[AQO]∎ Download Exiles Living Missionally in a PostChristian Culture Michael Frost 9781565636705 Books

Exiles Living Missionally in a PostChristian Culture Michael Frost 9781565636705 Books

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Exiles Living Missionally in a PostChristian Culture Michael Frost 9781565636705 Books

I really enjoyed reading this book, because although I felt as I often do while reading missional books that Frost goes overboard in being critical of the established church, I sensed that he was authentic in what he was saying. Not only do I believe that Frost intentionally tries to model what he is writing in his life, but I am drawn to the practical and holistic advice that he gives. His model of living has integrity in that he seems to intuitively recognize the interconnectedness of life, arguing in one place for wise eating habits and in another for getting away from reality TV. He incorporates environmentalism and social justice into missional living in a way that is refreshingly holistic. While he is unnecessarily radical, he also makes a compelling argument for a radically different lifestyle than the one that the vast majority of Christians currently lead.
I picked up a great deal from this book. I appreciated the way that he clarifies social justice issues, and was really interested in his passage on hyper-reality. I resonated with his section on overly-romantic language in worship music, and although I regret that he had to be so disparaging, I think that he has a good point. I really liked his emphasis on living worshipfully and de-emphasis on singing worship music. He argues that many Christians have become so focused on worshipping God that they have not taken following Him seriously. This is an interesting point that I haven’t heard before, and I think there may be some truth to that as well. All in all, Frost does a remarkable job of writing on the missional church yet incorporating many things that few other authors are saying. His holistic style is appealing to me.


Tags : Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture [Michael Frost] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The author of <IT>The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21st-Century Church<RO> presents a worldview for the emergent church--people who are not at home in the traditional church or in the secular world. As exiles of both,Michael Frost,Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture,Hendrickson Pub,1565636708,Christian Life - General,Institutions & Organizations,Christianity;21st century.,Non-institutional churches.,Postmodernism;Religious aspects;Christianity.,21st century,Christian Life - Character & Values,Christian Life - Pop Culture Issues,Christian Life - Social Issues,Christian life & practice,Christianity,Non-institutional churches,Postmodernism,Religion,Religion - Christian Life,Religion Christian Life General,Religion Institutions & Organizations,Religious aspects

Exiles Living Missionally in a PostChristian Culture Michael Frost 9781565636705 Books Reviews

Michael Frost (born 1961) is Vice Principal of Morling College, founding Director of the Tinsley Institute in Australia, and a lecturer with the Melbourne University of Divinity; he has also written/cowritten Seeing God in the Ordinary A Theology of the Everyday,Jesus the Fool The Mission of the Unconventional Christ,ReJesus A Wild Messiah for a Missional Church,Surprise the World The Five Habits of Highly Missional People,To Alter Your World Partnering with God to Rebirth Our Communities,The Shaping of Things to Come Innovation and Mission for the 21st-Century Church,The Faith of Leap Embracing a Theology of Risk, Adventure & Courage, etc.

He explains in an introductory section of this 2006 book, “this book contains a good deal of pointed critique. Much of it I have shared in lectures and presentations about the US, Canada, Australis, New Zealand, and the UK. Some of my listeners have reviled it as ‘church bashing,’ while others celebrate it as prophetic. I have never claimed to be doing either. I have no stomach for unsophisticated church-bashing… And besides, the church seems altogether unchanged by such announcements… Rather, my goal is to make a thoughtful evaluation of many facets of contemporary church and culture, and to offer helpful suggestions for Christians who wish to improve both of them in ways that are biblically sound and pleasing to God. Clearly, I am in sympathy with the multitudes of people who feel exiled outside of or, worse perhaps, within the traditional church… it is my hope that in this book I will engage and edify the entire church and ‘speak the truth with love.’” [Eph 415] (Pg. ix)

In the first chapter, he outlines, “This book is written for those Christians who find themselves falling into the cracks between contemporary secular Western culture and a quaint, old-fashioned church culture of respectability and conservatism. This book is for the many people who wish to be faithful followers of the radical Jesus but no longer find themselves able to fit into the bland, limp, unsavory straitjacket of a church that seems to be yearning to return to the days when ‘everyone’ used to attend church and ‘Christian family values’ reigned. This book is for those who can’t remain in the safe modes of church and who wish to live expansive, confident Christian lives in this world without having to abandon themselves to the values of contemporary society.

“This book is for Christians who feel themselves ready (or yearning) to jump ship but don’t want to be left adrift in a world where greed, consumerism, laziness, and materialism toss them about endlessly and pointlessly… Is there some way of embracing a Christ-centered faith and lifestyle that are lived tenaciously and confidently right out in the open where such a faith is not normally valued? I think so, but it will require a dangerous departure from standard church practice… We acknowledge that the epoch of history that shaped the contemporary church has crashed like a wave on a shore and left the church high and dry. This epoch is known as the era of Christendom… I’m not the only voice… declaring that Christendom is over and that we too need to get over it.” (Pg. 3-4)

He notes, “I, for one, am happy to see the end of Christendom. I’m glad that we can no longer rely on temporal, cultural supports to reinforce our message or the validity of our presence. I suspect that the increasing marginalization of the Christian movement in the West is the very thing that will wake us up to the marvelously exciting, dangerous, and confronting message of Jesus. If we are exiles on foreign soil---post-Christendom, postmodern, postliterate, and so on---then maybe at last it’s time to start living like exiles, as a pesky, fringe-dwelling alternative to the dominant forces of our times.” (Pg. 9-10)

He asserts, “I’ve come to discover that there is a whole world of professional Christians who live primarily in the church or the Christian academy, and who determine what is the so-called true and proper terminology of the correct biblical procedure for mission, but who never seem to embody the ideas that they describe. On the other hand, there are theologically untrained people who are reading the Bible and intuiting new ways to create proximity with not-yet-Christians. These exiles often don’t feel appreciated or understood by the conventional church. They have been marginalized by their other Christian friends who thought that ideas and lifestyle too radical or too unsafe to accommodate. But they are on to something, and in their unorthodox practice reside the seeds of the survival of the Christian movement.” (Pg. 55-56)

He observes, “Exiles, following [Jesus’] example, are forever seeking for forge another way forward. Neither hiding from nor embracing the values of contemporary society, they seek to thrive within their host culture without becoming slaves to it… In an empire of fakery and phoniness, the followers of Christ will dangerously promise to be a community of authenticity and honesty. One of the greatest obstacles to faithful Christian living today is the thorough pervasiveness of our Western obsession with hyper-reality. This is the current obsession with mass-produced and packaged products that, through artificial, purport to be even better than the real thing.” (Pg. 82)

He suggests, “Exiles want what they haven’t found in their churches a free, organic, egalitarian communitas bound together by a common cause, a cause greater than themselves, a cause for justice, grace, and peace. If this describes your yearning, I hate to break the news to you, but no one is going to create such a communitas for you. Exiles, sick of mainstream churches but tired of going it alone, have to embrace the challenge to fashion collectives of exiles and lead them into mission… You might have a collective of exiles bound together by a common cause. Dare I say it? You might even have incidentally planted a CHURCH.” (Pg. 143)

He points out, “many Christians believe wholeheartedly that once Israel has occupied the rest of its so-called biblical lands, legions of the Antichrist will attack it, triggering a final showdown… At that point, true believers will be transported to heaven, where… they will watch the remaining inhabitants writhe miserably in the misery of plagues… The overall assumption is that with Christ’s return, the world will be destroyed. If… our planet will go up in flames come doomsday, then there is no reason for Christians to be concerned about environmental sustainability If we believe that the world cannot be saved, then we are relieved of concern for the environment, violence, and everything else except our personal salvation… One can see why fundamentalist Christianity in the United States has left no space for its followers to develop a godly concern for the environment.” (Pg. 238-239)

He says, “Sometimes it seems that these situations re so intractable and their historical roots go so deep that there’s nothing we can do to help suffering Christians around the world. But that is not the case… Christians in the West have considerably more political muscle than we often realize, and while conservative Christians might be exercising it locally in the areas of the debates on abortion and gay marriage, exiles should not forget what they can do for the suffering church around the world.” (Pg. 262)

He concludes, “So hold on, exile. Hold on to those dangerous memories of God. Keep making those dangerous promises. Keep practicing that dangerous critique of the host empire. Keep singing those dangerous songs. Our day will come… In the meantime, keep your balance. And hold within you the sure hope that home is found in the presence of our gracious, loving, forgiving God.” (Pg. 327)

This book will be of very great interest to those studying the Emerging Church, or for Christians who likewise feel alienated from the traditional institutional church,
Excellent, Thank You!
I found this to be an extremely useful book. It develops a Christian missional theology and draws on numerous practical insights that explore the implications for Christians who don't quite belong in the mainstream church. While the book is quite dense and explores a broad range of topics (that most would not dare tackle) it is very well written.
this book has been both an encouragement and a challenge to me, expressing topics and thoughts i've had in my mind but not been able to verbalize as well as provide insight on a response to such questions and ideas i've had.
"Responsibility cannot be preached it can only be borne, and the only possible place to begin is with oneself" Living missional as an exile begins with me.
I have been a Christian for over 50 years. But for many years I have felt like an outcast by the leadership of the Christian community. I got great comfort from reading this book and connecting with the fact that there are millions of people around the world who are returning to true message of Jesus Christ. Jesus Himself was an "exile" and went to the masses with His message, instead of employing the "come to us" philosphy of the modern day church. Michael Frost does an outstanding job of telling you where the modern church is going wrong and helps you to find the pathway to the missional movement.
I really enjoyed reading this book, because although I felt as I often do while reading missional books that Frost goes overboard in being critical of the established church, I sensed that he was authentic in what he was saying. Not only do I believe that Frost intentionally tries to model what he is writing in his life, but I am drawn to the practical and holistic advice that he gives. His model of living has integrity in that he seems to intuitively recognize the interconnectedness of life, arguing in one place for wise eating habits and in another for getting away from reality TV. He incorporates environmentalism and social justice into missional living in a way that is refreshingly holistic. While he is unnecessarily radical, he also makes a compelling argument for a radically different lifestyle than the one that the vast majority of Christians currently lead.
I picked up a great deal from this book. I appreciated the way that he clarifies social justice issues, and was really interested in his passage on hyper-reality. I resonated with his section on overly-romantic language in worship music, and although I regret that he had to be so disparaging, I think that he has a good point. I really liked his emphasis on living worshipfully and de-emphasis on singing worship music. He argues that many Christians have become so focused on worshipping God that they have not taken following Him seriously. This is an interesting point that I haven’t heard before, and I think there may be some truth to that as well. All in all, Frost does a remarkable job of writing on the missional church yet incorporating many things that few other authors are saying. His holistic style is appealing to me.