Starfish and the Spider #6: Chinese Starfish, Missional Living

I want to lift a comment on an earlier post from The Missional Network blog, with gratitude for this nice summary of  The Starfish and the Spider and the link to this video on the Underground House Church Movement in China.  This video demonstrates what I have said whenever I have been asked to speak on The Starfish and the Spider in church circles:  If Brafman and Beckstrom had known about it, they would have absolutely used the early church as a prime historical example. 

While more and more forms like this are becoming evident in the global church, I think the most pregnant line of thinking is how these Starfish examples and transform and energizing established but declining churches in the west.

 

  I also want to add some links to my friend, Craig Williams' ongoing (but sporadic) reflections on both The Starfish and the Spider and Kevin Ford's The Transforming Church.  Craig, a church planter who now serves as a nationally known coach and consultant to church planters and church plants, writes on missional issues with both of these books in mind. 

If "Starfish" is my current favorite organizational model, Ford's Transforming Church is the "leadership manual" for those who want to see the church be transformed from a "consumeristic" to "missional" mindset. Since I have other things to explore, I'll let Craig carry the ball on The Transforming Church, but highly, highly recommend it as must reading for those who still believe that the church--even as it is today--is worth trying to transform.