It's not every day that you get a visit from God. Burning bushes, ladders to heaven, chariots of fire and all that--we look for those stories in the Bible, and we look for them in our lives. When it comes to something as important as what we do with our lives, we think, maybe God owes us a big event. But, as Leroy Barber has learned through his work in inner cities and with young people, that's not usually how it works. More often God calls out to us from everyday misfortunes and all-too-common injustices, and he invites our response--not just a response in the moment, but a recognition that we have a role to play in seeing God's kingdom come, God's will done, on earth as it is in heaven. Through the surprisingly normal stories of the heroes of faith in the Bible, and through Barber's experiences with Mission Year and other ministries, in this book you'll learn what it means to change the world from your own little space in it.
Everyday Missions: How Ordinary People Can Change the World
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"In an age when missional engagement has been reduced to dramatic short-term immersion experiences, Leroy Barber challenges us to live a consistent life of credible compassion. In Everyday Missions Leroy reframes the conversation about mission by illuminating the need to live missionally. He reflects on a life of service, not one that merely talks a prophetic game but one that embodies love. Everyday Missions is provocative and challenging, inspiring and accessible--a clarion call in an age of vocational confusion, this book will nurture your imagination to doing good better." (Chris Heuertz, international director of Word Made Flesh and author of Friendship at the Margins)
"Some of the best things in church history, and some of the worst, have been done in the name of 'missions.' It's one of those words we need to dust off, reclaim and re-envision so that we are spreading the real gospel--not the white man's gospel, not the prosperity gospel, not the American gospel, not the fluffy, do-it-yourself gospel, not the empire's gospel or the colonialist's gospel--but the gospel of Jesus, the gospel that is always good news to the poor, the gospel that comes with a cross and an invitation to suffer alongside those who suffer. Leroy Barber is at the forefront of reimagining what missions looks like in the twenty-first century. He helps us see missions not just as something we do with our mouths but something we do with our lives." (Shane Claiborne, author, activist and recovering sinner, www.thesimpleway.org)
"Leroy Barber has earned the right to be heard by helping hundreds of young college graduates discern how to live out the Christian life in lay vocations. This book taps into the wisdom he has accumulated over the years, along with his biblical insights as to how those of us in the pew can become radical followers of Jesus in our everyday lives." (Tony Campolo, professor emeritus, Eastern University)
"Everyday Missions is anything but an everyday book. Leroy Barber speaks directly and convincingly into the lives of ordinary people, challenging us to consider commitments that have extraordinary impact. Provoking--in the very best sense of the word--this hopeful, can-do book inspires readers to risk pursuing their created purpose and discover their true source of meaning." (Bob Lupton, president, FCS Urban Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia)
"Leroy Barber dreams big dreams for our generation--dreams that have the power and potential to change the world forever. This book will inspire anyone who wants to move beyond the ordinary toward an extraordinary life lived for God." (Margaret Feinberg, author of Scouting the Divine and The Organic God)
"Some of the best things in church history, and some of the worst, have been done in the name of 'missions.' It's one of those words we need to dust off, reclaim and re-envision so that we are spreading the real gospel--not the white man's gospel, not the prosperity gospel, not the American gospel, not the fluffy, do-it-yourself gospel, not the empire's gospel or the colonialist's gospel--but the gospel of Jesus, the gospel that is always good news to the poor, the gospel that comes with a cross and an invitation to suffer alongside those who suffer. Leroy Barber is at the forefront of reimagining what missions looks like in the twenty-first century. He helps us see missions not just as something we do with our mouths but something we do with our lives." (Shane Claiborne, author, activist and recovering sinner, www.thesimpleway.org)
"Leroy Barber has earned the right to be heard by helping hundreds of young college graduates discern how to live out the Christian life in lay vocations. This book taps into the wisdom he has accumulated over the years, along with his biblical insights as to how those of us in the pew can become radical followers of Jesus in our everyday lives." (Tony Campolo, professor emeritus, Eastern University)
"Everyday Missions is anything but an everyday book. Leroy Barber speaks directly and convincingly into the lives of ordinary people, challenging us to consider commitments that have extraordinary impact. Provoking--in the very best sense of the word--this hopeful, can-do book inspires readers to risk pursuing their created purpose and discover their true source of meaning." (Bob Lupton, president, FCS Urban Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia)
"Leroy Barber dreams big dreams for our generation--dreams that have the power and potential to change the world forever. This book will inspire anyone who wants to move beyond the ordinary toward an extraordinary life lived for God." (Margaret Feinberg, author of Scouting the Divine and The Organic God)
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
By jenrunner
Format:Paperback
Everyday Missions debunks the myth that only a few people are "called" to change the world while the rest of us lead what Henry David Thoreau calls "lives of quiet desperation." In this book, Leroy Barber encourages us that we DO have a place among the influencers of the world. He tells us how to listen to, not ignore, that voice inside us that tells us there is something more. Everyday Missions encourages us to start with our ordinary, everyday lives to become, as Barber puts it, "average people called by God to live stories of greatness." What a great truth to discover - that I don't have to travel to the farthest reaches of the world or start the next mega-church to do something significant with my life. If you are an ordinary person who longs to make an impact in your regular everyday world, get this book!
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By Scott Zeller
Format:Kindle Edition
Youth in our age are at great risk of living listless and wandering lives. Today's norm seems to be either a future of living with their parents for years after they could be pursuing a healthy independency or else adrift in a job market that does not seem to offer the fulfillment they desire even if it does provide the finances. Today's youth need a vision of using their life for more.
In Everyday Mission, Leroy Barber sets out to provide just that.
Barber shares many inspiring stories. For example, Juan and Marcheeta in Argentina used their home as a community center in an impoverished neighborhood (pp. 25-28); Tom and Mary voluntarily served for a year in an inner city context (pp. 37-39); Rob helped his employees find significance in their janitorial workplace (pp. 78-80); and Clay lived a homeless life for a weekend (pp. 100-102). And Barber weaves his own engaging story throughout. These lives devoted to serving others are encouraging and uplifting. They frame a dynamic picture of the type of person that today's youth could aspire to be-a type of humble and loving person actively working for the good of those around them. Indeed, much of Everyday Missions points to the kind of "ordinary radicals" Shane Claiborne called for in his well-known and similar 2006 publication, The Irresistible Revolution. Adding to helpful personal anecdotes, Barber also presents his vision through the lens of biblical characters like Moses, David, and Esther.
Distilling the story-telling into the thesis, Barber claims that today's youth have "a desperation to be involved in something that connects us to God" (p. 12) and the reason for that desperation is that without God we are ordinary and lack significance, which can lead to breakdown (p. 34). So to avoid breakdown we are encouraged to experience God because, "We inhale God, and we exhale significance" (p. 13). Experiencing God happens when we do something: "This is the call-the moment when you realize God has chosen you for some work" (p. 47).
Essentially, in statement and in story, Everyday Missions champions the solution for the mundane life as finding personal significance by connecting with God through engaging in a variety of activities that are abnormal to twenty-first-century suburban Westerners.
Certainly this is a noble call, and one that is written in way that will be palatable to many young people-perhaps particularly useful for new believers or seekers who could be more attracted to the mission of Christianity as an entry point to discipleship rather than a salvation experience.
And yet on that point we need to linger. Shouldn't we consider it to be something other than distinctly Christian mission if proclaiming charity fails to emphasize Jesus Christ? Should Christians really invite someone to participate in good works and point to those actions as the provider of our lifelong desire for significance? Do we risk a hamstrung disciple if we advocate only to the implications of the gospel without emphasizing its core components?
The lives Barber shared about reminded me of a good friend I work with. Helping with our organization to deliver tutoring to slum children, Adiyat (not his real name) is a favorite volunteer among the staff and kids. His devotion exhibits a testimony of bucking the culture of discrimination that keeps many of his peers from serving the "least of these" among them. This kind of work is a good example of what Everyday Missions envisions as normative for Christian witness.
However, my friend Adiyat is a Sikh, a follower of the Ten Gurus (teachers). For a Sikh, the ultimate aim is to discipline one's thoughts and actions so that lust, anger, greed, materialism, and ego are dispelled and the soul is united with the One Immortal Being.
My fear is that, were Adiyat to read Everyday Missions, he would find much that confirmed the worthiness of his daily life and little that entered his worldview and pointed him towards the Savior.
The pursuits Barber points to as affording an extraordinary life are drawn exclusively from the realm of social justice, such as working for racial reconciliation (ch. 8) or volunteering for secular organizations like Teach For America and Americorps-both of these organizations unfortunately described as those which in themselves inspire "young people by pointing them to the extraordinary purposes God has for them" (p. 18). Throughout the book the place of the local church in the world is also somewhat diminished (ignored?), and the Great Commission of Matt 28 goes unmentioned. Much more room is given to introducing a quote from Wikipedia (p. 83) than to explaining the gospel that both saves from sin and calls believers to journey together on mission.
Since JFK formed the Peace Corps in 1961 (and surely long before that) investment by youth in the social issues of our time has been a matter of public discussion. Our youth need to know what is it that is so unique about Christian missions. What sets a Christian aid worker apart from a Sikh aid worker? Does Christian mission involve only social action, or does it also contain a message or truth to be proclaimed? Unfortunately, these questions and others remain unanswered in Everyday Missions.
The limited scope of Barber's presentation of mission practice and absent articulation of gospel-motivations leave me concerned the book could aid and abet a view of Christian missions that makes social justice an end in itself.
We need resources that will call the Adiyats to become the Pauls, not books that will make him feel comfortable doing what he is doing without Christ. We need resources that call youth to Christian mission that embraces full participation in the apostolic ambition for the nations to worship and serve Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. We need resources that show that this work is accomplished through self-denying workers who labor not for their own significance, but for the joy set before them in eternity.
By themselves, ordinary people can't change the world, but if they are changed by the grace found in Jesus, they can participate in spreading the kingdom of the God whose everyday mission is making all things new.
In Everyday Mission, Leroy Barber sets out to provide just that.
Barber shares many inspiring stories. For example, Juan and Marcheeta in Argentina used their home as a community center in an impoverished neighborhood (pp. 25-28); Tom and Mary voluntarily served for a year in an inner city context (pp. 37-39); Rob helped his employees find significance in their janitorial workplace (pp. 78-80); and Clay lived a homeless life for a weekend (pp. 100-102). And Barber weaves his own engaging story throughout. These lives devoted to serving others are encouraging and uplifting. They frame a dynamic picture of the type of person that today's youth could aspire to be-a type of humble and loving person actively working for the good of those around them. Indeed, much of Everyday Missions points to the kind of "ordinary radicals" Shane Claiborne called for in his well-known and similar 2006 publication, The Irresistible Revolution. Adding to helpful personal anecdotes, Barber also presents his vision through the lens of biblical characters like Moses, David, and Esther.
Distilling the story-telling into the thesis, Barber claims that today's youth have "a desperation to be involved in something that connects us to God" (p. 12) and the reason for that desperation is that without God we are ordinary and lack significance, which can lead to breakdown (p. 34). So to avoid breakdown we are encouraged to experience God because, "We inhale God, and we exhale significance" (p. 13). Experiencing God happens when we do something: "This is the call-the moment when you realize God has chosen you for some work" (p. 47).
Essentially, in statement and in story, Everyday Missions champions the solution for the mundane life as finding personal significance by connecting with God through engaging in a variety of activities that are abnormal to twenty-first-century suburban Westerners.
Certainly this is a noble call, and one that is written in way that will be palatable to many young people-perhaps particularly useful for new believers or seekers who could be more attracted to the mission of Christianity as an entry point to discipleship rather than a salvation experience.
And yet on that point we need to linger. Shouldn't we consider it to be something other than distinctly Christian mission if proclaiming charity fails to emphasize Jesus Christ? Should Christians really invite someone to participate in good works and point to those actions as the provider of our lifelong desire for significance? Do we risk a hamstrung disciple if we advocate only to the implications of the gospel without emphasizing its core components?
The lives Barber shared about reminded me of a good friend I work with. Helping with our organization to deliver tutoring to slum children, Adiyat (not his real name) is a favorite volunteer among the staff and kids. His devotion exhibits a testimony of bucking the culture of discrimination that keeps many of his peers from serving the "least of these" among them. This kind of work is a good example of what Everyday Missions envisions as normative for Christian witness.
However, my friend Adiyat is a Sikh, a follower of the Ten Gurus (teachers). For a Sikh, the ultimate aim is to discipline one's thoughts and actions so that lust, anger, greed, materialism, and ego are dispelled and the soul is united with the One Immortal Being.
My fear is that, were Adiyat to read Everyday Missions, he would find much that confirmed the worthiness of his daily life and little that entered his worldview and pointed him towards the Savior.
The pursuits Barber points to as affording an extraordinary life are drawn exclusively from the realm of social justice, such as working for racial reconciliation (ch. 8) or volunteering for secular organizations like Teach For America and Americorps-both of these organizations unfortunately described as those which in themselves inspire "young people by pointing them to the extraordinary purposes God has for them" (p. 18). Throughout the book the place of the local church in the world is also somewhat diminished (ignored?), and the Great Commission of Matt 28 goes unmentioned. Much more room is given to introducing a quote from Wikipedia (p. 83) than to explaining the gospel that both saves from sin and calls believers to journey together on mission.
Since JFK formed the Peace Corps in 1961 (and surely long before that) investment by youth in the social issues of our time has been a matter of public discussion. Our youth need to know what is it that is so unique about Christian missions. What sets a Christian aid worker apart from a Sikh aid worker? Does Christian mission involve only social action, or does it also contain a message or truth to be proclaimed? Unfortunately, these questions and others remain unanswered in Everyday Missions.
The limited scope of Barber's presentation of mission practice and absent articulation of gospel-motivations leave me concerned the book could aid and abet a view of Christian missions that makes social justice an end in itself.
We need resources that will call the Adiyats to become the Pauls, not books that will make him feel comfortable doing what he is doing without Christ. We need resources that call youth to Christian mission that embraces full participation in the apostolic ambition for the nations to worship and serve Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. We need resources that show that this work is accomplished through self-denying workers who labor not for their own significance, but for the joy set before them in eternity.
By themselves, ordinary people can't change the world, but if they are changed by the grace found in Jesus, they can participate in spreading the kingdom of the God whose everyday mission is making all things new.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Everyday Missions
In this day and age of "professional clergy" and "full time missionaries", this book presents a much needed message that God desires to use ordinary people. Scriptural passages of God using ordinary people are highlighted by personal stories of ordinary people today living extraordinary lives for God in very normal everyday situations. I highly recommend this book.
Dan
In this day and age of "professional clergy" and "full time missionaries", this book presents a much needed message that God desires to use ordinary people. Scriptural passages of God using ordinary people are highlighted by personal stories of ordinary people today living extraordinary lives for God in very normal everyday situations. I highly recommend this book.
Dan
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