and truth, not public pretense;
3. It will be a community that does not live for itself, but genuinely serves others;
4. It will be a community of missional engagement with its host empire, not retreat into a religious ghetto;
5. It will be a community of mutual responsibility, not privatized religion;
6. It will be a community of hope, not intimidation and alienation;
7. It will be a community of justice, not lip service and phony left-leaning pronouncements. (104)

He quotes Scott Peck (The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace) that to achieve community in the truest sense, it must undertake a journey that involves four stages:

1. Pseudo-community where false niceness reigns and all members are on their best behavior trying to fake community as best they can by not raising important issues or expressing their true frustrations with each other;
2. Chaos – when the skeletons come out of the closet, and the masks of pretense are stripped away;
3. Emptiness – a time of quiet and transition;
4. True community – marked by both deep honesty and deep caring. (107)

Each of the chapters addresses different nuances of these characteristics.

It is not uncommon for readers to appreciate parts of this book and dislike others, believing Frost is at times too wildly prescriptive. Part of this stems from the fact that he tackles the role of missional people with regard to suffering, oppression, environmental abuse, etc. – topics which most evangelicals avoid. This book is best experienced as listening in on the impassioned opinion of a committed disciple who is lamenting his and others experience of the church as it is, and expressing the longings of the church as he is trying to help it become. It is valid opinion. Read it as such, and it will help you to appreciate and profit from its contents. But read it in the spirit in which it is written, as a church-lover, not a church-basher. As Frost says:

I have no stomach for unsophisticated church-bashing. Announcing that the church is like an emperor with no clothes is easy enough. Any fool can do it. And besides, the church seems altogether unchanged by such announcements. As Neil Gaman says, “It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes. But the half-wit remains a half-wit, and the emperor remains an emperor.” (ix)

From the Publisher

Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture presents a biblical, Christian worldview for the emergent church — people who are not at home in the traditional church or in the secular world. As exiles of both, they must create their own worldview that integrates their Christian beliefs with the contemporary world. Exiles seeks to integrate all aspects of life and decision-making and to develop the characteristics of a Christian life lived intentionally within emerging (postmodern) culture. It presents a plea for a dynamic, life-affirming, robust Christian faith that can be lived successfully in the post-Christian world of twenty-first century Western society. This book will present a Christian lifestyle that can be lived in non-religious categories and be attractive to not-yet Christians.

Such a worldview takes ecology and politics seriously. It offers a positive response to the workplace, the arts, feminism, mystery and worship. Exiles seeks to develop a framework that will allow Christians to live boldly and courageously in a world that no longer values the culture of the church, but does greatly value many of the things the Bible speaks positively about. This book suggests that there us more to being a Christian than meets the eye. It explores the secret, unseen nooks and crannies in the life of a Christian and suggests that faith is about more than church attendance and belief in God. Written in a conversational, easy-to-read style, Exiles is aimed at church leaders, pastors and laypersons and seeks to address complex issues in a simple manner. It includes helpful photographs and diagrams.

About the Author

Michael Frost is the Director of the Centre for Evangelism and Global Mission at Morling Baptist Seminary in Sydney, Australia, and is the author of numerous books including Seeing God in the Ordinary (Hendrickson, 2000) and The Shaping of Things to Come with Alan Hirsch (Hendrickson, 2003), both best sellers. He travels and speaks on the emergent church in the U.S., Canada, and the UK, as well as Australia and New Zealand.

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