A lot has been written about the 'missional church.' For some 'missional' means 'we do church in the pub' or incorporate the arts in worship. Those are mission strategies, but to be missional is to reflect the God of mission and participate in His mission. Thus to become 'missional' we first need to reflect on the purposes of God and his mission in the world. I know of no better guide than Old Testament scholar Chris Wright (I affectionately refer to him as OT Wright).


This covers much of the same ground as Wright's Mission of God but from a slightly different perspective. Both are great books. In the Mission of God, Wright surveys the whole Bible, to show what it tells us about God's mission (most 'missional books' focus on the New Testament--the gospels or Acts).

In The Mission of God's People Wright draws out the implications for our life and mission. He looks at various themes, for example creation, calling, redemption, justice, witness, etc., looks at what the Bible says about these in Old and New Testament and talks about how we in the church can live out God's mission in our context.

I listened to an audio book version of this from audible.com. I would suggest a text edition would be better. This book is too long and too rich with insight for an audio presentation. Also there were no chapter titles on the audio chapters, so it is harder to revisit relevant passages(which you will want to do). On the plus side, Wright himself read the audio so you get his Northern Irish baroque. ( )