Congregationally Focused Missional Empowerment
A Review and then a Response to the book--Beyond Church and Para Church by Angie Ward
SPECIAL NOTE FROM GEORGE BULLARD: June 1st through thje middle of July I will be taking my typical summer break from posting on this blog. I will be finishing up a book manuscript during this time on Soaring With Faith: The Difference Making for Congregations.
My Response to Angie Ward’s Proposal for Missional Extension
Angie Ward. Beyond Church and Para Church: From Competition to Missional Extension. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2025. See the book HERE.
My Updated Amazon Review
The competition among local congregations and the movements and denominations that seek to unite them into ongoing organizations—whether they are parachurch, church, or missional extensions—must promote a God-led collaboration that allows the broader Christian movement to thrive with faith in fulfilling the Great Commission in the spirit of the Great Commandment.
Driven by her spiritual and strategic passion, ministry experiences, and her research and teaching focused on Christian ministry, Angie Ward seeks to help us understand the historical foundation for our current context in this book, while presenting her chosen model for missional extension.
Her passion and convictions are clearly conveyed in this book, and I recommend it to you as a quick and enjoyable read. If you're in a hurry and want to understand her direction, start with chapter seven and continue through to chapter ten. That will reveal to you her model. Chapters one through six provide a foundation and resemble a guide on how to craft a book suitable for a seminary class.
Thus, I suggest this reading order.
I commend Angie Ward and her pastor husband to you. I first met them in the early 2000s in North Carolina. While we have not had the opportunity to grow close—I wish we were closer—they are positive and insightful Christian ministers. This book, by Angie, is not about “an axe to grind” but about a strong belief in the movement of God among us.
This book is thoroughly researched and documented. Readers will be informed and inspired by the message as we all strive to transition from competition to missional extension.
Congregationally Focused Missional Empowerment
Instead of Missional Extension as presented by Angie Ward, I propose considering Congregationally Focused Missional Empowerment.
To explain it, let’s start with a story.
I once had the opportunity to establish a missional partnership between a regional Baptist denominational organization in the USA and Baptist work in an African country. The partnership lasted four years.
It followed a multi-year partnership between another regional Baptist group and the missionaries in this African country.
In preparation for negotiating the partnership, I researched the recent collaboration. I discovered it leaned more toward being a parachurch partnership than a congregational partnership.
One example was that pastors desired to come to this country and preach in large venues to as many people as possible, in order to encourage them to make a spiritual decision to follow Jesus as Savior and Lord.
It worked. The reports were that tens of thousands of people came to Jesus. The pastors were pleased. The missionaries were pleased. The pastors and churches in the country? Not so much.
They were substantially sidelined during the process. The missionaries led the effort, and they, along with the visiting pastors, sought significant numbers to report in order to demonstrate the value of their ministry.
The in-country congregations were not linked to the new believers. The net growth of individuals associated with local congregations for discipleship was very small.
It was a parachurch above a congregation, not a congregation and a parachurch on a shared mission. It was certainly not a congregation above a parachurch, which in this case would have been equally unproductive.
To help heal this negative experience, I required that our missional partnership plan be negotiated jointly with the missionaries and the country’s Baptist leadership. Additionally, the goal would be to engage in ministries focused on the national leadership’s priorities rather than those of the missionaries.
The results were a much different partnership that was congregationally focused and missionally empowering.
This is one of many experiences I could share that leads me to say the way I would modify Angie Ward’s great suggestion is that the collection of congregations needs to be in the lead has the parachurch in a supporting role.
Key Convictions
First, congregational expressions of various types should serve as the primary channel for expressing the holistic mission of God. Within them lies the potential to engage the whole person in a spiritual and strategic missional journey throughout their lives.
Second, denominational forms, networks, and parachurch movements should play a secondary role, fully supporting congregational expressions as the main channel for expressing the holistic mission of God.
Third, congregational expressions “at their best” are organisms. Denominational forms, networks, and parachurch movements may start out as organic, but ultimately many, if not all, become organizations that institutionalize.
Fourth, congregational expressions must continually function as learning and discerning organisms that remain responsive to God’s leadership and the changes in the character and nature of the contexts and/or people groups God calls them to serve.
Fifth, as learning and discerning organisms, congregational expressions must turn to denominational forms, networks, and parachurch movements for new insights that can be applied in their context.
Sixth, the best new insights for congregational expressions are likely to emerge from parachurch movements that, with a clear focus and spiritual as well as strategic inspiration, delve deeper into learning environments that can enhance congregational expressions.
Seventh, because parachurch organizations can act swiftly, reach wide, build appealing new capabilities, and capture the emotional and spiritual attention of individuals and groups within congregational contexts,
· They must be willing to temper their enthusiasm and hubris to always understand that the primary building block of God’s Kingdom is congregational expressions.
· Everything parachurch movements do should support and strengthen congregational expressions rather than compete with them.
Therefore, they always direct people, products, resources, and services they develop back toward congregational expressions in a collaborative way, ensuring both the congregations and parachurch soar with faith and fulfill God’s Kingdom desires.
OR . . .