Timothy Cowen, Pastor of Rock Hill Baptist Church, has been blogging about the missional church, and contrasts a church that's missional versus one that's evangelistic. To make that distinction, he writes in "Being Missional: Is there really a difference?":
In his book The Present Future, Reggie McNeal reveals the contrasts in the different ways leaders can think about the church and its ministry. McNeal reveals the different paradigms that pastors can have as they fulfill their ministry in the church. Being missional is first a shift in thinking about the nature of the church. Once a missional understanding is adopted, the way we do church begins to change. A missional church stresses community transformation over growing the church, turning members into missionaries over turning members into ministers, and recovering Christian mission over doing church better.
Though the book was first published in 2003, The Present Future in many ways does map out the transition of how we do church today, by mapping out six new realities that churches are now wrestling through:
The Collapse of the Church Culture, The Shift from Church Growth to Kingdom Growth, A New Reformation: Releasing God’s People, The Return to Spiritual Formation, The Shift from Planning to Preparation, and The Rise of Apostolic Leadership. (these are the 6 main chapter titles from the book.)
ChristianAudio.com hosts an audio podcast with the first chapter of The Present Future with Reggie McNeal:
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