I read the draft of this book about four years ago. I found myself making another paradigm shift as I read it. As I followed Alan's personal struggle with what it means to be missional, I realized that I had missed what "missional" actually means. I had thought, along with most, that missional is about a new way of being the church. Afterall, the church is our "mother" and God's bride.
At that point, I was working with Alan to get this book published. As I pitched the idea of this book to the editor, he said that it sounds like it is "putting mission into missional." This is exactly what it does. It challenges our church-centric focus and invites us to join God in his mission to redeem all of creation. Of course the church has a role in what God is doing in the world, but God's dream is much bigger than just having missional churches. He wants to empower his church for the sake of engaging the world on mission.
To do this, Roxburgh invites us to think about more than the church. He challenges us to enter our neighborhoods and listen to what is going on there. Instead of assuming that the goal is to get more and more people into our church activities, let's engage people where they are and then offer them the Gospel in that setting.
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