Certain books summarize the ethos of the day and set the conversation for years to come. Missional Church is one of those books. Written by The Gospel and Our Culture team, Missional Church offers a comprehensive re-visioning of the church in North America.

If you’re new to the missional conversation, here’s the deal. For years, missions was something the church did—usually overseas. For missional people, mission is not something you do, it is something you are. This missional ontology is rooted in the heart of God. God sent his Son, the Father and Son sent the Spirit, and the Spirit sends the church out to be a sign, instrument, and foretaste of the kingdom of God.

Missional churches are made for post-Christendom. In the era of Christendom, the church had a privileged place in society. It was assumed that western culture was generally Christian and that missions involved exporting a gospel+culture hybrid. The collapse of Christendom has helped the church to see that western culture is not Christian. The church needs to see North America and Western Europe for the pagan culture that it is.

(It is worth noting here that ‘pagan’ is a technical term meaning ‘non-Christian.’ It is not a pejorative insult. The missional church recognizes that the Spirit is at work beyond the church.)

This book is its deeply collaborative. The six contributors (Lois Barrett, Inagrace T. Dietterich, Darrell L. Guder, George R. Hunsberger, Alan J. Roxburgh, and Craig van Gelder) did more than write essays—they read and provided feedback on each other’s work. This produced a multi-author work with a consistent voice.

Missional Church is a landmark book that holds up today, two decades after it was first published.

Guder, Darrell L., ed. Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America. The Gospel and Our Culture Series. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998.