The following book review is a guest post from our Church Planting Pastor, Mike McDaniel.
The upcoming book Tradecraft: For the Church on Mission is written to equip the church to live out its mission.
Much has been written recently about the mission of the church. Many churches are talking about “being missional” and “engaging their city.” But while more people are grasping their role in God’s mission, many still lack the tools to fulfill it.
The authors summarize the problem in the opening chapter: “The most underdeveloped basic Christian skills are those related to missionary thinking and practice.” This book aims to fill some of that gap. In its nine chapters the authors, all experienced international missionaries, offer nine basic skills from international missions that they believe are foundational to the church no matter where you are—(1) following the Spirit, (2) mapping people, (3) exegeting culture, (4) building relationships, (5) identifying persons of peace, (6) engaging tribes, (7) contextualization, (8) pursuing alternative paths, and (9) protecting indigeneity.
As someone who has read a good bit on international church planting, I found this book extremely helpful. I don’t think I’ve read a book that so clearly lays out these core missionary strategies. This isn’t just theory either. These are tools the authors have employed in the field, and that shows through in the book. These are skills that the Western church needs.
The book’s main weakness is that it doesn’t clearly identify its audience. Is it a book for everyday Christians, or a book for church leaders? It introduces itself as a book for the everyday church, but much of the material is over the head of your average Christian. For the average person who simply wants to learn how to live on mission, I think the complexity of the techniques introduced could actually be discouraging. The book is much better suited for pastors and leaders who already have a basic missiology. The book’s other weakness is that it doesn’t offer enough examples of how to apply these techniques in a local context. Many of the examples given come from overseas, and it would help the reader to see these concepts applied more fully to contexts they are familiar with.
I would recommend Tradecraft for any pastor or leader who wants to understand how to better understand and engage their context. In particular, I think it could be a valuable tool for church planters or revitalizers who are trying to learn their context for the first time.
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