Frost, Michael & Hirsch, Alan. The Shaping of Things to Come. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2003. Frost and Hirsch propose, and build their book upon, three overarching principles that they see as basic to emerging or missional church and further inform the value we’ll come to you. I have found it extremely valuable to explore these principles – that of being incarnational (not attractional in ecclesiology), messianic (not dualistic in spirituality) and apostolic (not hierarchical in leadership). This book is well written and essential reading.
I just finished reading this book. It is nothing short of AMAZING! I was agog, I was aghast, I was challenged, I LEARNED STUFF!!
So Biblical and yet so relevant to Western societies today. Highly recommended. I’m going to buy copies and give them to people as gifts.
The only things I would say about this book that may be less glowing are that:
1) It is quite intellectual with a fairly sophisticated vocabulary – but more readable than a lot of “academic” stuff.
2) It focuses a lot on the lefty fringes of society – arty people basically. I would have liked to see a few more ideas and examples focusing on suburban or working class families “middle Australia” (or America, or wherever). These (we!) are the people that project an image of psychological independence so well and fill their lives up with activity, thus avoiding any sense of spiritual need.