pioneering spirituality – new book lands

PScoveri had so many things going on last week that it was hard to keep up and it was certainly impossible to find time to blog about them. so in the spirit of catch up i'll try and mention them a week later. what is weird about this of course is that i do find time to snap a photo on a phone and say something via twitter or instagram so some of you may think i have already blogged about it but i haven't! 

anyway first up is that pioneering spirituality is out – hooray! it's edited by me and cathy ross and has fourteen chapters exploring aspects of pioneering spirituality. pioneering sounds active but as philip mounstephen points out in the foreword we too readily polarise what should be held together. 

It is only a true pioneering spirituality that will eve drive us out to where God actually calls his whole church to be, on the margins, in the unknown place of greatest need. But if it is true that there can be no true pioneering without pioneering spirituality, then it is surely also true that there is no true Christian spirituality that is not itself missional and pioneering. We tend to unhelpfully polarise what should rather be held together. Too often we caricature 'spirituality' as introspective, personal and static, while 'mission' and 'pioneering' are necessarily extrovert, relational and dynamic. And yet, as the chapters of this book so helpfully demonstrate, that is surely a false dichotomy. Spirituality is of course outgoing and relational and mission is certainly a matter for the reflective heart.

as with the pioneer gift there is a mix of well known writers (such as steve bevans and michael mitton), those in our wider team around what we are doing and learning at cms pioneer training, and i am so proud to say five chapters are from pioneer students – mainly those on the MA that we lead. i don't know of other colleges and courses publishing student reflecting in this way – i hope they are out there. our experience is that we are learning as much through our students as we do from anyone else (pete ward did that for me when i studied an MA back in 2000 and i was invited to contribute a chapter to mass culture which was my first venture into publishing). the book has come from the conversations day we held around this theme last year with chapters from presenters at that along with some others – it's one way we hope to push the conversation out wider. i am really excited about it. if you get a copy we'd love to know what you think and if you see any reviews do let me know. if you are writing reviews anywhere give me a shout and i'll ask the publishers to send you a review copy.

This Post Has 2 Comments

  1. Iain Macfarlane

    Very interesting Jonny. I have just completed an MA dissertation entitled “Is there a place for contemplative prayer in evangelism?” and I am determined to find ways to put it into practice. I realise I do needto be part of a network of people who are already doing this, and this book looks ‘just what the doctor ordered’. Thank you.

  2. Matt Oaks

    I would love to read your book. I am on a journey of awakening and a search for happiness. Reading The Primal Contradiction by Daniel St. Clair and his story has inspired me. So now I am searching for more reads on this, and your book looks so good. Congrats on it!

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