Here’s a few books to expand your thinking about movements and movement-building. As a movement committed to building movements, it makes sense to read the latest thinking on movements.
Both Steve Addison and Alan Hirsch have been wrestling for many years with the dynamics behind movement building (and even movement decline). Both books will serve to challenge our thinking and to examine critically our current methods/approaches to movement building. I’d suggest studying them together with your missional team (campus/military base, etc).
Start with Addison’s book, both as a great introduction to movements and as a book written for a general audience. (I loved the whole book, but found his chapter on Contagious Relationships particularly compelling.)
Next, I’d work thru Alan Hirsch’s The Forgotten Ways Handbook. Based on the book, The Forgotten Ways, this handbook is easily accessible, captures the essence of his longer book, and works particularly well for missional teams who are fully engaged in movement building.
Additional Reading
Since I’m recommending books, I want to mention two other books.
Stearn’s book expanded my thinking on movements “that might just change the world.” Given what God seems to be doing in American evangelicalism, Stearn’s The Hole in the Gospel is worth wrestling thru. If Stearns is right about the “gospel,” our movements will be both a spiritual revolution and a world-changing social revolution. It also tells the personal story of a Christ-follower who resisted initially but ultimately responded to the challenge to “leave all and follow Jesus.”
Christopher Wright’s The Mission of God shows how “mission of God and the participation in it of God’s people” is a major key to unlocking the whole grand narrative of Scripture. It’s a long read, theologically weighty, but profound in its implications. You’ll never regret working your way thru it. One of my top reads in the last five years.
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