• Launching Missional Communities (Book Review)

    December 6, 2010

    Like many others, I received a free copy of Launching Missional Communities: A Field Guide by Mike Breen & Alex Absalom to read and review here on my blog.

    I should probably say upfront that I have a ton of 3DM (the training network behind this book) friends.  I love them, their hearts, and their ministries, so as I come to this book, I’m already biased in favor of it.

    The easiest thing to say about this book is that it’s practical.  While it’s easy, even fun, to read, it almost can be treated more like a resource manual than a book.  It doesn’t need to be read straight through and it’s easy to reference bits and pieces depending on your interests.

    Before diving into all the good stuff I want to say, let me go ahead and get my one major criticism out of the way.  There is a small chapter entitled, “Attractional vs. Missional” in which the authors attempt to argue that we need both.  My opinion, however, is that the argument fails on both theological and analogical fronts.  They use the pre-Reformation phenomenon of Roman model churches (if you build it they will come) and Celtic model churches (more outward focused) to suggest that we need attractional and missional kinds of churches playing off of one another.  The analogical problem here is that what is generally meant today by attractional and missional does not at all correspond to the realities and circumstances in which these models of churches existed.  As for the theological problem, I can probably best articulate that by sharing the last sentences of the chapter and my notes in the margin.

    The quote…

    We just need to understand what Attractional does well and do it.

    We need to understand what Missional does well and do it.

    My notes…

    Impossible – attractional and missional churches are such because they have divergent understandings of basic Christian doctrines.  What we need is a theologically robust understanding the relationship between the the Missio Dei, the gospel of the Kingdom of God, and the Church.  This will lead us not to the ‘best’ of these two models, but to a cohesive vision of a missional ecclesiology.  This is the great error of ‘AND’ thinking; you never get to core issues because you spend all your time trying to artificially hold incompatible things together.

    The saddest part of this is that the underlying genius of the book actually does this work.  It undercuts the errant theology and philosophy driving attractional churches.  I just wish they had been more direct in stating it.

    UPDATE: Be sure to check this post Mike Breen offered in response.

    OK, on to the far more substantive praise.

    The authors fully communicate their heart for the life and ministry of local churches in their various forms.  They offer not just a proposal, but a methodical plan for churches of any size (though it seems pretty obvious that they have in mind mainly new, smaller communities and then more established larger communities in mind) and kind to begin to incorporate missional communities into the life of their larger church community.

    Discipleship, leadership and mission are the driving themes of both the book and the entire philosophy of missional communities.  To get the point of the book, you have to understand that from the author’s perspective, the task of the church is discipleship – period – the end.  And they are right.  You also have to embrace the idea that the replication of leaders is imperative to the larger task of discipleship.  If you don’t equip and empower leaders, you can kiss your changes of exponential discipleship bye-bye.  Again, I’m totally with them here.  Finally, mission is the context in which leaders are equipped and disciples are formed.  Amen!  If you can embrace and own these three things, then you’ll love this book and what it offers.

    A few final things.  I deeply appreciate that they didn’t skip over the tough (practical) issues like kids, schedules, and finances.  they address these things as only those who’ve lived through the ins and outs of the details could.  They also interspersed quotes and stories from those who have gone through their 3DM training and others who have implemented missional communities (or some derivation thereof) into their larger church context.

    Seriously, it was a great book – something that we are finding valuable at Life on the Vine even.  The guys behind 3DM are doing a good work and the people who contributed stories to the book are the ultimate testimony of that.  I highly recommend you pick up a copy or two to read through with a group that’s interested in the whole idea of missional communities – you won’t find a better practical guide for sure.

    Related Posts

    1. Book Review – Tending to Eden: Environmental Stewardship for God’s People
    2. Toward a Thepoetic of the Cross (Book Review)
    3. Missional Communities

    Posted in: books, church, discipleship, God, kingdom, leadership, LOV, missional, review, stewardship, theology

Recent Comments

  • Brad Brisco said...

    1

    JR, I am almost finished with the "book" and I agree completely with your assessment on the "attractional v. missional" chapter. I had the same thoughts. I too really like the 3DM resources, in fact I purchased the whole Cultivating a Discipleship Culture "kit" and will be looking for opportunities to incorporate Life Shapes. I have heard Breen speak before and I found his insights to be brilliant.

    However, with "Launching" I have a couple of other issues as well. First, Breen's definition of "missional communities" runs contrary to the way everyone else understands them. Second, I do not find the idea of "mid-size" communities/groups to be very helpful. Ultimately, I think it simply brings unnecessary confusion to have to consider three different levels of church. I think it is best to think of a church community as church, not as three different level or sizes. However, I do think Breen makes an excellent point when speaking on the greater "stability" for mission that is found in larger clusters/groups/missional communities over that in house churches.

    12/6/10 9:01 PM | Comment Link

  • jrrozko said...

    2

    Brad, just out of curiosity, what would you say is the general way people use the term "missional community?" How would it differ from how Breen and Absalom are using it?

    Interesting that you see mid-size communities as confusing as this is one of the things that I feel like our community (LOV) desperately needs. We have smaller contexts for relational connections, but these aren't easily permeable for newer people and we have Sunday morning gatherings, which are more permeable, but can't really do the brunt of the work of discipleship and mission. I suppose I see mid-size communities as an ideal context into which we can easily invite others to meet new people as they participate in "missional activities" (not a term I'm all that excited about) w/o feeling like they are disrupting a relationally established set of people. Is your church structured in such a way that mid-size communities would be redundant?

    12/6/10 11:14 PM | Comment Link

  • Nathan said...

    3

    "This is the great error of ‘AND’ thinking; you never get to core issues because you spend all your time trying to artificially hold incompatible things together."

    I'm not a part of the "missional" conversation, but I thought this comment was very interesting. I like that you're pushing back against the (cowardly? sloppy?) tendency of some to hold apparently opposing views "in tension" thereby avoiding the heart of a matter.

    Still, I would suggest that a strong "either/or" approach to theological questions is a recipe for disaster (it has been the hermeneutical grid of every great heresy that I can think of). There is nothing intrinsic to "both/and" modes of thinking that require one to stop short of the core issues (e.g. Cyril of Alexandria's Christology).

    Anyway, I thought your comment was cool, JR.

    12/7/10 1:39 PM | Comment Link

  • jrrozko said...

    4

    Couldn't agree with you more – truly. The only thing worse than an artificial kind of AND thinking is a retreat into an either/or mentality.

    I suppose I should nuance my comment in saying that whereas our default posture towards conflict and tension tends to be to try and find a unity at all costs (AND) or further polarize (either/or), often the options we are dealing with are actually built on the same faulty premises and we need to inquire as to whether or not there is actually a 3rd way to approach the issue that doesn't result in the same dichotomies.

    My Anabaptist bent is no doubt shining through here ;)

    12/7/10 2:03 PM | Comment Link

  • Brad Brisco said...

    5

    JR, first I shouldn't have said "everyone else understands them", that was a bad choice of words. However, the way I hear people speak of and engage in "missional communities" they are primarily talking about small groups that are engaged in a local context/community/neighborhood. I had never heard that language used to speak of the larger "mid-size" group of 40-50. That, for most people, is simply called a small church.
    My recent post What is Biblical Hospitality

    12/7/10 5:14 PM | Comment Link

  • jrrozko said...

    6

    Yeah, can totally see that. Certainly they are trying to write for a range of church sizes, I'm sure this is evidence of that.

    I think I continue to see value in the MC's of the size they're working with as ideal for church plants in the making, but I don't think at all that groups NEED to be this size to meaningfully engage in mission together, so I'm with ya there.

    12/8/10 4:24 PM | Comment Link

  • James Paul said...

    7

    JR, thanks for the review. Just noticed that 3DM responded – http://tinyurl.com/2fmaqlb
    My recent post The Power Of Gospel-Centered People Movements

    12/9/10 2:36 PM | Comment Link

  • jrrozko said...

    8

    Hey, look at that. Interested to see where the conversation over there goes. Thanks for commenting James.

    12/9/10 7:19 PM | Comment Link

  • Launching Missional Communities: A Review — Ben Sternke said...

    9

    [...] of a small chapter in this book called “Attractional vs. Missional.” JR Rozko, in a recent overwhelmingly positive review of this book, criticized the book for trying to argue that we need to be both “attractional” and [...]

    12/13/10 6:47 PM | Comment Link

  • Review: Breen’s Launching Missional Communities - Creation Project said...

    10

    [...] may also want to read JR Rozko’s review of this book and Breen’s response that follows on the topic of missional vs. attractional [...]

    02/3/11 9:34 AM | Comment Link

  • Missional Communities series | Post #13 « said...

    11

    [...] JR Rozko [...]

    03/6/11 11:15 PM | Comment Link

  • Missional Communities series | Post #16 « said...

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    [...] review of mine and Alex’s book (you can read the review here), was overwhelmingly positive. I thought he summed up well what we were trying to do in the [...]

    03/31/11 9:02 AM | Comment Link

  • 3DM, Learning Communites, and the End of Celebrity-Driven Christian Gatherings | lifeasmission said...

    13

    [...] Communities, by Mike Breen and Alex Absalom.  Then, some good conversation ensued, both on my post as well as on a post that Mike offered in response to my review. (Incidentally, Mike has recently [...]

    03/31/11 1:18 PM | Comment Link

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