Steven Hovater

Author: Steven Hovater

  • Grace and Mission

    missionalAny full accounting of the Christian faith has to include a story of grace, and how it works. Grace is a fancy old word for a gift, and it’s one of the most important words in the vocabulary of faith.

    The Grace of Life

    Most theologies of grace speak primarily of the grace of salvation, and principally mean how God saves us from our sins (and God’s judgement) through Jesus. While I think we still have some thinking left to do about the meaning of the atonement, an emphasis on God’s saving grace is a good thing! A missional theological lens doesn’t abandon this view of salvation, but broadens it—beginning with the beginning. Grace is not a newly developed attribute of God, although it is particularly demonstrated by Jesus. Rather, grace is present in the whole story of God.In the beginning, we see God’s grace in the generosity of creation. God creates the conditions and space for life, and then gives life—this is how the story starts, and we do well to keep this gifting of life close as we consider what God is doing in the world. The story of grace offered in Jesus is not a departure from the story of God, it is instead the fruit of God’s commitment to stand by the gift of life given in creation. The core of grace is God’s refusal to abandon the creation to death.[bctt tweet=”The core of grace is God’s refusal to abandon the creation to death.” username=”stevenhovater”]It is amazing how little Christian theologies reflect on this gift of life, when so much of God’s story revolves around God’s determination to stand by that gift and preserve it. A fully missional theology of grace begins with the conviction that God’s gift of life is good. This is central to God’s story and ours—we live, and this is grace!

    The Grace of God’s Reign

    God’s grace doesn’t end when human evil breaks the ordered justice that is conducive to life and flourishing. Rather, God acts to heal our brokenness, beginning with our sin and extending to other forms of brokenness in our world. When a fractured community is reconciled, an anxious heart finds peace, or a body experiences healing, these are experiences of grace. People are freed from oppressive powers and lay down their compulsions by the grace of God, and this too is part of God’s plan to redeem creation.The missional story of salvation begins not simply with Jesus’s death, but with his life, in which the kingdom of God draws near. When we talk about the “kingdom of God”, we’re talking about how God reasserts God’s will in the earth, reordering it by justice and love, o that life can flourish as it was intended to. God’s reign is marked by justice, peace, and wholeness. The arrival of kingdom wholeness is a gift—it is the grace of God’s reign.[bctt tweet=”The arrival of kingdom wholeness is a gift—it is the grace of God’s reign.” username=”stevenhovater”]

    The Grace of Mission

    A further piece of grace in the missional story is obvious enough, but is the gift of mission to God’s people, both generally and to individuals. It’s often the case that people who receive God’s grace in the scriptures also receive some sort of commissioning, some invitation (or command) to join God’s mission. Peter (Luke 4) and Paul (Acts 9are the most obvious examples here, but those stories are really more normative than you might think—God extends one grace (forgiveness) with another grace (mission). Often, when I’m reading Paul’s letters, he seems to make no distinction between the two kinds of grace. They just represent the way God relates to Paul.I want to unpack that idea of the grace of mission in a couple of ways, just for clarity’s sake. Think about the graces of inclusion and contribution:

    The Grace of Inclusion

    The grace of inclusion is the idea that God seems willing to invite pretty much everybody to participate in the mission. Luke’s gospel delights in this, as the religious elites are amazed to see the likes of Levi, Zacchaeus, and some disrespected women become part of Jesus’s movement in the world. Paul himself perceives this element of grace, saying in effect, “I was the worst, but God saw fit to allow me a place in the mission.”

    The Grace of Contribution

    In a similar vein, the grace of mission is not just that unexpected people are invited to become missionaries, but that God delights in providing the people what they need to participate. As happened to a neighbor of mine, he always used to spend his time playing videogames and getting elo boost services from http://elitist-gaming.com until one day he suddenly decided to be a missionary. God gives gifts, (graces) to people so that they will be able to contribute to the life of the church and to the kingdom’s work in the world. Not only does God give missionary permission or invitation to people, but God provides the means for their meaningful work in the world. This provision is a powerful aspect of God’s grace that we don’t necessarily catch when we use “gift” to talk about something God gives us to use but shift to “grace” when we’re thinking about some theological change God brings about.It’s all gift, all grace.

    Agents of Grace

    With these understandings of God’s grace, it’s important to note that a missional view of grace, humans who receive these forms of grace become agents of grace themselves. They become people who generously extend God’s grace to others in all its forms. They help people flourish and live, acting as agents of life in the world. They practice forgiveness, and stand for wholeness. not only do they participate in God’s mission themselves, but they welcome others into it as well. In living generously, the grace of God that has become wrapped into their story is unleashed on the other people around them, seeping into the cracks of the broken world. Missional Christians become people of Grace, modeling in their own lives what they have received from God. 

  • 25 | Change Your Reading Context

    The context in which you read a text can be just as important as the context in which it was written.Three exercises for opening up the reading of scripture by shifting your reading context. (more…)

  • Seeing and Sorting

    Threat.Customer.Challenge.Helper.Savior.Sinner.When we encounter other people, our incredible brains rush to process what they mean to us. It rushes to categorize the person, using the categories that we’ve set up over time. “Like Me”, “Not Like Me” are the most basic ones, and I heard a study that even infants show signs of using these filters. Over time we develop more sophisticated versions, although most of us retain that primal dichotomy as the “root directory” of our system. People fall into the “Like Me” or “Not Like Me” categories for a breathtakingly wide variety of causes, ranging from ethnic distinctions to the type of music the prefer, the sorts of foods they eat and the ways they would imagine our shared public life together. Not all of these are trivial.J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter universe played with this pretty well with the “sorting hat” scenes. Sure, there’s some trivial stuff there, sorting people based on style—but it also carried character implications as well. One of the fascinating turns in the series was how Rowling later played on the stereotypes of the sorting—it turned out that the lines between good and evil weren’t laid out precisely as the early scenes seemed to portray. The failure of both heroic and villainous characters to realize that gave the stories serious emotional weight to play around with.Our own propensity for categorization extends deeply into our religious lives as well, and we’ve been remarkably creative in our invention of divisions and distinctions. Dogma and practice each have their own way of cutting the deck, and style has its say as well in how we perceive the categories of religious practice and the communities that pursue them. Not all of these are trivial either—although some of them are.Even within religious communities, within congregations, people who are gathered together, presumably with substantial common ground, there are plenty of ways to chop things up. Although Luther’s claim that each of us is simultaneously sinner and saint certainly has merit, we generally see the sinners and saints as different categories of people, and can find people in the church that match our conception of each without difficulty. Perhaps its the type of sin that we use to create the dividing line, or perhaps the intensity of its effects. I think the public/private nature of wrongdoing has often been a categorical marker, and there are others, too. It’s easy to peg a brother in the “sinner” category if he has some other “Not Like Me” markers.One of the incredible features of the story of Jesus is his propensity to cut against these divisions, or to upend them. Jesus reminds the  baffled religious folk that Zacchaeus is “also a son of Abraham”. He proclaims that he has not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance—while making those very sinners his most trusted disciples.Jesus has a different way of seeing people. He seems to have a particular way of cutting through the externals, the masks that hide people, and he has a way of seeing something more essential, more human. He ignores the lenses that would cast people in a favorable or unfavorable light, and sees them for who they really are. This shouldn’t be that surprising; we’ve known since the time of David that “humans look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Sam 16:7).Perhaps it’s too much to ask that we learn to do the same; after all, we don’t have the same kind of access to the heart, do we? But maybe it’s enough for us to at least hold our judgements in check a bit, to recognize that what we see about people isn’t necessarily the whole story. If we can do that, we keep the door open for not only what God might do in their stories, but through us in their story. Holding back our judgements (or at least knowing that our conclusions are at best provisional and shouldn’t be held too tightly) allows us to be open to participating in God’s work. It puts us in a posture of missional readiness, so that we’re more ready to respond to possibilities. We’re ready for the opportunities to bless their lives that might come our way.

  • 24 | Read the Gospels

    [iframe style=”border:none” src=”//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/4761164/height/100/width/480/thumbnail/no/render-playlist/no/theme/custom/tdest_id/352803/custom-color/#87A93A” height=”100″ width=”480″ scrolling=”no” allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen]
    Try reading the gospels, one at a time, in single sittings. It takes a little longer than the normal way we encounter them, but it can enrich your understanding of Jesus and what it means to follow him.  Host: Steven Hovater  

  • Missional, From the Inside Out

    The word “missional” has been terribly abused in its first couple of decades of wide circulation. Theologically, the word simply describes God’s ongoing work in the world—and the church that intentionally participates in that work. There are multiple of facets to that work and our participation in it, and perhaps this explains why the word has been stretched around so many different kinds of churches or styles of discipleship. We understand ourselves to be participating in God’s mission as we spread the news of Jesus’s redemptive work in our community and around the globe, as we encourage each other to follow Jesus, and as we pursue the conditions of justice, righteousness and peace. None of these the full breadth of what God wants for this world, but in each of them we engage with values near to the heart of God!Our churches pursue each facet collectively, working together for the purposes of evangelization, transformation, and justice—and churches can implement structural shifts to facilitate progress in each cause. We can create systems that create opportunities for faith sharing, venues in which transformation is more likely to occur, and initiatives that push against standing systems of injustice. Whether we’re the leaders fashioning the new programs or congregants supporting and participating in the moves, we can too easily begin to think that the structural changes mark us as “missional”. However, those structural shifts can only move us so far! Church programming and structure may create the conditions in which we move towards mission, and poor structures can get in the way of such practices or implicitly devalue them. Structure has its place, and should be approached with intentionality. However, creating the structures should not be understood as the heart of the work itself—the work itself is a matter of flesh, blood and spirit.

    Flesh, Blood, and Spirit

    The missional work of evangelization occurs when flesh and blood humans filled with the spirit of God reach out to their known and loved neighbors with the good news of Jesus. The missional work of discipleship takes place when people of flesh and blood, acting by the power of God’s spirit, encourage and teach each other about the way of Jesus, giving testimony of Jesus’s work. Justice progresses as spirit-driven people stand in solidarity with the oppressed, whom they have come to see and love because of their transformation in Christ. The heart of missional christianity isn’t a matter of organization, but of embodiment. While the church’s programming might provide the sort of vehicle or venue in which these things happen, the structure itself won’t succeed until it is filled by the right kind of transformed people—the new humanity, formed from the inside out for the purposes of God’s mission in the world. That formation takes places when we, both as communities and as individuals, nurture the sorts of mentalities and habits that encourage people to align with the mission of God and to engage in it.The inventory of those mentalities and habits is surely diverse and contains some familiar things, like the virtues of faith, hope, and love that the church has long sought to nurture, and the habits of prayer and listening to the word that have been a part of both the gatherings of God’s people and the classical understandings of their individual devotional practices. These are well and good, and contribute to our transformation into people aligned with the mission of God, but I want to suggest a further practice, one that I see both in the life of the early church and in the missional movement of our own time: the nurture of a particular obsession.

    Obsessed with the Missio Dei

    The Missio Dei is a fancy latin phrase meaning “the mission of God”. It’s a bit of shorthand meant to point us towards what God is doing in the world—something we train ourselves to discover by drinking deeply of God’s story in the scriptures, and which we prayerfully seek by the spirit of God in our own time. Becoming obsessed with the Missio Dei means that at every turn in our lives, we are always asking, “What might God want to happen here?” or “How can I join in what God might be working towards by what I say and do in this moment?”.These are the sorts of questions the early church obsessed over. Missional churches have these questions embedded in their culture, whether or not they ever use the fancy latin phrase or have super-sophisticated “missional” structures. Missional people can’t help but ask what God wants in the world, and how they can bear witness to God’s desires and God’s work towards fulfilling those intentions. Each encounter with the word, each gathering with the church, and every moment in the neighborhood is an opportunity to deepen our understanding of God’s mission in the world. That obsession is planted deep within our hearts, and keeps gnawing at our souls. Like a deep mystery, it holds us in vigilant tension, so that every moment we are ready to perceive the clues that might shed light on what God is really at work doing. The seed of that obsession grows from the inside out, until its fruit becomes apparent in the world. It is an internal drive that fuels every external step we take. 

  • Simplicity Inside-Out by Scott Elliott

    Editor’s Note: I struggle with simplicity, and love the way Scott frames this conversation. This is one of the posts from the 2016 Blog Tour. You can check that category for the other offerings here.Simplicity is a popular topic in some circles nowadays. We live in a culture driven by consumerism and materialism. We are swimming in a sea of accumulation, and it has not led us to be happier or more satisfied with life. We are beginning to see a pendulum shift with the rise of minimalism. Since we have discovered obtaining things is not the key to a meaningful life, some people are ready to try simplicity.Simplicity sounds like a viable alternative to the cluttered and busy life many of us know too well. The turn towards minimalism is a welcome trend in our culture since it is more in line with the teachings of Jesus. However, the biblical teaching on simplicity is not just about what one owns or where one lives. Simplicity must begin from within. Jesus says, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matt. 6:21) Our desires begin in the heart. If a person is going to simplify their life, then they must desire less. The way to do this is to focus on the heart.One of the most well-known passages concerning simplicity is Matthew 6:25-34. This section is marked by the word “anxious” found in verses 25 and 34. In verse 25 Jesus commands, “do not be anxious about your life” and in verse 34 he commands, “do not be anxious about tomorrow.” This entire passage is about trusting in God to provide. God feeds the birds. He clothes the lilies. If he does these things, then he will certainly make sure his followers are clothed and fed as well. The argument continues to build until in verses 32-33 Jesus contrasts the way the world lives with how Christians are supposed to live. People who live by a worldly standard seek after worldly things. They seek after money, possessions, and power. Followers of Jesus are expected to desire the kingdom of God rather than material possessions and wealth. Christians are called to live a simple life with God at the center. In addition about money, how can I get a loan if I’m unemployed? Learn more at http://www.pickaloan.co.ukIn Matthew 6 Jesus talks about food and clothing. He speaks to his followers about simplifying their outward life, but we must remember this all began with a statement about what the heart desires (Matt. 6:21). You cannot change what you are doing on the outside without first changing what is going on inside of you. This is made evident in Philippians 4:6-7:

    “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

    Paul uses the language of Jesus. He gives a similar command to the ones Jesus gave in Matthew 6:25, 34. The difference here is that Paul is speaking of inward things rather than outward things. He is instructing Christians regarding an inward peace that God provides those who are following the path of Jesus. When a follower of God commits to not being anxious or being overwhelmed with worry and instead turns to God in prayer and thankfulness, then they are filled with “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding.”The right desires, inner peace, not being anxious, and prayer are all inward things that lead us to a life of simplicity. Our outward life is directly tied to our inward life. A life of simplicity is not just about owning less stuff. It is about desiring the right things and trusting in a God who will not disappoint.

    09-scott-elliott-picScott Elliott is a graduate of Oklahoma State University and Austin Graduate School of Theology. He lives in La Grange, TX and is the minister for the La Grange Church of Christ. He is married and has two sons. He enjoys writing about the Christian faith and posting the occasional film review. His articles and reviews have appeared in RELEVANT magazine, Englewood Review of Books, and other publications. He also blogs regularly at https://start2finish.org/category/resurrected-living/

  • Transformation from the Inside Out, by Ryan Lassiter

    Editor’s Note: I got to meet Ryan Lassiter at the wedding of another Ryan whom we both love dearly, and am glad to count him as a friend from afar. I’m grateful for his contribution to the Blog Tour! -shAs I observe the Christian world around me (or maybe the entire world around me for that matter), it seems that extremes win the day. I grew up like many Christians have over the past 30 or more years in a faith tradition that was steeped in legalism. God was seen as this angry God who really did not much like his people, but he could be “bought off” with good deeds. As a reaction to that, we lean over into a world of “justification by faith” to talk about the gospel in such a way that it seems like simply an endeavor of the mind. Believe this, think that, say these words, be immersed in water, and you are “good”. The goal is simply to think certain things and confess certain things with your mouth, and then go to heaven when you die. For some reason, we never settle in the middle of these extremes with the biblical view that you are loved by God simply because, and that you are saved by faith alone. Therefore, live out your salvation and embark upon a journey of following Christ. We love the extremes it seems.There has been a lot of scholarship over the past 30 years that has led us to believe that Paul wasn’t plagued with guilt when he wrote Romans, like say Martin Luther was when he read it. It seems that Paul’s goal was not simply to help get people to heaven when they die (though that is important), but it was to get heaven inside of Christ followers. The gospel was not simply something to be believed, or a formula for salvation from hell at death, but it was a good news event that should dramatically alter the life of those who believe it and follow after this Crucified Christ. To follow Christ is to orient one’s life toward Christ and begin a journey of being formed into His image. It is why Paul would say things about us being transformed from one degree of glory to another (2 Corinthians 3:18).So I don’t know if you are like me, but I find myself often frustrated. I want to be more patient, loving, kind, gentle, generous, and self-controlled. I want to react differently, or perhaps be less reactionary at times. I wish I was less impatient, less rash, less compulsive, less…well, you name it. It is a bit like my golf game.I love golf. I don’t think my swing and my game are that bad. In my head, I know how to play the game really well and I can see myself playing well. However, I continually am amazed and frustrated when I go play and I’m not much better than the last time I played. Yet I never think that part of the problem is I don’t practice. And so it is with my faith. I wish I saw more of the fruit of the Spirit pouring forth in my life, but I do nothing toward that goal.As Paul is concluding his theological masterpiece, he says, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” – Romans 12:2 (emphasis mine). Paul seems to believe we can be different, and that we can be transformed from the inside out by the renewing of our minds. The gospel can and ought to transform us now, not just at the end. The deal is though, it isn’t a magic formula that you believe and confess and all of the sudden your life is dramatically changed. Sure there are these monumental moments in our faith, but more and more I think it is about the daily process of pursuing Christ. And it is into this thinking that I believe the spiritual disciplines call out to us. The spiritual disciplines are no magic formula, but they can position us for the Spirit to do its work.I love the teaching of people like Dallas Willard and Richard Foster. They have a holistic and full view of salvation that it isn’t simply a one time conversion moment, but it is a journey or a process of transformation. Both of these guys also believe that the spiritual disciplines are the “practice” so to speak of the faith. If we want to see transformation in our lives, if we want to be less compulsive and reactionary and more patient and kind, perhaps we ought to do things that position us for the Spirit to make these changes in our lives. Maybe we incorporate into our daily lives what St. Benedict called a “rule of life”, or “rhythm of life” that practices the spiritual disciplines of prayer, fasting, solitude, silence, hospitality, submission to others, etc. If the goal isn’t simply to get to heaven one day, but to get heaven inside of us, to become people who begin to look and act more like Christ, then maybe these spiritual disciplines are a very practical tool for this inside out transformation, or what Paul calls the “renewing of your mind”.The western story of Christianity has been hijacked into one that sounds like Jesus came into the world so we could get out of it. The problem is, that is not a very biblical picture of faith. Rather, what if we let go of that story and began seeing that Christ came into this world to get His image inside of it, or inside of us. No we don’t want to conform to the ways of this world, but neither do we want to hide from it. Rather, let us be transformed from the inside out by the renewing of our minds, and through this bear His image to a lost and broken world.I can guarantee you that practicing the spiritual disciplines will position you for this transformation because I have seen it in my own life. The deal is though, no one can teach you into this change. Rather, you will have to try it. We can talk about the disciplines, but if you really want to see how it might could work in your life, then do it. Slow down, carve out space in your life, and lean into these disciplines. And don’t be surprised if you notice yourself reacting a bit differently, perhaps a bit more like Jesus would react. The Holy Spirit wants to transform you into the image of Christ, but this can only be done from the inside out. 04 Ryan Lassiter - picRyan Lassiter is the preaching minister at the Hunter Hills Church of Christ in Prattville AL. Prior to that he served as a minster at the Golf Course Road Church of Christ in Midland TX, and he and his wife Sarah have also spent time as missionaries. Ryan graduated with his masters in Missional Leadership from Rochester College and his passion is helping people join God in his mission of redemption and restoration. He blogs at www.ryanlassiter.com.

  • Church Inside Out, by Tim Archer

    This is the second installment in the 2016 Blog Tour that I’m participating in. I love Tim’s contribution here, especially that incredible quote from Gregory about Basil below. Enjoy! -shI’ve come to love the story of Basil the Great. He was bishop of Caesarea in the late 4th century. Basil earned his fame as a staunch defender of the Nicene creed, what most of us know as the traditional teaching about the relationship between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. He worked tirelessly to oppose the teachings of those who saw Jesus as a created being. One of these opponents was the Roman emperor Valens, who banished Basil from the Roman empire on several occasions (though Basil paid no mind to the decrees).Important though such work was, Basil’s greatest legacy was the Basiliad, the huge hospital/orphanage/hospice/poor house that was built outside of Caesarea. When Emperor Valens came to Caesarea to confront Basil face to face, he was so impressed by Basil’s work that he donated imperial land for expansions to the Basiliad.When Basil died, Gregory of Nazianzus declared, “His words were like thunder because his life was like lightning.”I love that imagery. I’d love to have it said of me. I’d love to have it said of the church. Words like thunder backed by a life like lightning; that’s what the church needs.Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount:You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:14–16)Far too often our churches are cloistered within four walls, living godly lives that are seen by no one. We become consumed by inward-focused ministries. With all of our energies directed at one another, cabin fever sets in, and the church fights and feuds over minor matters. As we distance ourselves from our communities, we come to fear and distrust the outside world. In the end, having no significant relationship with outsiders, we content ourselves with trying to convert our young people.That’s not how we were called to live! Peter told his readers:

    “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” (1 Peter 2:12)

    Our lives are to be lived out in the open. Non-Christians should see our lives and respect them. This is true of us as individuals; it’s also true for the church as a whole.We’ve got to be the church inside out… insiders going out in order to help outsiders come in.Jesus has gifted his church with gifts and with leaders to equip her for works of service (Ephesians 4:7-13). One of the main tasks of Christian leaders is to help members find and use their gifts in service to others. Leaders should be aware of the needs of the community around as well as knowing how to help members discover their own giftedness. Elders and ministers need a mechanism for communicating those needs to the body, be it through social networks, phone trees, Bible classes, small groups, or announcements from the pulpit. They also need an awareness that no church can meet every need. It’s possible that some needs will only be prayed about for now, trusting that God will raise up people for those ministries at a future date.Leaders should be open to proposals for new ways of serving, for new ministries that better fit the current membership and contemporary needs. In the same way, some ministries should be allowed to fall dormant or cease to exist; there is no shame in moving on from a ministry that is no longer bearing fruit.Church members should be creatively looking for ways to use their gifts to serve the community around. Where giftedness meets need, that is the Christian’s calling. Sometimes those gifts fit within existing structures in the church; sometimes new ministries will be developed to minister to the community in more appropriate ways.It’s important that we encourage our members to experiment with new ministries. Leaders should be positive and affirming when faced with ministry proposals, especially “outside the walls” ministries. People need to know that they can try something, evaluate it honestly, and make necessary changes (including suspension of that ministry for a time). As churches step outside of themselves, they will find more unpredictability and a need for more flexibility.But step out we must. The church needs to be seen by the community, seen as a force for good. We will never be able to speak like thunder, until our lives shine like lightning. Others will never praise God because of us until they see deeds that are truly praiseworthy. I’ll close with a quote from my book Church Inside Out:As the old refrain says, they won’t care what we know until they know that we care. The world does not want to be preached at. Outsiders don’t want Christians standing inside church buildings pointing fingers out at the rest of the world. But when they see transformed lives reflected in a Christian body that serves its community, they’ll want to hear the message.02 Tim Archer - picTimothy Archer has coordinated the Spanish-speaking Ministries for Hope For Life / Herald of Truth Ministries since 2006. He has spent three decades working in Spanish ministry, including 15 years in Argentina. Tim preaches for the bilingual ministry at the University Church of Christ in Abilene, Texas, where he attends with his wife Carolina, and their two children, Daniel and Andrea. Tim has co-authored three books with Steve Ridgell: Letters From The Lamb, Hope For Life and More Hope For Life, as well as a history of the churches of Christ in Cuba that was co-written with Cuban preacher Tony Fernández. Tim’s latest book, Church Inside Out, helps churches motivate their members to be actively ministering to the community around them. 

  • A Missional Bibliography

    As Missional Theology matures, it’s producing a growing body of literature. It can be a lot to sort through, so here I’m collecting those resources that I’ve found helpful, with some comments along the way. I’ll start by providing a handful of foundational texts that I think are indispensable, and then point towards some other useful works along the way. I’ll be updating this page over time, so let me know of the ones I’ve missed in the comments!

    Foundational Texts

    Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America, Darrell Guder and Friends, 1998. This is the mothership, people. It’s a foundational text, and if you really want to study the missional church, you have to read it. The good news is it reads pretty well, even after a couple of decades. For me, reading this was like finding the spring that fed the stream I’d been drinking from for years.

    Treasure in Clay Jars: Patterns in Missional Faithfulness by Lois Barrett and friends. This is essentially the same gang of writers as Missional Church (Guder 1998), and in this text they try to put a little more flesh on their ideas. It’s based on case studies, and is a quick read—much less dense than Missional Church.

    The Missional Church in Perspective by Craig Van Gelder and Dwight Zscheile, 2011. This is another piece from one of the original collaborators (Van Gelder) that strikes me really as an extension of Missional Church. Since it’s a fairly easy read, I’d think of this as going into the essential toolkit. Part of what this book does is to frame how the missional conversation has forked and taken different turns since 1998. Since different people use missional language to mean different things, a book that takes a high view of the conversation, mapping it out, becomes very useful. This book is also useful for sending you in new directions, expanding your reading list.

    The Open Secret: An Introduction to the Theology of Mission by Lesslie Newbigin (1995). This is a key predecessor to Missional Church, and no missional reading list is complete without it. Newbigin, upon his return to the Western World, helped it to see its own identity as a mission field, and provided theological language for our engagement with our neighbors.

    Other Missional Books

    • Poured Out: The Spirit of God Empowering the Mission of God by Leonard Allen (ACU Press, 2018). A pneumatology of mission from within Churches of Christ: the Spirit as the one who empowers the church’s participation in God’s mission.
    • Models of Contextual Theology, rev. ed., by Stephen Bevans (Orbis, 2002). The standard typology of how theology engages culture; a natural companion to Sedmak.
    • Constants in Context: A Theology of Mission for Today by Bevans and Schroeder (2004).
    • Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission, David Bosch (1991). One of the significant predecessors to Missional Church, Bosch gives a thorough account of the trajectory that led to the missional movement.
    • Memories, Hopes, and Conversations: Appreciative Inquiry, Missional Engagement, and Congregational Change, 2nd ed., by Mark Lau Branson (Rowman & Littlefield, 2016). Appreciative inquiry as a method for congregational listening and change.
    • Staying is the New Going by Alan Briggs (2015)
    • Faithful Presence: Seven Disciplines that Shape the Church for Mission by David Fitch (IVP, 2016). Seven practices, beginning with the Lord’s Table, that shape a congregation’s presence in its neighborhood.
    • Reckoning with Power: Why the Church Fails When It’s on the Wrong Side of Power by David Fitch (Brazos, 2024). A theology of power in the church, distinguishing worldly “power over” from the “power under” of Christ.
    • Prodigal Christianity: 10 Signposts into the Missional Frontier by David Fitch and Geoff Holsclaw (2013)
    • The Road to Missional: Journey to the Center of the Church by Michael Frost (2011)
    • Surprise the World: Five Habits of Highly Missional People by Michael Frost (2015) is a great little book that would be useful for a small study group. Very readable.
    • The Shaping of Things to Come by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch (2003, 2013). The revised edition has some pretty useful reflections in the introduction. This is a passionate and useful text, even if I have a couple of reservations about the way they ditch the trinitarian emphasis in favor of a heavy Christology.
    • A Light to the Nations: The Missional Church and the Biblical Story by Michael Goheen (2011).
    • Becoming the Gospel: Paul, Participation, and Mission by Michael Gorman (2015). Gorman’s expertise is in missional hermeneutics (how we read and use scripture).
    • Reading Revelation Responsibly: Uncivil Worship and Witness: Following the Lamb into the New Creation by Michael J. Gorman (2011). This is an earlier piece on Revelation, and I love it. It’s very readable, but will leave you chewing.
    • Circle of Hope: A Reckoning with Love, Power, and Justice in an American Church by Eliza Griswold (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2024). A journalist’s account of the rise and unraveling of a missional congregation in Philadelphia; a National Book Award finalist.
    • Called to Witness: Doing Missional Theology by Darrell Guder (2015) collects essays Guder published on the missional church after the landmark publication in 1998.
    • The Continuing Conversion of the Church by Darrell Guder (2000). This book provides a perspective on what’s happening inside the missional church, and why that formation is key for the mission of God. I love this text’s fundamental premise.
    • Eat What Is Set Before You: A Missiology of the Congregation in Context by Scott Hagley (Urban Loft, 2019). On the congregation as the primary site of contextual missiology.
    • Missional. Monastic. Mainline.: A Guide to Starting Missional Micro-Communities in Historically Mainline Traditions by Elaine Heath (2014)
    • The Forgotten Ways by Alan Hirsch (2009)
    • An Introduction to Ecclesiology: Historical, Global, and Interreligious Perspectives, rev. ed., by Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen (IVP Academic, 2021). A survey of the major ecclesial traditions and contemporary global ecclesiologies.
    • Decolonizing Mission: The Cross, the Empire, and the Future of Christian Witness by Harvey Kwiyani (SCM, 2025). A majority-world call for mission without domination.
    • The King Jesus Gospel by Scot McKnight (2011) provides the sort of biblical backdrop that fuels the missional movement.
    • Mission-Shaped Church (2004) is a Church of England publication I’ve heard good things about, and I know it’s been influential in the Anglican Fresh Expressions circles.
    • The Trinity and the Kingdom, Jürgen Moltmann (1993). Moltmann fits the description of a theologian whose writing has deeply impacted the missional movement, even if not explicitly missional.
    • Post-Christendom: Church and Mission in a Strange New World, 2nd ed., by Stuart Murray (Cascade, 2018). The standard book-length account of the post-Christendom transition.
    • Pilgrims and Priests: Christian Mission in a Post-Christian Society by Stefan Paas (SCM, 2019). A European account of Christian identity as a creative minority after Christendom.
    • Churches and the Crisis of Decline: A Hopeful, Practical Ecclesiology for a Secular Age by Andrew Root (Baker Academic, 2022). Reads congregational decline theologically rather than as a growth problem.
    • Evangelism in an Age of Despair: Hope Beyond the Failed Promise of Happiness by Andrew Root (Baker Academic, 2025). Evangelism as consolation in a culture that has traded hope for happiness.
    • Missional: Joining God in the Neighborhood by Alan Roxburgh (2011). This is a pretty central text, and is probably one of the better introductory pieces out there. It may end up getting moved to the foundational list above.
    • Missional Map-Making: Skills for Leading in Times of Transition by Alan Roxburgh (2010). There’s been a lot written about missional leadership—Roxburgh is a trustworthy guide.
    • The Missionary Congregation, Leadership, and Liminality by Alan Roxburgh (1997). This is a more academic piece than Roxburgh’s other writing, and is sort of a forgotten little book, unfortunately.
    • Introducing the Missional Church: What It Is, Why It Matters, How to Become One by Alan Roxburgh and Scott Boren (2009)
    • Forming Communities of Hope in the Great Unraveling: Leadership in a Changing World by Alan Roxburgh and Roy Searle (Cascade, 2025). Roxburgh’s most recent work on leadership amid cultural unraveling.
    • Doing Local Theology: A Guide for Artisans of a New Humanity by Clemens Sedmak (2003). This is a jewel of a book with an unfortunately hokey cover. I advise you to defer judgment.
    • Slow Church: Cultivating Community in the Patient Way of Jesus by Christopher Smith and John Pattison (IVP, 2014). A place-rooted vision of congregational life, drawn from the Englewood Christian Church story in Indianapolis.
    • The Ministry of the Missional Church: A Community Led by the Spirit by Craig Van Gelder (2007)
    • Participating in God’s Mission: A Theological Missiology for the Church in America by Craig Van Gelder and Dwight Zscheile (Eerdmans, 2018). A comprehensive, mature restatement of missio Dei ecclesiology.
    • Minding the Good Ground: A Theology for Church Renewal by Jason E. Vickers (Baylor University Press, 2011). A theological, rather than programmatic, account of church renewal.
    • Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation by Miroslav Volf (1996). Volf isn’t explicitly a missional theologian, but his work seems to be an important piece of the conversation, in my view.
    • A Public Faith: How Followers of Christ Should Serve the Common Good by Miroslav Volf (2013)
    • The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative by Christopher Wright (2006). Like Gorman, Wright is a significant figure in missional hermeneutics. His focus has typically been in Old Testament Studies, and that provides the backdrop for this book, which is a landmark work for the field.
    • Scripture and the Authority of God by N.T. Wright (revised in 2013) is excellent, and the book makes a fantastic case for a missional understanding of how scripture fits into the story of God. If you haven’t cut your teeth on Wright yet, you should, and this is a great place to start.
    • Leading Faithful Innovation: Following God into a Hopeful Future by Dwight Zscheile, Michael Binder, and Tessa Pinkstaff (Fortress, 2023). A three-movement discernment process: listening, acting to learn, and sharing stories.
    • Embracing the Mixed Ecology: Inherited and New Forms of Christian Community Flourishing Together by Dwight Zscheile and Blair Pogue (Seabury, 2025). How established congregations and new expressions of church can flourish together.

    Missional Web Hubs

    • Missio Alliance has one of the best missional blogs around the web. Most of the articles here are at a popular level, though often by respected missional leaders.
    • Missio Dei is an online academic journal with articles about missional theory and practice.
    • The Journal of Missional Practice has a vision “to be like a table around which theologically informed practitioners gather with others to share the stories of what they are doing and discerning on the ground and in the local.” I’d say they pull it off.
    • Faith+Lead is Luther Seminary’s hub for resources on missional leadership and congregational innovation, and home of the Pivot podcast.

    Missional Podcasts

    • Theology on Mission is a regular podcast featuring David Fitch and Geoff Holsclaw. (iTunes, Overcast)
    • Missional Hospitality with Alan Roxburgh is episode 2 of the Fresh Expressions Podcast.
    • Leaving Egypt is Alan Roxburgh’s podcast (with Jenny Sinclair) on the church’s vocation amid cultural unraveling.
    • Pivot, hosted by Dwight Zscheile for Luther Seminary’s Faith+Lead, regularly covers missional church, faithful innovation, and the mixed ecology.
    • Leading Faithful Innovation with Dwight Zscheile on Leading Ideas Talks (Lewis Center for Church Leadership, 2023) is a compact overview of the faithful innovation process.
    • Homebrewed Christianity’s June 2025 conversation with Andrew Root on Evangelism in an Age of Despair is a long-form treatment of the book’s argument.
    • Communitas and Loneliness with Alan Hirsch on the Fresh Expressions Podcast (2024).

    Updated: Sept 8, 2026

    Posted: June 8, 2016

  • Podcasts: A Guide for Spiritual Seekers

    PODCASTAs podcasting emerges and develops as a media form, the church is figuring out how to use it to foster spiritual growth. This guide is for those who are new to podcasting in general or who have not yet tapped into its potential as a tool for spiritual formation. We’ll start with the basics of what a podcast is, and how you can use them. Then we’ll look at the landscape of some of the spiritual resources available through podcasts, and I’ll offer a shortlist of top podcasts to get you started. Finally, I offer a curated list of other podcasts you might want to try out.

    What Are Podcasts?

    A podcast is an audio show that is released serially—one episode on the time—over the internet. Typically, the episodes are collected by what we call a “feed”, so that users can subscribe and get notified or automatically download each new episode as it’s published. This means that they are not released “live” (although some may be recorded that way), but podcasts are an example of “time-shifted” or “on-demand” media—the episodes are available so that users can listen to them whenever they want.Podcasting has a few distinct advantages as a form of media:

    • It has a really low bar of entry (a computer and mic is all people really need to get started), so there are a lot of innovative shows and interesting people getting involved who wouldn’t get published or broadcasts in other forms of media. Of course, you have to sort through and find them, but I think that’s getting easier.
    • Its on-demand nature means people can listen to them whenever they want. No more need to catch a show on a certain time.
    • Because of the low bar of entry and the ability to broadcast worldwide, there are a lot of really niche shows—if you’re interested in it, I bet there’s a podcast devoted to it.

    How to Listen to Podcasts

    Although episodes can be located and listened to in a web browser, most consumers use apps to listen to podcasts. These apps allow the user to subscribe to various shows, often by providing access to a directory, and the app takes care of automatically downloading new episodes. The most popular app by far is the podcast app that comes preloaded on iPhones, or iTunes on desktops. However, other apps have emerged as well, either to serve other audiences (like android users) or to provide various additional features. Personally, I’m a huge fan of the Overcast.fm app that’s available for iOS (I love the layout and smart speed features). Stitcher is another app with a large following on iOS and Android, and Google has recently added podcasts to the Google Play app as well.Basically, to really take advantage of the podcasting scene, you just need to download one of these apps and begin subscribing to a few shows. It can be a little daunting to find the ones you’re looking for, so let me give an overview of what I see out there, and provide a few shows that make for good starting points. If you know of a show I should add, please feel free to leave it in the comments!

    The Landscape of Spiritual Podcasts

    In the last few years, podcasting has exploded, and the numbers of both podcast shows and subscribers is growing consistently. You might be surprised to know that on the iTunes directory, which is easily the most used, the “Christianity” category is one of the most highly populated, with more than 20,000 active shows (via Josh Morgan).  Those shows come in a handful of different formats:

    • Interview Shows—A large number of shows exist that employ a format where a host interviews somebody, usually somebody who has recently published a new book. One of the good things about this format is that it helps expose you to a wide range of ideas, while providing the consistency of the host’s perspective. On the other side, if you subscribe to a lot of these types of shows, you’ll end up hearing the same authors as they make the circuit promoting their shows. There are some really excellent shows out there in this format, and the material is somewhat unique to the podcasting world.
    • The Buddy Format—these shows have a couple of pals kicking around an idea or two. When these shows work, it’s because you just feel like part of their conversation.
    • Essayists Shows—These shows usually are monologues of a person sharing their own thinking in a certain area, whether that’s theological, spiritual, or something else. I like this sort of material because it can be a little dense, in the sense of holding a lot of meaning.
    • How-to Shows—These shows provide some sort of guidance on working through particular issues, whether they be leadership or spirituality based.
    • Sermon Podcasts— I’m sure that one reason the number of shows is so high in the Christianity category is because churches often release their sermon recordings as podcasts. I’m not into listening to these as much, partly because the content is repurposed, and it doesn’t feel as fresh as the actual experience of listening to a sermon live. However, it’s certainly a good way to connect with preachers from afar, or to keep up with sermons you may have missed from your home church.

    In terms of theological perspective, there are shows of nearly every stripe available, both in terms of denominational origins and theological emphases—although, interestingly, it may be easier to identify shows by the latter rather than the former! It seems to me that there are a lot of very popular podcasts coming out of the Neo-Calvinist camp, and the prosperity gospel folks are represented by Olsteen’s mega-popular show. There are a lot of people doing interesting work from what I can only call the “deconstructionist” corners of the church, which I mean as people who have left institutionalized (and often fundamentalist) forms of Christianity and reentered faith, generally with a more postmodern perspective. The faith stream that resonates most with me, the missional perspective, is also well-represented. There’s no shortage of catholic offerings as well, some of which are very interesting devotionally.

    A Starter-Pack of Podcasts for Spiritual Seekers

    Given the incredible breadth of the podcast catalog, I feel like it’s important to give beginners a handful of shows to sink their teeth into. Here’s my basic starter pack.Note: these weren’t picked because they are the best necessarily, but I think they’re simply easy for most beginners to get into. The extended list of podcasts at the bottom of the page has some excellent choices, too.You can probably just search for them within your app of choice, but I’ve included the links for iTunes (should work in the iOS podcast app) and Overcast. (Seriously, give overcast a try.)

    • Fable (iTunes, Overcast): Charlie Porter does an outstanding job in this podcasts, which both offers perspectives (memoir style) of his own spiritual journey and reflections on characters from other narrative streams like literature or popular media.
    • Spiritual Steps (iTunes, Overcast): This is my own podcast, and I’m shamelessly putting it on this list. It’s a short podcast, 15 minutes or so, with each episode offering a step people can take to progress in the spiritual life.
    • The Bible Project (iTunes, Overcast): I love these episodes. They’re providing some very rich theological content, in a great conversational format.
    • The Robcast (iTunes, Overcast) Honestly, I have been really surprised by how much I love Rob Bell’s podcast. I really didn’t think this was my jam, but I think he’s a fantastic interviewer and he’s great at shifting towards the most interesting parts of the conversation. Give it a shot.

    Tips and Tricks

    • Resist the urge to feel like you need to catch up on all your shows…sometimes you’re going to get behind and you really should give yourself permission to just delete the old episodes you missed. Just listen to the next one that really interests you.
    • Listen to a variety of shows…pick some from various faith traditions as well as your own, and try out different formats: monologues, interviews, etc. Finally, it’s a good idea to subscribe to shows with different lengths. Sometimes you may have time for a longer show, while the shorter ones make for good commute listening (or vice versa, depending on your commute!).
    • Share what you find. Podcasting is a lot more fun if you have some friends with whom you can exchange shows you love. Exposes somebody else to the world of podcasting!
    • Branch out. There’s a whole world of excellent secular podcasts out there as well. No matter your interests, there are podcast that will resonate with them, and broaden your horizons!
    • Join the conversation! Trust me, podcasters love to connect and get feedback, whether that be on facebook, twitter, or somewhere else. (Their most favorite candy of all is positive reviews on iTunes.)

    An Extended List of Podcasts for Spiritual Growth

    This is a growing list, so if you have a podcast you want me to include, please feel free to mention it in the comments, or let me know on twitter at @stevenhovater!

    • The Liturgists (Michael Gungor, Science Mike) | iTunes, Overcast  this is actually my all-time favorite podcast. I didn’t put it into the starter pack list above just because the deconstructed perspective isn’t going to be for everybody, but I absolutely love this show. The Lost and Found episodes and “Black and White”, an episode on american race-relations, are pretty much the best things on the internet.
    • Newsworthy with Norsworthy (Luke Norsworthy) | (iTunes, Overcast) This is one of the best interview format shows out there…every guest is great, and Luke’s crafted a fascinating show persona. Great Show.
    • Nomad | (iTunes, Overcast) There is an emerging consensus that this is the best Christian theology podcast in an interview format out of Nottingham, England. Rich interviews.
    • Q Podcast | (iTunes, Overcast)
    • Communion Sanctorum (iTunes, Overcast) This is a church history podcast.
    • Relevant Podcast iTunes, Overcast This is like a party podcast format. They do news, current events from a (Millennial) Christian perspective.
    • This Good Word (Steve Wiens) (iTunes, Overcast)
    • Seminary Dropout (iTunes, Overcast)
    • Kingdom Roots (Scot McNight) (iTunes, Overcast)
    • On Being (Krista Tippett) | (iTunes, Overcast) Off of NPR, Tippett’s interviews go beyond Christianity, but they are spiritual rich, and she’s a fantastic interviewer.
    • Renovare Podcast (Nathan Foster) (iTunes, Overcast) Great podcast centered on spiritual formation.
    • Theology on Mission (David Fitch and Geoff Holsclaw)| (iTunes, Overcast)
    • Christian Feminist Podcast (Ashley Easter, Charliee Olivia) | http://www.ashleyeaster.com/blog?category=Christian+Feminism+Weekly
    • Homebrewed Christianity | Tripp Fuller (iTunes, Overcast)
    • Theology in the Raw | (iTunes, Overcast)
    • Spark My Muse (Lisa DeLay) (iTunes, Overcast)
    • The Kindlings Muse (iTunes, Overcast)
    • Daily Disconnect Podcast (iTunes, Overcast)

    Podcasts on Spiritual Leadership or Ministry

    I didn’t include these above, but I also listen to a lot of podcasts on spiritual leadership. Here’s my list of some of the best ministry podcasts out there. Again, a growing list.

    • The Craft of Ministry Podcast. (iTunes, Overcast) Yup. Including my own podcast, and putting it first. Shannon Cooper typically joins me.
    • Carey Nieuwhof Leadership Podcast (iTunes, Overcast)
    • The Productive Pastor Podcast (iTunes, Overcast)
    • Lead Stories Podcast (Jo Saxton, Steph Williams) | (iTunes, Overcast) I appreciate these women adding their voices to the world of christian ministry and leadership podcasts! Great show!
    • Catalyst Podcast Nancy Duarte, James Clair | (iTunes, Overcast)