Hey Scot,
Did your opening sentence mean to cite “Missional Church” instead of “Introducing the Missional Church”? I presume that is the case. Just FYI.
Peace,
Jamie

In an evangelical culture where “models” of church are as varied as over-the-counter drugs, it’s refreshing that a book defuses the search for the “right” one to cure the ails of the church. I like your phrase, Scot, “…this does not lead the authors to the burn down the church and retrieve the organic origins approach.” Good stuff.
Sorry, we can’t connect in Grand Rapids, MI.

The missional imagination asks “What is God up to in this neighborhood?”
What a great question. Sounds like it’s “the” question more of us need to be answering. It’s one of the questions I and others at Anchor have been asking for a long time. Combine that with a fresh, missional emphasis on the Spirit, and it’s a potent combination. I’m very excited about where Anchor (our church community) is headed as we ask the key missional question and learn to lean on the missional Spirit. With Guder and Boren’s book comes a great source of encouragement and direction that has long been needed for me.

“But this does not lead the authors to the burn down the church and retrieve the organic origins approach.”
Hmmmm….not too sure about that statement. When you say “burn down the church” do you mean the church building or the Western church structure? I do not know of anyone who seeks a more organic approach to church who advocates that. (I know of a couple who are trying to infect it with organic thought or leave it altogether.)
I’m just not clear on the metaphor. If the church is the Body of Christ, constituted by faithful members, I don’t know what “burn down the church” means.
While I can agree that there is not magic in patternism (I grew up in that world!), i.e. the belief that if we just recover the first century pattern of church that the church will magically blossom, I’m not sure why we would not seek to retrieve the organic imagery of the church and create forms that express that. After all, many images are of the church in the NT are precisely organic. (the Body of Christ, a temple built with living stones, etc.)
I have often wondered why we assume first century practices (even if we could isolate them) are somehow God-given. After all, how else would first century churches have organized if not in homes, etc. However, I do believe the pursuit to recapture organic expressions implicit in much of NT writing regarding the church is a worthwhile pursuit.

Jim, my words mostly: an image for start all over but do so by admitting everything got mixed up.

Haven’t read the book but it sounds like a good one. I am not one who advocates going back to the “perfect” (1st century church) model, nor do I see value in the recent trend to rush forward with no sense or appreciation of where we came from. The Ancient/Future push by Robert Webber seems to be a good try at remembering and gleaning the timeless fruits of our rich past while at the same time being contemporary in the real (not faddish) sense of the word. As for seeing what God is doing and joining Him (ex. Henry Blackaby) I have to confess that I still don’t comprehend what that looks like??

Dr. Guder is the single most brilliant, humble, spiritually well-grounded, and positively forceful professor with whom I have been blessed to study. His class on Missional Theology at Princeton was immanently clarifying, even though I had been treading in the missional waters for several years beforehand.
This follow up text looks promising. If you want to see what the publishers of Guder et al’s volume did along these lines, I would also recommend Treasure in Clay Jars: Patterns in Missional Faithfulness and Guder’s more preliminary text, The Continuing Conversion of the Church. Here are a couple Amazon links for reference:
TICJ – http://www.amazon.com/Treasure-Clay-Jars-Missional-Faithfulness/dp/080282692X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1260380403&sr=8-1
CCOTC – http://www.amazon.com/Continuing-Conversion-Church-Gospel-Culture/dp/080284703X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1260380556&sr=1-1

I don’t know if this was just a brief overview of the entire book, or just part one of a series, but to me it sounds exactly like what was said in “Missional Church.” The authors made that point over and over. On top of that, if this book is supposed to be more “practical,” then I’m not really seeing it. Of course, I understand this was a brief overview, but I didn’t get much of a hint at it.

Glad you mentioned this. I did a review of the book today on my blog. I will check out the other book you mentioned, also, I am reading “The Missional Leader” which is excellent. I am doing my dissertation on the transition of a congregation to missional.
Matthew