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the seeking heart and mixed ecology

so today’s books are a couple more i was asked to give endorsements to.

first up just out is ian mobsby’s the seeking heart. here’s what i said:

Ian takes a deep dive into the world of spiritual seekers and comes up with some pearls. He develops a contemplative approach to mission that I found both compelling and very resonant personally. He has a lot of components parts that build but like a kaleidoscope they align rather beautifully in the final section where he shows how this plays out in practice. 

i say it’s a deep dive because it’s the result of ian’s phd so it has been several years in the making. it’s a complex piece of work. the practice ian develops out of his research is excellent. it goes without saying that it needs a very open posture to hold that sort of space open.

i resonated with it a lot. i have intuitively leaned into contemplative practices – retreat, pilgrimage, silence, lectio divina, centring prayer, ignatian examen and imaginative reading of gospel stories. i am currently training to be able to offer spiritual accompaniment/direction and the book got me wondering about whether that might be offered to seekers as well as pioneers.

secondly ed olsworth peter’s book on mixed ecology

the church of england has not yet recovered from ed not being in his national role as pioneer ministry advisor/advocate which is a testimony to the great job he did. mixed ecology is about the sort of ecosystem that might be helpful in the church landscape to enable old and new expressions of church to flourish alongside one another. here’s the long version of the endorsement i sent which got edited down for the cover:

Ed has spent a decade pondering, training, talking with others, drawing and re-drawing diagrams to make sense of the church in the new landscape we find ourselves in. I have bumped into him at various points along that road. This is the distillation of that. It’s a rich, thoughtful book that will be of great help to incumbents, missioners, planters, pioneers, innovators, senior leaders. Ed’s heart for the church, its mission and a generosity that enables the whole body to be joined together and mutually supportive in its ecosystem shines through. It’s a book to take some time with, to talk about with others, and to experiment with as we map the incoming future together.

ed is interviewed on the mission shaped podcast if you want to get more of a flavour of it. and ian was recently hosted by fresh expressions on youtube which i expect will also land on the podcast page soon in audio. congrats to ed and ian, both good friends. getting a book written is always a mountain to climb – huge respect to those that do. i need to take some time to re-read both i think.

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