ReMission: Rethinking How Church Leaders Create Movement by Gary Comer on Amazon.
Date read: 08.31.2019. How strongly I recommend it: 10/10.
You might also like Gary Comer’s 5-star book review of my book, The Mind of a Missionary.
Pause for a moment. Look around. Consider the present state of the Church. Are Christians operating at their full potential, paving Gospel inroads into their spheres of influence, and radiating God’s grace and glory to the world around them? Perhaps considerations like these are too broad. Let’s zoom in from a fifty-thousand-foot view to ground level. Does your church have a strategy to reach your city? Are members of your congregation so infused with the joy of Jesus that they cannot help but talk about Him? And what about you? Sure, you recognize that people are waiting at the other end of your obedience. But can you honestly say that you are a living example of light and salt in your neighborhood?
With thoughts like these in mind, Gary Comer’s ReMission: Rethinking How Church Leaders Create Movement, appears as a beacon of hope. What’s the purpose of his timely book? To reorient Christian leaders and laymen toward Jesus’ mission. Perhaps better stated: to situate Kingdom mission at the epicenter of every church program, activity, and event. Comer elaborates by saying, “You may have heard this mantra: ‘Make disciples, and you will get mission.’ I’m arguing just the opposite: Do mission to get disciples.”
Check out Gary Comer’s 5-star book review of my book, The Mind of a Missionary.
Buy ReMission: Rethinking How Church Leaders Create Movement by Gary Comer.
Buy The Mind of a Missionary: What Global Kingdom Workers Tell Us About Thriving on Mission Today by David Joannes.
The “ReMission Model” resonates with me because over the last two decades of ministry in Southeast Asia, I have seen the Gospel take root among unreached people groups when the mission of God is at the forefront of Christian activity. In fact, discipleship often occurs before evangelism even begins. Take for example the ten Chinese foreign exchange students that we are presently discipling in Chiang Mai, Thailand. They have not yet made a decision for Christ but their hearts are open to spiritual matters. We harness their hunger for Truth by spending intentional time with them and teaching them the words of Jesus. What a joy it is to watch them begin a journey to the cross, burdens (like those of Christian in Pilgrim’s Progress) still in tow. Such life on life interaction can be messy at times, their raw and rugged doubts surfacing at every interval. But that doesn’t bother us. By allowing the Holy Spirit to speak into their hearts, life transformation occurs naturally. This leads to missional momentum and to the potential of entire communities meeting Jesus for the very first time.
The layout and arrangement of ReMission is key. Parts one through three (Culture, Channel, and Course) create a framework for missional flow. How can the Church engage a world bombarded with the overwhelming forces of secularism, pluralism, hedonism, relativism, moralism, institutionalism, consumerism, and isolationism? Rather than reacting to these forces in an effort to turn churches around, can leaders and laymen stay ahead of the culture curve with mission at the center of their churches? “Contrary to what most church leaders think,” says Gary L. McIntosh, author of Growing God’s Church, “mission is not the byproduct of being a healthy church. Instead, Comer declares that church health flows out of mission.” I concur.
The life of Jesus displayed a crystal clarity about His Father’s mission. During His three-year ministry, He rubbed shoulders with misfits and ragamuffins, spending superfluous time with societal outcasts. This begs the question: are we like Jesus? Sure, we sing pretty songs in church services, saying we want to be like our Master. But too often, our lives do not demonstrate a true desire to lay aside our own wills for the will of God. Many Christians would rather associate with people who look and talk and dress like themselves. They tuck themselves away in a crowd of Christians, unsure how to thrive in their missional calling among those outside their four walls. The light of the Gospel shines bright in chapels and sanctuaries, but just beyond the threshold, the city on a hill suffers in darkness.
Comer’s sharp yet welcome rebuke incites response: “Jesus was the most mission-focused person who ever walked the earth; and yet so many Christians look nothing like Him—in mind, manner, or method.” He continues in similar form by saying, “a widespread observation of missional platforms shows that the present form of church is not even close to emulating Jesus’ missionary nature.” Don’t be put off by harsh words like these. Rivers of encouragement surface as Comer compellingly draws us back to the simplicity of the Gospel message. “In essence,” he writes, “mission is the reception and reciprocation of God’s boundless love for humanity.” Simple statements like this provide a joyous hope to all who seek to join God on mission.
So, how does the shift toward missional success commence? I’m glad you asked. Comer’s book is a systematic, insightful, and paradigm-shifting offering. ReMission’s foreword, penned by Mark Mittleberg, bestselling co-author of Becoming a Contagious Christian, describes the book as “a rigorous, hope-filled rethinking of our central mission and what it will take to fulfill it.” Thankfully, Comer provides detailed techniques and strategic processes to live and thrive in the mission that Jesus gave His Church. God forbid we become “just one more assembly or association that merely talks about the value of mission while being ineffective at carrying it out.”
Comer’s ReMission seeks to spur believers toward Jesus’ central mission: go and make disciples. He unapologetically states that “if your church or ministry does not have a steady stream of new believers, growing, and reaching ever-extended networks of people, you have veered off course.” Strong words? Perhaps. But just the kind of challenge that Christians need in a polarized twenty-first-century landscape.
I hope that as you read ReMission, the pathway back toward God’s mission will become clear. Do you want to join Jesus in His epic redemptive mandate? Create space for people to flow in the fivefold ministry. Do you want to make disciples? Establish mission at the center of all your missional activities. Do you want your church to experience explosive growth? Reorient your people from event-based gatherings to relational, mission-focused outreach. And if you’re still unsure of the first few steps to take, Gary Comer is here to guide you on the journey.
Buy ReMission: Rethinking How Church Leaders Create Movement by Gary Comer.
Buy The Mind of a Missionary: What Global Kingdom Workers Tell Us About Thriving on Mission Today by David Joannes.
