My Top 5 Influential Emerging/Missional Books

There was no way I was going to be able to narrow it down to just one book. Only one book that was the most influential when it comes to my thinking along the emerging/missional line? Please. That would have hurt.

So, I give you my top 5 books. These are the five books that have influenced me most when it comes to developing an emerging/missional view of church. They are in the order of when I read them (from earliest to latest)


- A New Kind Of Christian by Brian McLaren

The first time I read this book it was like a whole different world opened up right in front of my eyes. It was a new way of looking at church, my life in Jesus, and my responsibility and role as both a Christian and a minister. The story that unfolded before me - which was told in a fictional way - felt like my story was being told. I could relate to what was happening to Dan Poole and his family, because it seemed so eerily similar to what was happening to me. I was burning out when it came to church work, and there were all these incongruencies between what I had been taught all my life and what was really what I was supposed to be doing and living. I'm so grateful for reading this book when I did, because it really saved me from continuing to despair that I wasn't cut out for ministry - at least the way ministry was done in the American middle-class church.

- Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller

Kind of a strange pick, I guess - considering that Miller's book isn't really about the actual emerging/missional movement. But some of the questions that he asked himself in his journey throughout the book were some of the exact same questions that I was asking myself. His description of his days at the college he attended in Oregon as well as the church that he started attending as well (Imago Dei in Portland) seemed so refreshing, so real, so enticing to me. The fact that he could break out of the Christian culture bubble became a seed of hope in my life.

- Rich Christians In An Age Of Hunger by Ronald Sider

Just like Blue Like Jazz, this really isn't a book about missional/emergent thinking. But if you really believe that missional living is the way to go, like I do - this is the kind of book that will spur you to actually live like Jesus would live if he was here on earth today. The statistics that are given in this book are amazing - and sobering at the same time. I began to realize through reading this book that the American Church for the most part really does exist for itself. There are many problems in the world that would be alleviated if we as a church would rise up and actually care about injustice, poverty and suffering. This book has also inspired me to form a life mission as well- called The Salt Of The Earth Project (something I'm still working on).

- Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell

Rob Bell is a one-of-a-kind guy. Which is refreshing. Because there are a lot of people out there who are doing church work and who are trying to be a Rick Warren or a Bill Hybels or whoever is supposedly famous in church pastor circles. Rob Bell's church is an amazing testimony to the power of God, and what happens when a church decides to be authentic and real and actually pursue missional living. This book challenged some of my presuppositions on the life of Jesus and most definitely made me look at some of the stories in the gospel in a whole new light. Just the chapters called "Yoke" and "Dust" were worth the price of this book. I have used several illustrations from this book in my own "teaching" during my time of worship on Sunday mornings, and I have had countless number of people come up to me to thank me because it made them think of something in a new way. Don't thank me. Thank Rob Bell.

- The Shaping Of Things To Come

This book, out of all the other books, has appealed to me from an intellectual point of view. I would say that the other four books spoke to my heart; The Shaping Of Things to Come speaks to my mind. Can you believe that two guys from Sydney could make so much sense as to what's wrong with the American Church and what can be done to fix it? The great thing about this book is that the authors are actually doing church the way they are describing it as how it should be done. (One of my little beefs with McLaren - his church in Maryland isn't really structured the way you think it would be if someone who is on the forefront of emerging/missional thinking was leading it, as McLaren is.) There are some ideas in this book that I have never really thought about but are very intriguing to me - rather than building a church building, what about building a coffeehouse/art gallery/live music venue/etc. and have church there (and open it up to the community the rest of the time) among others.


Honorable Mention: Your God Is Too Safe, SoulTsunami, The Present Future, Dangerous Wonder