The first experience of ministry, for one of our editors, was a small inner city church in Birmingham, England. That congregation had at one time been vitally involved in the local life of the community, bringing hope, nurturing leaders, offering much needed resources. It was a relationship which generated a dynamic and living conversation between church and community. The dramatic changes of the post war period had ended that vital community conversation and what was left...

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This story focuses on the development of one particular experiment aimed at learning a new way of relating to a small group of high school football players—as neighbors to be enjoyed in their own presence. The story is remarkable in that the experiment yielded almost no ground, and no perceptible change in language or practice occurred, despite significant work in a progressive and open congregation with an identifiable desire to change. The story is hopeful because...

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Invitation to Participate

Prompts for reflection: the Mississippi Story

Reflection: 'The Presence of Neighbors' by Sam Ewell

Reflection: 'Questioning as Quest' by Angela Gorrell

Reflection: 'Desiring the Neighborhood or Dwelling There' by Carolyn Kelly and Mark Johnston

Reflection: 'Whose Wholeness and Whose Healing?' by Joshua R. Smith

My life and ministry embody a paradox. I am committed to working with local churches and their communities, yet I commute to do this. I am committed to building relationships between local churches and their contexts, yet I am seldom at home in my own neighbourhood. In effect, I am part of modern Western culture...

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We were becoming convinced that a missional God who attends to us in person and in place was calling and empowering us to do the same. What might it look like for us to live among our neighbours as neighbours, community stakeholders alongside them. Could we be neighbours...

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2014 sees our hearts divided between our long-loved scattered church and the local Stroud Green neighbourhood, where we are growing roots.   I begin this reflection with both trepidation (as I know some would criticise my scattered church) and hope (for a clearer vision).

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Can God be found on the streets of Munich? Munich, of all places, a city of wealth, pride and power with its designer stores and business headquarters?  It was Father Christian Herwartz SJ who encouraged us, a group of men from all over Germany, to believe just that. So we met in St. Martin’s Lutheran Church, slept on the balcony of the sanctuary, met for breakfast and prayer in the mornings and then set off individually into the bustle and noise of the streets.

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ABSTRACT: This article describes the results of a research project for a PhD at the University of Pretoria, under supervision of Prof Nelus Niemandt. The research was done against the backdrop of huge paradigm shifts within society and missiology and...

Review of Alan Roxburgh, Structured for Mission: Renewing the Culture of the Church (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2015). Originally published in Englewood Review of Books, Vol 05, No. 03, Summer, 2015. It is reproduced here with permission. EnglewoodReview.org

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Review of Lynne M Baab, The Power of Listening: Building Skills for Mission and Ministry (Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, 2014)

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Review of Larry Siedentop, Inventing the Individual: The Origins of Western Liberalism (Milton Keynes; UK: Penguin Random House, 2015)

First published in 2014 this is a must read for anyone committed to addressing Newbigin’s question about a missionary engagement with the late, modern West, especially its North Atlantic form. True confession - this book reads like a good thriller...

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