Darrell L Guder

What could be better than brunch on a Sunday morning? For most people in Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver, the answer of gathering to worship the Triune God and be sent as witnesses would not be top of mind. And yet, across the Pacific Northwest the authors discovered deeply rooted missional communities worshipping God and serving their neighborhoods, offering evidence of unexpected Cascadian treasure in clay jars. Join the authors on a treasure hunt throughout the region as they identify new patterns of post-Christendom Christianity that will inspire and challenge your understanding of church.

What could be better than brunch on a Sunday morning? For most people in Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver, the answer of gathering to worship the Triune God and be sent as witnesses would not be top of mind. And yet, across the Pacific Northwest the authors discovered deeply rooted missional communities worshipping God and serving their neighborhoods, offering evidence of unexpected Cascadian treasure in clay jars. Join the authors on a treasure hunt throughout the region as they identify new patterns of post-Christendom Christianity that will inspire and challenge your understanding of church.

Somewhere in the mists of time, between history and hagiography, stands the great evangelist and missionary St. Patrick. Raised a ""cultural Christian,"" Patrick's encounter with God during captivity in Ireland transformed his life and the history of a people. Freedom from slavery, and a return home to Britain, produced the divine summons--Vox Hibernia--to return to Ireland and the place of captivity in order to witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Christian witness in twenty-first-century Vancouver, Seattle, or Portland is a world away from fifth-century Armagh, Slane, or Cashel. Yet, the great evangelist to pre-Christian peoples of Hibernia has much to teach us as we seek to engage our secular, post-Christian context. There is wisdom in the missional leadership of the one we call St. Patrick that goes well beyond tales of snakes and shamrocks. How might Patrick's mission experience with pre-Christian peoples direct our contemporary missional encounter with post-Christian peoples? Come explore the story of the shepherd slave turned shepherd of souls and discover that there is power still in the legacy of Patrick, when yoked with the Spirit-filled presence and purpose of the risen Christ. ""Canadian Ross Lockhart has quickly become one of our foremost interpreters of the church in mission to God's world. In this engaging, fast-paced book, Ross not only draws upon the ancient missional wisdom of missionary St. Patrick, but also gives contemporary church leaders the insights and skills we need to venture forth into God's mission today. Here is missional theology enacted and put in motion by wise, theologically informed, skilled leadership."" --Will Willimon, Duke Divinity School ""With deft analogical imagination, Lockhart retrieves crucial insights from the missional practice of St. Patrick for twenty-first-century secular society. Finally, a treatment of missional practice willing to be at odds with our context rather than treat it as fate. This book is a treasure."" --Richard R. Topping, Vancouver School of Theology ""There are many scholars who do history, others who do theology, others who do missions. Ross Lockhart braids these three together and the resultant chord is strong indeed. I not only learned more history and more about God, I put the book down encouraged to take part in God's mission of renewing the cosmos. A fantastic book."" --Jason Byassee, Vancouver School of Theology ""Many people are looking back to Celtic Christianity as a guide for Christian living today. With wit, charm, and wisdom, Ross Lockhart weaves together the stories of St. Patrick and the story of Cascadia. The result is the best retrieval of Celtic Christian wisdom for transforming missional leadership . . . It will lift your spirit, deepen your convictions, and equip you to follow Jesus in the culture of Cascadia and beyond."" --Jonathan R. Wilson, Regent College ""Here is an invitation to encounter the spiritual journey of St. Patrick as a resource for our present-day challenges. Lockhart helps us to experience this ancient father of the church as a very modern companion. Patrick's mission is an illuminating model for faithful witness in daunting contexts, both then and now."" --Darrell Guder, from the Foreword ROSS A. LOCKHART is Associate Professor at St. Andrew's Hall at The University of British Columbia. He is the founding Director of The Centre for Missional Leadership and author of Lessons from Laodicea: Missional Leadership in a Culture of Affluence (Cascade, 2016).

Somewhere in the mists of time, between history and hagiography, stands the great evangelist and missionary St. Patrick. Raised a ""cultural Christian,"" Patrick's encounter with God during captivity in Ireland transformed his life and the history of a people. Freedom from slavery, and a return home to Britain, produced the divine summons--Vox Hibernia--to return to Ireland and the place of captivity in order to witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Christian witness in twenty-first-century Vancouver, Seattle, or Portland is a world away from fifth-century Armagh, Slane, or Cashel. Yet, the great evangelist to pre-Christian peoples of Hibernia has much to teach us as we seek to engage our secular, post-Christian context. There is wisdom in the missional leadership of the one we call St. Patrick that goes well beyond tales of snakes and shamrocks. How might Patrick's mission experience with pre-Christian peoples direct our contemporary missional encounter with post-Christian peoples? Come explore the story of the shepherd slave turned shepherd of souls and discover that there is power still in the legacy of Patrick, when yoked with the Spirit-filled presence and purpose of the risen Christ. ""Canadian Ross Lockhart has quickly become one of our foremost interpreters of the church in mission to God's world. In this engaging, fast-paced book, Ross not only draws upon the ancient missional wisdom of missionary St. Patrick, but also gives contemporary church leaders the insights and skills we need to venture forth into God's mission today. Here is missional theology enacted and put in motion by wise, theologically informed, skilled leadership."" --Will Willimon, Duke Divinity School ""With deft analogical imagination, Lockhart retrieves crucial insights from the missional practice of St. Patrick for twenty-first-century secular society. Finally, a treatment of missional practice willing to be at odds with our context rather than treat it as fate. This book is a treasure."" --Richard R. Topping, Vancouver School of Theology ""There are many scholars who do history, others who do theology, others who do missions. Ross Lockhart braids these three together and the resultant chord is strong indeed. I not only learned more history and more about God, I put the book down encouraged to take part in God's mission of renewing the cosmos. A fantastic book."" --Jason Byassee, Vancouver School of Theology ""Many people are looking back to Celtic Christianity as a guide for Christian living today. With wit, charm, and wisdom, Ross Lockhart weaves together the stories of St. Patrick and the story of Cascadia. The result is the best retrieval of Celtic Christian wisdom for transforming missional leadership . . . It will lift your spirit, deepen your convictions, and equip you to follow Jesus in the culture of Cascadia and beyond."" --Jonathan R. Wilson, Regent College ""Here is an invitation to encounter the spiritual journey of St. Patrick as a resource for our present-day challenges. Lockhart helps us to experience this ancient father of the church as a very modern companion. Patrick's mission is an illuminating model for faithful witness in daunting contexts, both then and now."" --Darrell Guder, from the Foreword ROSS A. LOCKHART is Associate Professor at St. Andrew's Hall at The University of British Columbia. He is the founding Director of The Centre for Missional Leadership and author of Lessons from Laodicea: Missional Leadership in a Culture of Affluence (Cascade, 2016).

Since the publication of the groundbreaking volume Missional Church in 1998, there has been wide-ranging engagement with the missional church theme. In this book Darrell Guder builds on that ongoing discussion by considering basic theological issues that must be addressed if the church is to be faithful to its calling to serve God as Christ's witnessing people. Guder argues that there are major consequences for every classical theological locus if the fundamental claims of the missional church discussion are acknowledged. In Called to Witness Guder delves into these consequences, saying that we need to keep doing missional theology until it is possible to leave off the "missional scaffolding" because, after all, mission defines the very essence and calling of the church.

A new brand of apostolic ministry for today's world The Permanent Revolution is a work of theological re-imagination and re-construction that draws from biblical studies, theology, organizational theory, leadership studies, and key social sciences. The book elaborates on the apostolic role rooted in the five-fold ministry from Ephesians 4 (apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teacher), and its significance for the missional movement. It explores how the apostolic ministry facilitates ongoing renewal in the life of the church and focuses on leadership in relation to missional innovation and entrepreneurship.The authors examine the nature of organization as reframed through the lens of apostolic ministry. Shows how to view the world through a biblical perspective and continue the "permanent revolution" that Jesus startedOutlines the essential characteristics of apostolic movement and how to restructure the church and ministry to be more consistent with themAlan Hirsch is a leading voice in the missional movement of the Christian West This groundbreaking book integrates theology, sociology, and leadership to further define the apostolic movement.

For several years, argues Guder, contemporary Christian churches have often thought of their mission efforts as simply one more program of the church. In addition, outsiders have rightly criticized Christian mission efforts as exercises in cultural imperialism. In this provocative book, Guder argues that the incarnation of God in Jesus provides the foundational model for the practice of Christian missions in the world today. The incarnation is the culmination of God's activity and presence in the world, says Guder, for in this event God initiates the healing of a broken world. Using literary, historical, and social approaches to scripture, Guder claims the contemporary church should return to an ""incarnational mission"" in which the practice of Christian witness is ""shaped by the life, ministry, suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus."" Darrell L. Guder is the Henry Winters Luce Professor of Missional and Ecumenical Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary and the author of 'Be My Witness: The Church's Mission, Message, and Messengers'.

Western society is now a very different, very difficult mission field. In such a situation, the mission of evangelism cannot succeed with an attitude of -business as usual.- This volume builds a theology of evangelism that has its focus on the church itself. Darrell Guder shows that the church's missionary calling requires that the theology and practice of evangelism be fundamentally rethought and redirected, focused on the continuing evangelization of the church so that it can carry out its witness faithfully in today's world. In Part 1 Guder explores how, under the influence of reductionism and individualism, the church has historically moved away from a biblical theology of evangelism. Part 2 presents contemporary challenges to the church's evangelical ministry, especially those challenges that illustrate the church's need for continuing conversion. Part 3 discusses what a truly missional theology would mean for the church, including sweeping changes in its institutional structures and practices. Written for teachers, church leaders, and students of evangelism, this volume is vital reading for everyone engaged in mission work.