Right Here, Right Now (Shapevine) [Paperback]

I am often asked to recommend a book that does a good job of introducing the missional church conversation. While there are several great resources that deal with missional church issues, I sometimes struggle with recommending the precise book because the majority of books written in the past decade are directed either towards church leaders or academic circles.

I am excited to say that this latest edition to the missional church literature, co-authored by Alan Hirsch and Lance Ford, will make the task of book recommendations much easier. Not only is "RHRN" an excellent introduction to the missional conversation, but it is really the best attempt to date to equip all believers to live missionally regardless of "vocation or location." The book is designed, as stated by Alan in the preface, to "make missional church what it should be: a movement of the whole people of God in every sphere and domain of society."

The format of the book is unique to most co-authored books. As stated in the introduction, "The contents of the book are sandwiched between a briefing chapter ("Right Here") in the beginning and a debriefing chapter ("Right Now") at the end, both written by Alan. These are designed to provide a framework for new thinking and acting. The middle sections are written by Lance, but Alan inserts himself into the conversation all along the way, like a resident heckler or a built-in commentator of sorts." I found this format to work well.

In Alan's briefing chapter he provides an excellent summary of key missional ideas. This very accessible overview is organized around four movements, including the need to: move out (into missional engagement), move in (burrowing down, or incarnational living), move alongside (engaging in relational networks), and move from (challenging certain aspects of our culture). I believe this twenty-nine page chapter would serve as a very helpful introduction to anyone new to the conversation. In the last chapter of the book Alan challenges the reader to do more serious reflection on the nature of the church, mission and evangelism.

Sandwiched between Alan's "bookend" chapters, Lance provides nine, very practical, yet significant chapters on topics including: cultivating "missionary eyes", beholding others, rediscovering the joy of hospitality, and a chapter on the collective power of scattered believers living on mission, creatively titled "Salt Blocks and Salt Shakers." While each of the nine "middle" chapters are replete with helpful illustrations and practical encouragements, in my opinion the most effective (or biting) chapters includes a series of three chapters where Lance deals with the topics of Western affluence and the stranglehold it places on our attempts to live a truly missional lifestyle. One of my favorite lines in this section comes from a chapter titled "Freeing Ourselves to Live Missionally" where Lance writes, "Storage units have become the `spare tire' around the waistline of American consumption."

The bottom line is that there is much to like about this book. I am thankful to Alan and Lance for taking the time to create a resource that helps to turn theory into practical reality. The sub title of the book, which is "Everyday Mission for Everyday People" is certainly fitting. They have also created a website with additional resources, including several videos that coincide with each chapter. You can find the site at [...]

I need to come out and say it: I really love Alan Hirsch, his writing, his heart, and his passion for seeing the gospel of Jesus Christ enflamed in those who read his stuff. I've read everything he has written and the message is consistent: Fall back in love with Jesus, passionately engage new paradigms of spreading the gospel, and creatively seek fresh missional expressions of Christian living.

Right Here, Right Now is another strong examination of what it takes to become a fresh, missional expression of the bride of Jesus.

In this book, Hirsch provides the "nerdy" theological overview prior to each section, and makes his stamp through "fly-bys" on approximately every other page. Lance Ford, the co-author, provides the extremely practical and applicable expressions of missional living.

I love this combination because so often, the nerdy "theologian" inside all of us gets stuck in the theoretical and fails to apply the thinking to everyday living (I'm confessing here). This book, however, challenges a person to think deeply about what it takes to live missionally all the while pressing people into extremely practical versions of living.

Personally, I was challenged to:
* Create more community and permanence. I need to reach out to our neighbors and set aside more time to eat with "strangers."
* Adopt a single mom family. I love this idea.
* Simply engage in everyday encounters. Sometimes I fail to look past the check-out clerk or the bank teller because I'm thinking of something else. Instead, we need to simply smile, converse, and love on the people right in front of us.

The one side I slightly disagree with is his critique of the attractional model of church development. Attractional, they write, equals extractional. Yes, this CAN be true, but all "attractional" does not need to mean "extractional." To be attractional doesn't mean we must pull people out of their current social contexts AS LONG AS we are pushing this message of "stay where you are" and "go be the church right where you live."

Whatever the case, read this book...Especially if you have never read any of Hirsch's stuff before. I pray that God will continue to give a platform to Hirsch to speak, write, and spread the good, good love of Jesus Christ wherever he goes.

Keep writing Alan, and everyone else, keep reading and applying!

Not long ago I got into a debate on Facebook with someone who was arguing that the term "missional" should just be abandoned. His argument was that the word was being used in so many ways that it has ceased to mean anything. He also argued that the word had served its usefulness and that it was just time to abandon it to the junk heap of yesterday's "flavor of the month."

I countered that the word had only begun to lose its punch among those who spend their lives discussing the word, its implications and implementations. I suggested that perhaps those who write and speak and preach about "missional" should do more to help ordinary Christians who don't spend their lives writing books, attending conferences and writing blog posts understand the word and why it is at stake. My parting shot was that I believed one could walk into any church in America and ask the average church member if they have even heard the word "missional" and you would find that they haven't.

My point was that the word is principally overused by people who talk about it all the time but that very little of its promise is drifting down to the average person-in-the-pew.

(Of course, my friend countered that the average person in the pew doesn't care about missional. I countered that the "APIP" can't care about it because s/he has never heard of it.)

Thankfully, Alan Hirsch and Lance Ford have come along and published a book that seeks to encourage everyday Christians around the necessity of becoming and being missional. They have managed to do this in their new book because (1) they see missional as applying both to the formation of missional communities (e.g. church planting) and to the everyday acts of individual disciples in the totality of their lives, (2) they (especially Lance) have taken a largely narrative (and therefore accessible) approach to describing the nature of the missional way of life and (3) they are eager for every disciple of Jesus to understand that s/he is, by virtue of their baptism, ordained as missionaries where they are.

I call that a hopeful approach to this much discussed topic.

The book is a kind of missional sandwich. The bread of this sandwich is provided by Alan Hirsch, who by his own admission takes on the more "geeky" role of providing the theoretical backing and cultural analysis appropriate to the topic. Think of Alan as the "fly over" guy.

Also, think of Alan as a Greek chorus of one. He interjects insightful commentary throughout the book that is relevant to the more home-spun narrative of the Texas-born pastor Mr. Ford.

(I should note that one of the strengths of this book is that both Mr. Hirsch and Mr. Ford are men who are deeply embedded in the life of the church in addition to being people who are very thoughtful about the nature of mission in Western culture. That, to me, is a vast strength and a great improvement over the kind of missional insight offered by those who limit their time to the academy.)

A resounding theme of this book is one that is fairly common to missional literature: the analysis of culture. Mr. Ford shines in his rather confessional chapters regarding the insidious nature of consumerism and how it is shaping the church. Mr. Hirsch has addressed this topic in numerous of his works and provides helpful insight with regard to how consumerism has lead and is leading the church in the West in directions that are both conformist to the culture as well reductionistic for the church.

The book opens with a debriefing from Alan Hirsch regarding the essential movements of the missional disciple/community. He concludes with a debriefing chapter wherein he addresses key transformations that must occur if the church in the West (and in particular America) is to rise and be the last hope of a vital Christian witness in the world and in the West.

Lance Ford provides a folksy, pastorally sensitive introduction to the nature of mission, the challenges of missional analysis (and he acts as if the suburbs exist; missional is not just about the urban challenge! who knew?), the ways in which consumerism/materialism have shaped the average evangelical church, and a call for us to become practitioners of forms of hospitality that are necessary for us to be the church God calls us to be.

I will say the book is best suited for those who are just opening themselves to understanding missional thinking. Most of the themes are fairly common to missional thought and the book is really written with beginners in mind. Those who are immersed in missional thought, and especially the sizable work of Alan Hirsch (& Michael Frost), will be refreshed but will not find much "new" here.

But that's okay...no, it's good. We need works like this; works that are accessible to the millions of people who do not spend their lives thinking through the theological and cultural intricacies of missional thought.

I say this would be a great book for those who know a bit about missional thought to provide to new Christians, old Christians with no background in missional thinking, and young Christians who are dying to catch fire.

Mr. Hirsch and Mr. Ford have provided the match....