Missional Foundations for Church Leaders – MISSIONAL LIFESTYLE, DISCIPLESHIP, SPIRITUALITY
Part of LifeandLeadership.com ministry resources on Missional Church and Christian Social Ministry, Social Justice, and Urban Ministry.
- Introduction
- First Reads on Missional Spirituality and Discipleship
- Shapevine Series on Missional Spirituality and Discipleship – Frost and Hirsch
- Radical Series – David Platt on Missional Spirituality and Discipleship
- Spirituality and Social Ministry – New Monasticism, New Friars (Claiborne, Bessenecker)
- Spirituality and Social Ministry – Other
- Children’s Spiritual Formation through Missional Engagement
- Missional Spirituality of Work
- Missional Spirituality of Business
- Spirituality and Life Calling
- Other Helpful Works
- Related Areas
Introduction
A major emphasis in the missional conversation is that all of life should be subsumed under the mission of God (missio Dei). This involves the abandonment of dichotomies such as sacred-secular and clergy-laity. Instead, all persons are ministers who take seriously the call of God in all walks of life. A key is seeing life through the eyes of Jesus, adopting the same incarnational life, “taking up dwelling” in and among the world to make a transformational kingdom impact.
This is addressed more extensively in a section of LifeandLeadership.com on Spirituality and Spiritual Formation. What follows below, however, highlights a few key texts on living missionally.
Some may need introductory exposure to the missional conversation. For that purpose, please visit the index to resources on Missional Church.
I have listed the resources below primarily according to author and subject, and then in suggested order under each category.
First Reads on Missional Spirituality
- Ed Stetzer, Subversive Kingdom: Living as Agents of Gospel Transformation – A challenging call to living in ways that allow God’s kingdom to expand. Excellent, readable integration of theology of mission, ecclesiology, and missional spirituality. Helpful DVD and small group workbook combinations make this ideal for congregational use.
- David Putnam and Ed Stetzer, Breaking the Discipleship Code: Becoming a Missional Follower of Jesus — An excellent book on missional living in all life contexts.
- Lee Camp, Mere Discipleship: Radical Christianity in a Rebellious World. Second Edition – Camp deftly challenges the underlying assumptions of Americanized Christianity, arguing that in many cases it is so enculturated as to bear little resemblance to the radical discipleship presented in the teachings of Jesus.
Shapevine Series on Missional Spirituality – Frost and Hirsch
- Michael Frost, Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture — A hard-hitting and somewhat controversial call back to a radical, subversive, compassionate community of followers of Jesus. Challenges preoccupations with pseudo-community and the greed, consumerism, laziness, and materialism that so often characterizes modern Christians.
- Michael Frost, Jesus the Fool: The Mission of the Unconventional Christ – A strong call to the radical lifestyle of Jesus.
- Hugh Halter, Sacrilege: Finding Life in the Unorthodox Ways of Jesus – Uses the Beatitudes as a grid to demonstrate the “non-churchy” yet effective ways Jesus related to people.
- Roger Helland and Leonard Hjalmarson, Missional Spirituality: Embodying God’s Love From the Inside Out – Describes spirituality as “an attentive and active engagement of embodied love for God and neighbor expressed from the inside out.”
- Alan Hirsch and Lance Ford, Right Here, Right Now: Everyday Mission for Everyday People — Discusses how to view daily life through missionary eyes, especially on how disciples may free themselves from the trappings of affluence. Proposes small groups and house churches that practice hospitality and missional engagement of their surroundings.
- Alan Hirsch and Michael Frost, Faith of Leap: Embracing a Theology of Risk, Adventure, and Courage— Regarded by some as Frost and Hirsch’s best book yet, calling readers to the sense of holy urgency, missional risk, adventure, and courage redefine the way faith is expressed in the postmodern environment
- Alan Hirsch and Debra Hirsch, Untamed: Reactivating a Missional Form of Discipleship — Challenges disciples to a “mission-shaped” lifestyle in areas such as finances, family, and sexuality.
- Tri Robinson, Rooted in Good Soil: Cultivating and Sustaining Authentic Discipleship – Uses the parable of the sower to show how a life of discipleship is cultivated over time.
Radical Series – David Platt on Missional Spirituality
- David Platt, Radical: Taking Back Your Faith From the American Dream – Explores a variety of bold claims about our purpose in life that are contained in the gospel yet contradicted by the American dream.
- David Platt, Radical Together : Unleashing the People of God for the Purpose of God — Considers what happens with committed individuals apply the revolutionary claims and commands of Christ in their communities of faith.
Spirituality and Social Ministry
New Monasticism, New Friars (Claiborne, Bessenecker)
- Scott A Bessenecker, The New Friars: The Emerging Movement Serving the World’s Poor – Develops the five core values of the New Friars Movement: incarnational, devotional, communal, missional, marginal.
- Scott A. Bessenecker, Editor, Living Mission: The Vision and Voices of the New Friars – Takes up where New Friars left off, describing more of how these new communities live out their calling.
- Article: New Monasticism/Ordinary Radicals – Shane Claiborne on Social Ministry
- Shane Claiborne, The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical — This is Claiborne’s personal narrative of living as an “ordinary radical,” among the poor in a faith community in inner-city Philadelphia, The Simple Way.
- Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw, Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals — Describes the political orientation of the new monasticism, based not on partisanship, but in the incarnational lifestyle of Jesus to become a people “set apart” for the world.
- Shane Claiborne, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, and Enuma Okoro, Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals — A tapestry of prayer that celebrates the best of several liturgical traditions. Includes a unique collection of over fifty songs from various traditions that are aimed to help Christians join Jesus in incarnational ministry.
- Shane Claiborne and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, Becoming the Answer to Our Prayers: Prayer for Ordinary Radicals – Conveys a very holistic understanding of the place of prayer in shaping one’s will and action toward following the footsteps of Jesus into the most needy places. Centered around the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus’ Prayer for the Church, and Paul’s Prayer for Enlightenment.
Other
- Mark Scandrette, Practicing the Way of Jesus: Life Together in the Kingdom of Love — Describes a path toward spiritual formation based on intentional participation in a faith community and following the commands of Jesus in real life.
- Tony Campolo and Mary Albert Darling, The God of Intimacy and Action: Reconnecting Ancient Spiritual Practices, Evangelism, and Justice – A social activist and mystical practitioner team up to provide insights and suggestions for integrating ancient spiritual practices with active ministry engagement through evangelism and social action.
- Howard E. Friend, Jr., Gifts of an Uncommon Life: The Practice of Contemplative Activism – Encourages people to be deeply spiritual, grounded in God’s presence, but also strongly active, an embodiment of God’s mission.
- Christopher L. Heuertz, Simple Spirituality: Learning to See God in a Broken World – Heuretz writes out of his own journey to present the five touchpoints that have been formative for him while working among the poorest of the poor: humility, community, simplicity, submission, and brokenness.
- Samuel Wells and Marcia Owen, Living Without Enemies: Being Present in the Midst of Violence (Resources for Reconciliation) — Chronicles a journey of establishing friendships with gun violence victims and offenders. They learned what it was to truly love others as God loves us, living without enemies and taking small steps toward reconciliation.
- Randy White, Encounter God in the City: Onramps to Personal and Community Transformation — Describes White’s model of “experiential discipleship,” that produces a high degree of transformation through guided experience, reflection, and whole-life application in high crime and high poverty neighborhoods.
Children’s Spiritual Formation through Missional Engagement
- Helen Lee, The Missional Mom: Living With Purpose at Home and in the World – Inspires and mobilizes mothers into missional living, not only in terms of how they raise children but also get involved in their communities.
- Jan Johnson, Growing Compassionate Kids: Helping Kids See Beyond Their Back Yard – Illustrates practical everyday ways for parents to help children develop empathy and seek justice in the world.
- Susan B. Vogt, Raising Kids Who Will Make a Difference: Helping Your Family Live With Integrity, Value Simplicity, and Care for Others — A guide to inspire, equip, and comfort parents in the task of raising socially conscious children who will make positive contributions to the world. See also Kids Creating Circles of Peace and Just Family Nights.
- Jolene L Roehlkepartain, Teaching Kids to Care and Share: 300+ Mission and Service Ideas for Children – Provides over 300 inventive, hands-on activities that involve children in service to one another, their churches and local communities, and the world.
- Carolyn C. Brown, Raising Children to Love Their Neighbors: Practical Resources for Congregations – Practical plans with reproducible activities and outlines for classroom and service experiences for children ages 3 to 12.
- Jenny Friedman, The Busy Family’s Guide to Volunteering: Do Good, Have Fun, Make a Difference as a Family — A complete, flexible guide for family volunteering.
Missional Spirituality of Work
First Read:
- Ben Witherington, A Theological Perspective on Work – A good theology that excels in relating to practical work issues.
Other Helfpul Volumes:
- Darrell Cosden, The Heavenly Good of Earthly Work – A rich spiritual theology of work, showing how the kingdom of God is manifested in the honorable work that makes up such a major part of our lives now and in eternity. More theological than the works by R. Paul Stevens. One may also be interested in Cosden’s scholarly monograph, A Theology of Work.
- Tom Nelson, Work Matters: Connecting Sunday Worship to Monday Work– Seeks to outline God’s purposes for work in a way that makes the most of vocation and joins God in his work in the world.
- Amy Sherman, Kingdom Calling: Vocational Stewardship for the Common Good – Excellent tool designed to help church leaders equip their congregations to integrate faith and work
- R. Paul Stevens, The Other Six Days: Vocation, Work, and Ministry in Biblical Perspective — Designed as a comprehensive biblical foundation for the Christian’s life in the world as well as the church. A theology for homemakers, nurses and doctors, plumbers, stockbrokers, politicians, farmers, etc. Serves at the theological foundation for other volumes by the same author.
- R. Paul Stevens and J. I. Packer, The Equipper’s Guide to Every-Member Ministry: Eight Ways Ordinary People Can Do the Work of the Church
- R. Paul Stevens, Taking Your Soul to Work: Overcoming Nine Deadly Sins of the Workplace
- R. Paul Stevens, Doing God’s Business: Meaning and Motivation in the Marketplace
- R. Paul Stevens and Michael Green, Living the Story: Biblical Spirituality for Everyday Christians
- R. Paul Stevens, Down-to-Earth Spirituality: Encountering God in the Ordinary, Boring Stuff of Life
- Pete Hammond, R. Paul Stevens, and Todd Svanoe, The Marketplace Annotated Bibliography: A Christian Guide to Books on Work, Business and Vocation
- Gene Edward Veith, God at Work: Your Christian Vocation in All of Life – A very down-to-earth and practical theology. A contemporary restatement of Luther’s theology of vocation.
- Miroslav Volf, Work in the Spirit: Toward a Theology of Work – Similar to Cosden above in that it relates work in the current creation to the work that will continue in God’s new creation, encouraging believers to activate their gifts of the Spirit in meaningful work as they anticipate in the eschatological fulfillment of God’s design.
Missional Spirituality of Business
- Kenman L. Wong and Scott B. Rae, Business for the Common Good: A Christian Vision for the Marketplace (Christian Worldview Integration) – Wong, a business ethicist and Rae, a biblical ethicist, team to offer a perspective on how the Christian story shapes business.
- Steve Rundle and Tom Steffen, Great Commission Companies: The Emerging Role of Business in Missions, Revised Edition – A foundational articulation of the Business as Mission (BAM) Movement.
Spirituality and Life Calling
- Os Guinness, The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life – Recognized as the modern classic on the subject. A rich and meaningful reflection on discerning and living out God’s purpose for one’s life.
- Andy Crouch, Culture-Making: Recovering our Creative Calling – Blends culture, Gospel, and calling (vocation) into a plea for us to engage intentionally with the world through the creation of cultural goods.
- Parker J. Palmer, A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life – Not so much a guide to Christian spiritual formation but a sensitive call to “rejoin soul and role” through the practices of solitude, community, and thoughtful engagement. One may also appreciate other volumes by Palmer.
- William C. Placher, Callings: Twenty Centuries of Christian Wisdom on Vocation – An anthology of classic writers over the centuries who have addressed the notion of life calling. It is not limited to the “ministerial call,” but encompasses all walks of life with the challenge to see what they do as an expression of God’s mission.
- Mark Schwehn and Dorothy Bass, Editors, Leading Lives that Matter: What We Should Do and Who We Should Be — A 500-plus pages collection of pieces from both Christian and secular writers about living lives that make a significant difference. Not “missional” in the theological sense, and not limited to the Christian sense of call, but encompasses all walks of life with the challenge to see what they do as an expression of a larger mission.
Other Helpful Works
- David Augsburger, Dissident Discipleship: A Spirituality of Self-Surrender, Love of God and Love of Neighbor — Describes spirituality as an apprenticeship in imitating Jesus in a tripolar direction of discovering self, seeking God, and valuing people.
- Phil Kenneson, Life on the Vine: Cultivating the Fruit of the Spirit in Christian Community — Argues that Christian communities, instead of “selling themselves” in the religious marketplace, should focus on positioning their communal and individual lives so that the Spirit can reproduce the life of Jesus in them
- Mark Labberton, The Dangerous Act of Loving Your Neighbor: Seeing Others Through the Eyes of Jesus – Insists that we develop the ability to see others as God sees them, and thus refrain from treating them unjustly and to defend and assist them when others do.
- Jonathan and Jennifer Campbell, The Way of Jesus: A Journey of Freedom for Pilgrims and Wanderers — Designed to help readers chart a course for experiencing a deep and fulfilling spirituality in the life and Way of Jesus.
Related Ministry Resources
Missional Perspectives for Christian Ministry:
- Missional Perspectives for Christian Ministry 01, Introduction
- Missional Resources for Church Leaders, Introduction and Index
- Missional Philosophy
- Theology of Mission
- Missional Communities
- Missional Leadership / Missional Strategies
- Missional Lifestyle, Discipleship, Spirituality
- Church Leadership, Church Health and Renewal, Index to Resources
- Ecclesiology
- Evangelism
- Social Ministry, Social Justice, Urban Ministry – INTRODUCTION
See Resources on Over 100 Areas of Christian Ministry