Gary V. Nelson, Borderland Churches: A Congregation’s Introduction to Missional Living (TCP Leadership Series). Chalice Press, 2008.
Referenced in: Missional Strategies, Transitioning Established Churches to Missional
LifeandLeadership.com Summary
This book is part of The Columbia Partnership Leadership Series, a collection noted for its excellence. For leaders of established churches who want to guide their churches into a more missional posture (from “come to” to “go to”), Borderland Churches is a sensitive and practical manual on understanding and strategizing change. Nelson adopts the image of “borderlands” where “Christian faith, other faiths, and unfaith intersect,” or “that strange place of engagement where the ‘holy wild’ God is encountered in risky borderland living” (6) He discusses how to prepare the congregation for these borderland exchanges and lead them with the gentle but resolute challenge to missional living. It is not as complete a guide as one may want, but makes some special contributions that are not found in other texts, particularly his insights on “herding cats” through change. The appendices include several helpful resources as well, such as a plan for getting to know your neighborhood.
From the Publisher
Borderland Churches is a call to embrace the pluralistic, post Christian and postmodern culture with a sense of opportunity and hope. The author uses the image of the church crossing over into an “in -between time.” A place where faith is lived outside the walls of the church engaging the community in incarnational ways. To live in that “precarious but exhilarating place where faith and other faiths and no faith meet.” Only individuals and congregations that accept this new reality will be able to carry on Christian ministry in this new cultural situation.
About the Author
Gary Nelson currently serves as the president of Tyndale University College and Seminary. Prior to working at Tyndale, he served as the general secretary of the Canadian Baptist Ministries and CEO of the national and global work of Canadian Baptists for ten years.
***For additional information on this resource, including reviews, click the bookstore links. Check the reference at page top or the links below for resource guides on related topics.***
See Resource Guides on Related Areas:
- Missional Perspectives, Introduction
- Missional Church Resources, Introduction and Index
- Church Leadership and Renewal, Index to Resources
See Resources on Over 100 Areas of Ministry Leadership: