Borderland Churches: A Congregation's Introduction to Missional Living (TCP Leadership Series) [Paperback]

Gary V. Nelson (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 166 pages
• Publisher: Chalice Press (November 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0827202385
• ISBN-13: 978-0827202382
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #976,986 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Leaders Control Change, April 14, 2009

By 

George Bullard "Strategic Leadership Coach" (Columbia, SC, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Borderland Churches: A Congregation's Introduction to Missional Living (TCP Leadership Series) (Paperback)

In his book, Borderland Churches: A Congregation's Introduction to Missional Living, Gary Nelson says the following about the role of leaders in controlling change:

"The only people who like change are usually the ones who are in charge of it. I am convinced that clergy do not totally grasp this truth. We think it is rational and reasonable to embrace change." "Leaders have more control in the changes ahead than their people." [27]

This book looks carefully at the changes that churches on the borderlands of ministry need to make. The borderlands is where true missional action takes places.

The organizing principle of this book is not modern vs. postmodern, but whether or not the church can engage in ministry at the intersection of church, unchurched, and dechurched persons in society, or Christian, unChristian, and anti-Christian.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent book, February 27, 2009

By 

Edward A. White (Washington DC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Borderland Churches: A Congregation's Introduction to Missional Living (TCP Leadership Series) (Paperback)

This is an excellent book. Canada is ahead of the United States on the secularization scale and their experience with being Christians in a post Christian society has much to teach us. The central message is that we must go to the unchurched instead of waiting for them to come to us. Also the central task is doing God's will on earth, not being preoccupied with the afterlife.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Full of Insight, December 27, 2010

By 

Dr. Terry W. Dorsett "Author of Developing Le... (Barre, Vermont) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Borderland Churches: A Congregation's Introduction to Missional Living (TCP Leadership Series) (Paperback)

Though this book has been out for a couple of years, I just recently discovered it. What sparked my interest in it was a conversation with a friend who starts new churches in Canada. I was talking about the struggle to get churches to reach post moderns and he remarked that Canada was so "postmodern" that it was no longer a unique cultural issue; it was just the "normal" way Canadian churches did ministry.

In this new normal, the church has to think and act differently than it did in the past. The book has seven chapters and then a number of helpful appendixes in the back.

The seven chapters are:

1. Learning to Sing the Song

2. Crossing Over

3. Recovering our Roots

4. Landscapes and Tool Kits

5. Herding Cats

6. Missioning the Church

7. Mapping the Journey

Each chapter covers an aspect of how churches can be missional in thought and deed. Though not all of the ideas will carry over into U.S. culture, the vast majority will. It may well be that our Canadian brothers in Christ may lead the way in helping us reach our own people with the Gospel.