Reviewed by Dr. E. Allen Jones III
As a recent reclamation project from the world of academia, I had heard the word missional bandied about in the past few years, but I have had little opportunity to actually engage with proponents of the movement. Thus, I opened The Road to Missional by Michael Frost, a recognized leader in the missional movement, with a sense of discovery. In the preface to the book, Alan Hirsch, an equally acknowledged leader in the missional movement, explained that the volume would not be like Frost’s earlier works The Shaping of Things to Come and Exiles, wherein he was an “evangelist for the cause”.[1] Rather, this book would be a prophetic call for true adherence to a truly missional life. On this account, Frost does not disappoint.
In the opening chapter, Frost laments what he calls a misuse of the term missional in popular church culture. According to him, one does not do church in a missional way, nor is missional simply a new trend in our ecclesiology. Rather, missional is a way of being. It is, or at least was supposed to be, a “revolution” in the church.[2] This is important, he says, as megachurches that primarily grow by attracting members from other churches have begun to adopt the term, yet youths continue to abandon the church to find spirituality in other places. Frost fears that as traditional churches grab onto the term missional (along with couches in church and Bible studies in coffee shops) and publish increased attendance rolls, we fail to realize that the church is becoming irrelevant in our own time.
After pointing out what missional is not in the introduction, in his second chapter – “Missio Dei” – Frost tries to explain what he had hoped missional would be. “Mission is both the announcement and the demonstration of the reign of God through Christ,” he says.[3] Such a statement may seem uncontroversial to an evangelical audience, but it was apparent from the rest of his chapter that this self-definition entails a lively debate related to being missional. For one, Frost explains that mission(al) is not simply doing evangelism and/or missions (i.e. cross-cultural evangelism). At the same time, mission(al) is not simply having a positive social agenda. Rather, mission stands over and encompasses both of these ideas. If the church is truly missional, non-believers will acknowledge God’s reign through Christ, and the church will act as a transformative agent in our communities. Yet, we cannot reduce mission(al) to either of these ideas. In Frost’s words, the missional church should be like movie trailers or “thin places” as understood by the ancient Celts. It is to be the first-fruits of Christ’s kingdom on earth.
Having oriented us to what he believes is a truly missional perspective, in the remaining five chapters Frost articulates what it would look like for the church to practice mission. In “Slow Evangelism”, he argues that evangelism ought not be a matter of cold calling and track distribution. Instead, it ought to be incarnational. It should be an invitation to live under God’s reign through Christ, which will involve a personal and social transformation of the person. It will not be a list of doctrines for one to accept, but will be a declaration of salvation that is based on historical events that have ramifications for the future. In this way, Christ’s kingdom expands and is manifest on earth.
“A Market-Shaped Church” then discusses some of the practices that keep us from living this kind of proclamation. According to Frost, the church has adopted the secular market’s view of people as objects to which we sell things. Thus, we tell non-believers what they want to hear and try to bribe them into coming to church. In turn, non-believers, particularly young people, treat the church with the same kind of suspicion that they give to big business. Such practices are the polar opposite of David Fitch’s call for smaller, more integrated, and incarnational church communities.[4]
“Triumphant Humiliation” and “Breathing Shalom”, are Frost’s attempts at rejecting a market orientation in the church on one hand, and accepting slow evangelism on the other. Instead of blaming the world for rejecting us, or accusing non-believers of persecuting us for our faith, Frost says we need to acknowledge that much of contemporary Christian culture is poorly presented and badly executed. In such cases, the world does not hate us because we are the aroma of Christ, but because we are irrelevant people with an over inflated sense of self-worth. Much better, he says, that we would take on cruciformity as our form of holiness and discipleship. The cross will be our holiness in that it is Jesus’ work that transforms us, and in that it is the cross that becomes a model for our own lives. Only by walking in the shadow of the cross will we learn to be like our master. Only by following his lead can we show other people how to live under his rule. Ironically, though, this life under the cross will bring a rediscovery of relationships, justice, and beauty. In the shadow of the cross, we will practice peace with those around us. We will practice justice for the oppressed in our communities. We will see the beauty in all things – even things coming from non-believers – and we will give glory to God for his creation.
In the last chapter before his conclusion – “Moving into the Neighborhood” – Frost becomes immanently practical as he articulates his vision of incarnation. Like the Word became flesh as Jesus of Nazareth and dwelt with humans, so we must move in to be with the poor and the oppressed in our communities. According to Frost, commuter models of faith and short-term missions opportunities fail to demonstrate a cross shaped life. Short-term missions help us believe that we have fulfilled our obligation to the world, and commuter ministries hold the poor at arm’s length. Rather, as Jesus was a shepherd that stayed with his sheep, we must be willing to live our lives with those we hope to reach. We need to practice local and sustainable faithful living.
Finally, in his conclusion, Frost explains that a missional life should sound like “worlds colliding”.[5] Clearly there is suffering and injustice in the world, but Jesus also announced the coming of God’s kingdom. Thus, missional believers live at the intersection of these two realities. They practice incarnational ministry and server as “movie trailers” to the world of what the future reign of Christ will be like.[6]
The greatest strength of The Road to Missional may also be its greatest weakness. As a prophetic call to mimic Jesus’ incarnational ministry in the world, Frost confronts the constant temptation in the Western church to become comfortable with our own salvation and to forget a hurting world. Evangelicals can and should appreciate his vision of what it could look like for believers to take up the cross and announce God’s rule on earth in Christ. At the same time, Frost paints with a broad brush and speaks in absolutes. He credits the many problems in the modern church to a somewhat vaguely defined brand of “traditional” or “mega-” church. Thus, presumably, if the reader would accept Frost’s ideas and leave these kinds of churches to join more missional churches, the world will finally see the church be the true bride of Christ. The missional movement will finally exemplify the Kingdom of God on earth. While he does provide anecdotal evidence of egregious practices in some churches, I hesitate to believe that any person who wants to announce the reign of God in Christ will necessarily associate/not associate with particular kinds of churches.
[1] Alan Hirsch, preface to The Road to Missional: Journey to the Center of the Church, by Michael Frost (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2011), 12.
[2] Michael Frost, The Road to Missional: Journey to the Center of the Church (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2011), 16.
[3] Ibid 24.
[4] David Fitch, The Great Giveaway: Reclaiming the Mission of the Church from Big Business, Parachurch Organizations, Psychotherapy, Consumer Capitalism, and Other Modern Maladies (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2005).
[5] Frost, Road to Missional, 143.
[6] Ibid., 145.
