Missional Map-Making

Book Review.
Roxburgh, Alan J. Missional Map-Making. Skills for leading in times of transition. Jossey-Bass. 2010
Comment. Henry.
Many years ago I came away from a ‘teacher’s convention’ with a very profound truth- Stop Doing Things That Don’t Work! That was a difficult thing for me to actually do. Even more difficult was to know what to do in place of what I was no longer doing. That is what this book is all about with reference to church work. When you don’t have something to replace what you are no longer doing you have created some kind of vacuum and left unfilled, vacuums can attract a whole lot of ‘crap’. I am sure there will be many more books written about “Missional”.
We see our world through the “cultural map of modernity” (6) and this map “assumes that all reality is made up of separate, distinct parts”. (10) Individualism is all over this map.
We are in an “in-between time” (28) of great uncertainty; in between modernity and whatever is next (postmodernity). This is a time when courageous decisions need to be made about ‘missional map-making’. This is a new world. Reality has changed. Effective map-making requires an understanding of modernity and Scripture, as applied to modernity.
“Common sense is no longer common.” (42) Equilibriums of all sorts are disappearing. E.g. N.C.D. evaluations don’t address the ‘in-between culture’. “Leading well in our environment of complex change depends on leading from a different place than management and control.” (53)
Sir Isaac Newton and the industrial revolution were key players in forming the map of modernity. Great value was given to control, predictability and strategic planning. “Strategic planning (where people are turned into objectives of goals and visions) cannot form mission-shaped communities”. (79)
There are eight forces of change that need to be reckoned with as new map-making is addressed. They are “globalization, pluralism, rapid technological change, postmodernism, staggering global need, the democratization of knowledge, and the return to romanticism”. (90-108) The development of the internet is an example of far reaching and unmanaged change.
Missional planning and map-making should follow these steps. “Assess how the environment has changed in your context.” (127) “Focus on redeveloping a core identity.” (134) “Create a parallel culture in our local church.” (143) “Form partnerships with the surrounding neighbourhoods and communities.” (164) Church leaders must shift their attention from “strategies and visions to becoming present with people”. (172) “Missional map-makers (must be) cultivators of environments” (182) in their neighbourhoods more than in their churches.