” The will of God is to have no will of your own.”Jesus and this man will make you want to make your life count. Surrender your will to God. Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Jesus. Nothing better in this world.
Guest Book Review by Jay Jacobs, a pastor in Austin City Life church
Launching Missional Communities is a very useful new resource by Mike Breen and Alex Absalom. (Mike and Alex come from St. Thomas Church in Sheffield England where they helped pioneer the UK movement of missional communities. They both lead in the United States now through the 3DM network.)
Overview
There are five sections to this book. Introduction, Key Concepts, Practical Launching Guide, MC Life and Case Studies.  What will set this resource apart long term will be sections 3-5 because of how detailed, practical and realistic the ideas, suggestions and examples are. I highly recommend these sections of the book for new MC leaders and pastors who are trying to model this but need some coaching and have lots of practical questions.
Sometimes the key isn’t the authors answers to the questions but seeing that they have wrestled and are wrestling with the same questions. There are calendar examples, discussions on how to deal with pastoral issues, kids, singles, the poor and even kids with bad behavior!  Many pastors will want to cover the first section of the book in great detail and then hit the index as necessary for the rest of the book .
The Size of Missional Communities
Here are some big take aways  I have from this first section of the book. First, the authors take a hard stance  on the size of MC’s and the need for 20-50 people. They recommend this mid-size group to meet 1-2x a month and then small groups to form out of these groups for more personal discipleship.    They reinforce the MC size with insights based on the 4 sociological categories of :
My first reaction was that mc’s should be more about missional than the exact size or  structure but the authors make some great points here with these categories that shouldn’t be easily dismissed. They highlight that though it is easier to gather 8-12 people in a living room these groups are sometimes by default inward focused and personal in nature. When a group approaches 20 it is still “small enough to care but big enough to dareâ€, where a small group can dream big but may have a hard time carrying out missional initiatives in the long run.
A medium sized group can carry a heavier load in monthly missional activity and creates the kind of collective witness  by its size and energy that is difficult for a smaller group to display. I find this very thought provoking because of what we are feeling at our church with a need to cluster our missional communities (avg 10-20 adults) for more energy and more church wide missional alignment and focus. We were already having some discussion around these pain points and the feeling that some of our MCs were so focused on keeping the balance of gospel, community and mission that sometimes they are freed up to do any of them well. I think the advantage of a MC being larger could free up a more “personal†sized group to go naturally deeper into discipleship issues without the risk of losing a missional identity.
Identifying your Mission
I also gleaned a lot of insight from the authors emphasis on finding a “person of peace†based on Jesus teaching in Luke 10 where the disciples were to find and then stay in the home of a “man of peaceâ€. This metaphor is a powerful tool to teach people about incarnational and natural relational rhythms of mission. It seems like there is a gravitational pull in even the missional church to make mission about a program or a monthly project instead of about real people and deep relationshsips. This idea of looking for the “person of peace†within the relationships in our city groups is helpful.We should ask, “what people group is God putting on our heartâ€? and ask, “what person has got put in our network of friendships†that we should listen to, invest time in and go with them to get to know the world they live in outside of our church?  The authors stress that we should often “recognize mission†as opposed to “starting missionâ€.
Families & Children in Missional Communities
Many will enjoy the section on families and kids in MC’s and the authors emphasis on flexibility. They make the great observation that kids need to see their parents engaged in Christian community and mission in real settings and real relationships beyond Sundays. This is half of the benefit of MC’s for kids as theology and values are caught with kids more than taught.   They walk through all the different options of what to do with kids from hiring out childcare to involving them in the full discussion and gives some great hybrid examples and ideas of how parents can be more intention with discipling the kids, involving them but yet protecting some personal discussion time for the adults.
Conclusion
This is a great resource that I would recommend. The last section of the book with case studies deals with churches planting with a MC DNA and some transitioning to MC’s midstream. I didn’t find this section as helpful because it was sometimes confusing which church was transitioning and which were new church plants.
You 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 church.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.â€
Here are several new resources you should check out:
John Dickson’s The Best Kept Secret of Christian Mission is worth reading. When I read the earlier version of this book called Promoting the Gospel, several of Dickson’s contentions lodged in my mind, so much that I read some of his Ph.D work. I wrote about this here. Below is a guest review of Dickson’s new book by my good friend, Juan Sanchez. Juan is Preaching Pastor at High Pointe Baptist Church in Austin, Texas and a member of the Gospel Coalition.
Whenever I hear someone offer a “secret†I become suspicious because it has a Gnostic ring to it, and in fact, the Bible reminds us that there is nothing new under the sun. Nevertheless, I sense that John Dickson uses the word secret, not so much in the, “I’m about to tell you something no one else knows or has ever heard†sense, but in the sense of, “this is so obvious from the Scriptures, yet evangelicals seemed to have missed this fact that it may as well be a secret.â€
Promoting the Gospel
So then, just what is the best kept secret in Christian mission? The subtitle tells it all – we are called to promote the gospel, not just with our lips but with our very lives. The best kept secret of Christian mission, Dickson suggests, “is that the Bible lists a whole range of activities that promote Christ to the world and draw others toward him†(22). To be sure, Dickson does “not want to diminish the role of speaking†(22). Dickson’s concern is to proclaim a holistic gospel to the world with both our lips and our lives. Consequently, he distinguishes “between the specific activity of proclaiming the gospel and the broader category of promoting the gospel†(23). The point Dickson wishes to emphasize is that this broader category of gospel promotion has largely gone unnoticed in modern evangelistic training methods and practices. For this reason Dickson want to recover biblical practices that promote the gospel: i.e., flexible social relationships (chapter 3), prayer (chapter 4), financial support of the gospel (chapter 5), good works of the church (chapter 6), good works of individual Christians (chapter 7), corporate praise/worship of God’s people (chapter 10).
The Gospel & Western Distortions
Rightly, Dickson does not believe that an emphasis on gospel promotion denies gospel proclamation (chapter 11). Dickson insists that, “there are clear New Testament passages urging us all to speak up for Christ when we can†(101). Yet, even in our gospel proclamation, evangelicalism has tended to offer a truncated gospel. Therefore, Dickson spends the greatest amount of time answering the question, “What is the Gospel†(chapter 8)? Dickson argues that the gospel is the announcement of the arrival of King Jesus, but it is not a mere announcement about an idea. “The core content of the gospel is the work of God’s anointed king, Jesus†(115). Dickson continues, “Through his birth, miracles, teaching, death and resurrection God’s kingdom has been manifested (and will be consummated upon his return)†(115). Of course, part of the core content of this gospel is the reality that, “Jesus’ sacrificial death atoned for the sins of those who would otherwise be condemned at the consummation of the kingdom†(119). This holistic gospel combats the gospel reductionism that has been so prevalent in twentieth century evangelism.
I am thankful for John Dickson’s helpful reminder of what is often neglected in evangelism – the clear call to proclaim Christ with our lives as well as our lips. I trust every Christian has a desire to share the gospel with those who do not know Christ, but not all of us are comfortable doing so. Dickson admits there are several common problems with evangelism as it has been taught and practiced in Western evangelicalism: self-consciousness, gospel data download, gospel reductionism, and mission reductionism (Introduction). He also highlights the major cultural challenge evangelism faces in our day: pluralism (chapter 2). Equally helpful, Dickson admits that we are not all called to be evangelists (chapter 9); however, he insists that we are all called to promote the reality of the one true Lord/King to all peoples everywhere (chapter 1). For those who have questions as to what gospel proclamation/promotion looks like, Dickson provides a practical application example in chapter 12. He also suggests ways we can address particular questions raised by those who do not believe (Appendix 1).
Conclusion
The Best Kept Secret in Christian Mission is a much helpful book for those who struggle with evangelism as well as those who desire better to understand biblical evangelism. Thankfully, evidence is growing that among younger evangelicals promoting the gospel with our lives is not much of a secret any longer. Nevertheless, Dickson’s reminder that we must both proclaim the gospel AND promote the gospel should warn against going to the other extreme of gospel promotion without gospel proclamation. May the Lord grant us grace to be faithful heralds of the kingdom.
Reviewed by Juan Sanchez, Preaching Pastor at High Pointe Baptist Church
