Contrast Soceity

I am in the middle of writing a short chapter on the call for the church to be a contrast society. I believe this is a concrete way we can talk about the practical implications of being a missional church. Even with this the practicalities are vague in nature. But we can easily say that it is impossible to be on mission in a neighborhood unless the people with a mission live in a distinctive way. Too much of our imagination has been about evangelizing people church participation that resembles a club membership more than a way of life. Those within the church typically live life in much the same way as the wider culture. The patterns of consumerism, individualism, isolationism are not just part of the life of the church members, they actually shape the imagination of how we should be shaping our churches.