Alan Roxburgh, Missional: Joining God in the Neighborhood (Allelon Missional Series). Baker, 2011.
Prequels:
- Roxburgh and Romanuk, The Missional Leader
- Roxburgh, Missional Map-Making
- Roxburgh and Doren, Introducing the Missional Church
Referenced in: Missional Strategies by Alan Roxburgh
LifeandLeadership.com Summary
Alan Roxburgh is one of the most significant leaders of the missional movement, and is the author of several books on the subject. See the Ministry Resource Guide on Missional Strategies by Alan Roxburgh to understand the contribution of each volume. Many reviewers regard this as Roxburgh’s best book yet. It is actually a book on missional strategies, and compares well with others of that genre.
Roxburgh begins by repeating some of the common missional themes such as the radically new world faced by churches in North America that cannot be addressed by the “window dressing” techniques of modernity (better marketing, coffee bars, hip worship, strategic planning, multisite ministry, etc.) or the idealism of postmodernity. Instead, it must return to the patterns of Jesus’ earliest disciples who were sent into the towns and villages. The “sent” is over against the attractional model where “the primary energy is focused on how to get people to come to church.” (14) This model may work in some contexts, but increasingly there is simply too high a level of disconnectedness with existing churches. A new way must be discovered. Roxburgh divides his proposal into three parts.
Part 1, The Cul-de-sac of Old Questions: Why We Have to Stop Thinking About the Church. Here Roxburgh suggests we are reaching a dead-end because we keep asking “church questions” versus questions that are more missionally based. He describes the “church question” framework:
“There appears to be an overwhelming conviction that if we, first, get the idea of the church right in terms of descriptions, organizational systems, and definitions, the rest will fall into place. …The problem is that we won’t address questions about the nature and function of the church by starting with questions about the church. In the changed contexts of our time, starting with church questions (whether multisite churches, the renaissance of the church, the whole church, church morph, sticky church, or church turned inside out or whatever) takes us in all the wrong directions because they are the same old kinds of questions we’ve been asking since before the Reformation.” (43-44)
He suggests a more fruitful direction was exemplified in the life and writings of Lesslie Newbigin who wrestled with the question of how the gospel engages the culture of the modern West. He suggests Newbigin has been largely misunderstood as interested chiefly in ecclesiology. Instead, Newbigin’s main question was, “What is a missional encounter with this culture?” He always saw gospel and culture in back-and-forth dialogue, and a missionary as one who is “immersed in, listening to, and loving this culture in which he is embedded.” (42) The dialogue must begin, then, not with church questions, but with gospel and culture questions. He describes:
“The heart of this book is to address these questions: What is God up to in our neighborhoods and communities? What is the nature of an engagement between the biblical imagination and the place where we find ourselves, at this time, among these people? What then will a local church look like when it responds to such questions?” [These questions are]…not primarily about the church, its inner functions and processes, or its ideal identity and nature. Focusing on church questions, on what it means to be the church, is akin to the search for happiness. Just as one will not get far on the road to happiness by predefining the characteristics of happiness and then going to look for them, we will not grasp what it means to be the church in our time by beginning with church questions, even if they are questions about the church’s health, effectiveness, or its natural development!” (44)
Part 2, The Language House of Luke-Acts: A Narrative for Shaping our Time of Missional Formation. Here Roxburgh suggests that in order to gain access to missional questions, we must look at Luke-Acts.
This is a large and insightful section that culminates in a focus on Luke 10:1-12, where Jesus sends out the seventy into the towns and villages. In one instance, he offers a summary of his basic Luke-Acts thesis:
“This chapter argues that Luke provides a concrete response to the Gentile Christians for whom he is writing his Gospel. It can be stated in these terms: the primary way to know what God is up to in our world when the boundary markers seem to have been erased is by entering into the ordinary, everyday life of the neighborhoods and communities where we live.
Framing these in terms of the way churches function in our time, we can say: in these times of huge transition where our language houses are being overturned, we will not know what God is up to in the world by huddling together in study groups, writing learned papers, or listening to self-appointed gurus.” (133)
This is over against the common method of conducting analysis with Bible studies on mission, church, evangelism, etc. and devising strategies and programs. By contrast, he repeats:
“If you want to discover and discern what God is up to in the world just now, stop trying to answer this question from within the walls of your churches. Like strangers in need of hospitality who have left their baggage behind, enter the neighborhoods and communities where you live. Sit at the table of the other, and there you may begin to hear what God is doing.” (134)
Part 3, A New Language House. Here Roxburgh tries to lay out something close to a “method” for engaging one’s neighborhood. In a chapter entitled, “Beginning the Journey: Some Practical Steps,” he lays out nine steps for getting started.
From the Publisher
The burgeoning missional church movement is a sign that believers are increasingly feeling the call to impact their communities, which is a good thing. But, says Alan J. Roxburgh, these conversations still prioritize church success over mission—how can being missional grow my church? But to focus on such questions misses the point.
In Missional, Roxburgh calls Christians to reenter their neighborhoods and communities to discover what the Spirit is doing there—to start with God’s mission. He then encourages readers to shape their local churches around that mission. With inspiring true stories and a solid biblical base, Missional is a book that will change lives and communities as its message is lived out.
About the Author
Alan J. Roxburgh is president of the Missional Network (formally Roxburgh Missional Network), an international group of practitioners and academics committed to partnering with and calling forth missional churches and mission-shaped leaders. He is the author or coauthor of several books, including Introducing the Missional Church. Roxburgh and his wife, Jane, live in Canada. He can be reached at his website, alanroxburgh.net.
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