“The goal of our missional life is not to grow churches. The goal of church is to grow missionaries. The goal of the gospel is not to get people to church. The result of the gospel is that people will find each other and gather because of the deep meaning of a common experience.” (pg 168)

While reviewing some of my underlines after reading The Tangible Kingdom, the quote above stood out. It seemed to capture the main ideas of the book so well.

For anyone who appreciates the writings of Michael Frost or Alan Hirsch (The Shaping of Things to Come, The Forgotten Ways, Exiles), I’d recommend The Tangible Kingdom. As I’ve described it to a few friends, it is a book written from the firsthand of experience who has started a faith community here in the United States holding on to many of the concepts that Frost and Hirsch offer in their writings. However, it isn’t written as a prescription. Though he offers lots of personal illustrations, Hugh Halter does a good job of emphasizing practically how things might shape without creating a model to be followed.

On the crest of a starting a new church community, the arrival of this book was beautifully timed for me because it expresses so well a lot of things I’ve been thinking about … and develops some thinking beyond where I’ve been able to take it. It will be a book I will ask our board and our core group to read as we dream forward.

Oh yeah, and it’s endorsed on the back cover by both Mark Driscoll and Brian McLaren. How many books can you say that about?

The call of community isn’t about finding people just like us, or at the exclusion of any people. Community in the biblical sense is clearly about unlike people finding Christ at the center of their inclusive life together. — Hugh Halter & Matt Smay, The Tangible Kingdom

I have tagged a number of blog posts in the last few weeks that my heart was in tune with. Each of these somehow captures pieces of what I am hoping for in a new church community:

• The Consuming Christian and the Consuming Church (Todd Hiestand) – Todd is a good friend, and my initial connection into the Ecclesia Network. I look forward to sharing more time together in the coming years.
• Things They Tell Church Planters That Are Simply Wrong (Pat Loughery) – Much like Todd, Pat is on a short list of friends whose last name I’m not sure how to actually pronounce. Pat has become a Seattle friend who I haven’t gotten to spend enough time with.
• Pastoral Recovery (Hugh Halter) – I’ve only had a chance to speak with Hugh once or twice on the phone, but really appreciate what he is helping to develop with Missio. I’m looking forward to getting my hands on a copy of the new book he co-authored: The Tangible Kingdom.