I’ve been reading a very thought-provoking book entitled Missional Communities: The Rise of the Post-Congregational Church by Reggie McNeal. It opened my eyes.

It’s not about how the traditional congregation-centered churches are bad. The point is that a growing segment of the American population will never have anything to do with this kind of church.

The author promotes missional communities, groups of people who go to where people live, work, and play to integrate themselves into the lives of these people and not look at them as potential recruits for their church, but as people to build relationships with. Only the author says it much better than that.

The idea is to have groups that aren’t doing Bible studies for the sake of doing Bible studies but are ministering to the specific needs of their communities and being Jesus to the lost and unchurched people around them.

Ultimately, these groups seek to take the church back to her roots, away from being building- and program-centered to being house-centered and heavily involved in the surrounding neighborhoods, where those early believers weren’t afraid to get their hands dirty taking care of those that no one else would touch.

I thought the book was well written. It was definitely more descriptive than prescriptive, describing several examples where churches are implementing these missional communities effectively.

I give this book 5 stars because it has a good beat and you can dance to it.