Reviewed by Dr. E. Allen Jones III<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0 Thus, I opened The Road to Missional<\/em> by Michael Frost, a recognized leader in the missional movement, with a sense of discovery.\u00a0 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\u2019s earlier works The Shaping of Things to Come<\/em> and Exiles<\/em>, wherein he was an \u201cevangelist for the cause\u201d.[1]<\/a>\u00a0 Rather, this book would be a prophetic call for true adherence to a truly missional life.\u00a0 On this account, Frost does not disappoint.<\/p>\n In the opening chapter, Frost laments what he calls a misuse of the term missional in popular church culture.\u00a0 According to him, one does not do church in a missional way, nor is missional simply a new trend in our ecclesiology.\u00a0 Rather, missional is a way of being.\u00a0 It is, or at least was supposed to be, a \u201crevolution\u201d in the church.[2]<\/a>\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n After pointing out what missional is not in the introduction, in his second chapter \u2013 \u201cMissio Dei\u201d \u2013 Frost tries to explain what he had hoped missional would be.\u00a0 \u201cMission is both the announcement and the demonstration of the reign of God through Christ,\u201d he says.[3]<\/a>\u00a0 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.\u00a0 For one, Frost explains that mission(al) is not simply doing evangelism and\/or missions (i.e. cross-cultural evangelism).\u00a0 At the same time, mission(al) is not simply having a positive social agenda.\u00a0 Rather, mission stands over and encompasses both of these ideas.\u00a0 If the church is truly missional, non-believers will acknowledge God\u2019s reign through Christ, and the church will act as a transformative agent in our communities.\u00a0 Yet, we cannot reduce mission(al) to either of these ideas.\u00a0 In Frost\u2019s words, the missional church should be like movie trailers or \u201cthin places\u201d as understood by the ancient Celts.\u00a0 It is to be the first-fruits of Christ\u2019s kingdom on earth.<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0 In \u201cSlow Evangelism\u201d, he argues that evangelism ought not be a matter of cold calling and track distribution.\u00a0 Instead, it ought to be incarnational.\u00a0 It should be an invitation to live under God\u2019s reign through Christ, which will involve a personal and social transformation of the person.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 In this way, Christ\u2019s kingdom expands and is manifest on earth.<\/p>\n \u201cA Market-Shaped Church\u201d then discusses some of the practices that keep us from living this kind of proclamation.\u00a0 According to Frost, the church has adopted the secular market\u2019s view of people as objects to which we sell things.\u00a0 Thus, we tell non-believers what they want to hear and try to bribe them into coming to church.\u00a0 In turn, non-believers, particularly young people, treat the church with the same kind of suspicion that they give to big business.\u00a0 Such practices are the polar opposite of David Fitch\u2019s call for smaller, more integrated, and incarnational church communities.[4]<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cTriumphant Humiliation\u201d and \u201cBreathing Shalom\u201d, are Frost\u2019s attempts at rejecting a market orientation in the church on one hand, and accepting slow evangelism on the other.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Much better, he says, that we would take on cruciformity as our form of holiness and discipleship.\u00a0 The cross will be our holiness in that it is Jesus\u2019 work that transforms us, and in that it is the cross that becomes a model for our own lives. \u00a0Only by walking in the shadow of the cross will we learn to be like our master.\u00a0 Only by following his lead can we show other people how to live under his rule.\u00a0 Ironically, though, this life under the cross will bring a rediscovery of relationships, justice, and beauty.\u00a0 In the shadow of the cross, we will practice peace with those around us.\u00a0 We will practice justice for the oppressed in our communities.\u00a0 We will see the beauty in all things \u2013 even things coming from non-believers \u2013 and we will give glory to God for his creation.<\/p>\n In the last chapter before his conclusion \u2013 \u201cMoving into the Neighborhood\u201d \u2013 Frost becomes immanently practical as he articulates his vision of incarnation.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 According to Frost, commuter models of faith and short-term missions opportunities fail to demonstrate a cross shaped life. \u00a0Short-term missions help us believe that we have fulfilled our obligation to the world, and commuter ministries hold the poor at arm\u2019s length.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 We need to practice local and sustainable faithful living.<\/p>\n Finally, in his conclusion, Frost explains that a missional life should sound like \u201cworlds colliding\u201d.[5]<\/a>\u00a0 Clearly there is suffering and injustice in the world, but Jesus also announced the coming of God\u2019s kingdom.\u00a0 Thus, missional believers live at the intersection of these two realities.\u00a0 They practice incarnational ministry and server as \u201cmovie trailers\u201d to the world of what the future reign of Christ will be like.[6]<\/a><\/p>\n The greatest strength of The Road to Missional<\/em> may also be its greatest weakness.\u00a0 As a prophetic call to mimic Jesus\u2019 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.\u00a0 Evangelicals can and should appreciate his vision of what it could look like for believers to take up the cross and announce God\u2019s rule on earth in Christ.\u00a0 At the same time, Frost paints with a broad brush and speaks in absolutes.\u00a0 He credits the many problems in the modern church to a somewhat vaguely defined brand of \u201ctraditional\u201d or \u201cmega-\u201d church.\u00a0 Thus, presumably, if the reader would accept Frost\u2019s 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.\u00a0 The missional movement will finally exemplify the Kingdom of God on earth.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Alan Hirsch, preface to The Road to Missional: Journey to the Center of the Church<\/em>, by Michael Frost (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2011), 12.<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Michael Frost, The Road to Missional: Journey to the Center of the Church<\/em> (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2011), 16.<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> Ibid 24.<\/p>\n [4]<\/a> David Fitch, The Great Giveaway: Reclaiming the Mission of the Church from Big Business, Parachurch Organizations, Psychotherapy, Consumer Capitalism, and Other Modern Maladies<\/em> (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2005).<\/p>\n [5]<\/a> Frost, Road to Missional<\/em>, 143.<\/p>\n [6]<\/a> Ibid., 145.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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 … Continue reading