ReMission: Rethinking How Church Leaders Create Movement

by Gary Comer, JR Woodward (Foreword by)

Overview

A systemic disease is lurking inside the church that is derailing it from what God intended it to be, to know, and to do. That disease manifests in practical ignorance and isolation. If the church is to be healthy and thriving, its members must gain the needed know-how and skill sets to meaningfully engage with their increasingly difficult-to-reach unsaved neighbors, communities, and cultures in productive conversations about the good news of Jesus Christ. In other words, there must be a re-missioning of the body of Christ. ReMission practically equips leaders with tried-and-tested solutions that can outwardly mobilize a congregation, small group, or nonprofit ministry, and substantially increase the spiritual vitality of the body of Christ, both locally and globally.
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Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781629119434
Publisher:	Whitaker House
Publication date:	01/09/2018
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Gary Comer is the founder of Soul Whisperer Ministries, an organization dedicated to helping churches develop missionally. After planting/pastoring two churches, Gary was hired by Sandals Church (a mega-sized congregation in Southern California) as their outreach director. During that five-year stint, he also served as a church planting coach for the Christian Missionary Alliance and worked as an international mission trainer with Serve U International, while completing his doctorate at Talbot Theological Seminary. ReMission is Gary’s sixth book. His first book, Soul Whisperer: Why the Church Must Change the Way It Views Evangelism maintains a five-star rating over 90 Amazon reviews. Spearheading the Soul Whisperer Ministries team, Gary offers multiple mission-related services to churches. He is a motivational speaker, faith-sharing skills trainer, community group campaign catalyst, discipleship path designer, and development consultant. His ministry is national and international, being involved in training leaders in the United Kingdom, Kenya, Egypt and India. Alongside his beautiful wife, Robin, he is the father of two college-age boys and lives in Corona, California.

Table of Contents

Foreword 19

1 Name-Dropper 22

2 Designing Skyward 38

Part I Culture: Shaping Their Interface

3 The Pattern 59

4 The Permeation 75

5 The Posture 93

6 The Process 116

Part II Channel: Empowering their Influence

7 Tipping the Tower 139

8 Pinpointion the Flow 158

Part III Coures: Charting Their Instruction

9 Your Path Design 181

10 Step In 195

11 Step On 215

12 Step Up 232

13 Step Out 250

14 Leader Legacies 279

Afterword

In the Trenches of Remissioning 297

Addenda

A Conversational Lines to Reach Muslims 317

B The Top 10 Mission Skills ("Must-haves" for All Christians) 332

C The Path Model 334

About the Author 336

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“A rigorous, hope-filled rethinking of our central mission and what it will take to fulfill it. Every serious Christian will benefit by engaging with this important book.”
—Mark Mittelberg
Bestselling coauthor, Becoming a Contagious Christian
Author, Confident Faith and the Becoming a Contagious Christian training course 
 
“ReMission is not just a book title, it is a clarion call and deeply resonating theme that applies to every living, breathing Christian. Read these prophetic pages with an open heart and mind. And let God do the transformational wonders that happen when his mission is deeply rooted and thoroughly expressed in your life and ministry.”
 —Will Mancini
Founder, Auxano
Author, God Dreams 
 
“‘The biggest challenge of all is to turn the church back into a culture-penetrating entity.’ Gary Comer has identified the single greatest struggle of churches today. We have lost our focus and our influence. This book is gold for the church today—helping us get back to our core mission.”
—Dr. Ron Edmondson
Pastor, Immanuel Baptist Church, Lexington, KY
Consultant, RonEdmundson.com
 
“It’s not a secret any longer: local churches are in trouble. The overwhelming forces of secularism, pluralism, hedonism, relativism, moralism, institutionalism, consumerism, and isolationism are exerting a wrecking-ball effect on numerous churches. Of course, most church leaders are reacting strategically to combat these forces in an effort to turn churches around. However, as Gary Comer asserts in ReMission: Rethinking How Church Leaders Create Movement, most of them are going about it in the wrong ways. Contrary to what most church leaders think, mission is not the byproduct of being a healthy church. Instead, Comer declares that church health flows out of mission. Do you want to make disciples? Get people involved in mission. Do you want to have a healthy church? Get people involved in mission. Do you want to have a dynamic church? Get your leaders involved in mission. And read this life-altering and church-revolutionizing book!”
   —Gary L. McIntosh, PhD
Professor, Talbot School of Theology, Biola University
 
“Systematic, insightful, and paradigm-shifting. Gary Comer introduces a fresh way to engage your churches into the mission of God through his ‘Re-Mission Model.’ Work through this with your lead team and enter into a new day of missional engagement and kingdom transformation in your city.”
—Daniel Im
Coauthor, Planting Missional Churches
Director of church multiplication, NewChurches.com
 
 “I love this book! It is the life message of the author, whom I have known for over fifteen years. I love his research and flavorful writing that helps us rethink what God has called us to be and do. He educates and motivates the leader to realign his role to those he leads. We need a fresh insight and visual to recapture the obscured ‘pattern’ to gain the right ‘posture’ that will reopen the hearts of millions to the ‘process’ of genuine transformation. His ideas must be talked about and applied to the present day church at the highest levels so that it can be lived out by everyday followers of Christ.”
—Dr. David Mills
Pastor and founder, SERVE U International
 
“ReMission can help us and our congregations rethink the central calling as the people of God in our neighborhoods and beyond. We cannot afford to be distracted by all the programs and  busyness of our church life; it is time to learn from the heart and strategic thinking of Gary Comer and recalibrate our hearts to the mission for which Christ assembled His church.”
—Dr. Mike Fabarez
Senior Pastor, Compass Bible Church
 
“ReMission takes a bold step in moving pastors and churches into their community with the gospel. Gary Comer lays out a stewarding plan any church can follow.”
—Joel Southerland
Director of Evangelism, NAMB
 
“Gary Comer delivers an in-depth and candid look at the complexity of reaching our communities with the message of Jesus Christ. He offers a practical and well-thought through process to help you regain mission and momentum in a way that can result in sustained new growth and new life.”
—Dr. Dan Reiland
Executive Pastor, 12Stone Church, Lawrenceville, GA
 
“The church needs to revisit and recover its sense of mission, and in so doing, Gary Comer is convinced that it will recover vitality, unity and purpose. Jesus tasked his church with a sole, primary obligation: to go and make disciples. ReMission will certainly help His church recover that mandate.”
—Scott Espling
Pastor, Relevant Church, CA
 
“ReMission is a wake-up call to our core mandate, and a masterpiece for strategic global evangelism. Gary presents an in-depth analysis of the current status of evangelism and diagnoses why evangelism has failed. His audacity to confront age-old methods of evangelism challenges us to re-think our mission strategies. ReMission gives comprehensive, tried and tested, practical methods on how to evangelize effectively today. This is a must-read for all church leaders.”
—Zachary King’ori
Bishop, Kingdom Christian Ministry, Nairobi, Kenya
 
“In ReMission, Gary Comer questions and challenges some of the most sacred and deeply entrenched paradigms in the church. But don’t get the wrong idea. Gary loves the church and is passionate about seeing new people find ‘life-changing’ faith. Thank God for Gary, his relentless curiosity, and his creative gifting to explore new ways to advance the kingdom.”
—Mike Barnes
Pastor, Community Church Big Bear
 
“Gary Comer has an incredible heart for the church to be missional at its core. Through stories, practical advice, and paradigm-shifting challenges, he offers wisdom and leadership for the church to fulfill its role of empowering believers to live out the mission of God. If you are a leader in the church or just someone who cares about people knowing Jesus, this is a must-read.”
—Andrew Boganwright
Sandals Church Campus Pastor
 
“This book is absolutely soul-stirring. There comes a time when the church needs to refocus, reignite, reinvigorate, reinvest, and rejuvenate its passion for the mission field. Gary Comer not only addresses this issue, he also provides the church, its leaders and its people, with the necessary tools to do just that. Don’t just read this book—apply the principles contained within.”
—Leighton Ainsworth
Pastor/Author of Victory Over Myself, UK.
 
“Thank you, Gary! This field guide for re-missioning evangelism in today’s context is a critically important work. In our radically altered culture, in which many have left evangelism to the paid professionals, either out of fear or the feeling of being ill-equipped, this book brings hope. I highly recommend it.”
—Kathi Allen
Church Planting Coordinator, SWCP
A ministry of The Christian and Missionary Alliance
 
 “Gary Comer's latest book, ReMission, is a home run. This is not only a tremendous resource for pastors, board members, and Christians who aspire to make a difference—it is a necessary one. The church has lost its focus and its ability to engage with our secular culture. This book will help the leaders of any church to recapture their focus on the mission of the church.”
—Dr. Brent Strawsburg
Founder and president, Brent Strawsburg Apologetics
Author, Footprints of Faith: Defending the Christian Faith in a Skeptical Age
 
"In ReMission, Gary Comer offers both an astute analysis of the discipleship void in the church today, as well as rethinking a way forward. Change is needed in order for the church to flourish in following Jesus’s commission. This book is a helpful addition to the dialogue that will bring change."
—Gino Curcuruto
Church Planter, The Table Philadelphia, Northeast Network Director
 
“It has been said that most people will resist change until the cost of maintaining status quo becomes too painful. Only then are they open to change. In ReMission, Gary Comer not only paints a painfully accurate picture of today’s church, but he also expertly details the change needed to fulfill God’s purpose for the body of Christ: leading non-believers to saving faith. Re-Mission is inspired, timely, honest, and encouraging. It will change your heart and mind.”
—Greg M. Dodd
Author, A Seed for the Harvest
 
“Gary Comer comes to this place with a wealth of experience as a God-cooperator. His passionate love for the bride of Christ is obvious on every page, and on every page you will find practical and effective analysis, and instruction for retooling your context in order to be faithful and fruitful in this or any age.”
—Dr. Michael L. Wilson
Professor (formerly with Access Asia)
 
“This book matters—I mean, it really matters! If leaders do not see a primary imperative in making missional disciples, the church in the West will be dead in the water. Gary Comer has produced an authentic, practical, and hard-hitting work that we would do well to read, understand, and implement!”
—Gary Gibbs
National Evangelism & Church Planting Director, Elim Pentecostal Church, UK.
 
“I have known Gary as a friend and partner in ministry for thirty years. He has constantly and consistently modeled authenticity and evangelistic effectiveness in his own life and ministry, and he clearly shares these concepts in ReMission. I look forward to applying these principles in a greater way in my own life, and sharing them with the church planters I serve.”
—Dave Reynolds
Leader, Alliance National Church Planting
 
“Read this extraordinary book—the efficacy of your church or ministry could depend on what you glean from it. Gary Comer does not mince words. He challenges leaders to connect with the foundational focus of discipleship; transformation. ReMission brings one back to biblical values, and launches one forward toward fruitfulness.”
—Dr. Parnell M. Lovelace Jr.
Lovelace Leadership Connection

“Once again, Gary Comer tackles the greatest need in the church today: Returning the church to a culture-penetrating force. He delivers a deep-dive on the root problem plaguing today’s church. Practical help follows with tangible strategies for church planters and pastors to shape church culture and train members to read the needs of their friends and engage them in life-changing conversations. Read it to the end. The chapter on Muslims is stellar.”
—Eric Oleson
Director of Southwest Church Planting
 
“The Christian community has a rich tradition of being on mission. Gary Comer’s call to revitalize and reengage in mission by addressing how the methodologies currently being employed are out of context is quite timely. The cultural landscape has evolved and the approach the church takes must also evolve to continue to be relevant and effective for the kingdom.”
—Brian Lipscomb
President, Elevation Story

“When it comes to evangelism, Gary will equip you and the people in your church to become effective witnesses for Christ. Knowing how to do evangelism will reignite your passion to seek the lost—which our Lord Himself gave as the reason He came into the world.”
—John Njoroge
Ravi Zacharias International Ministries
 
“Gary Comer’s ReMission is stocked with warnings, admonitions, and in-your-face realities. He offers practical, biblical solutions to problems that the shrinking, marginalized church is facing today. Read it if you dare.”
—Dr. Ken Priddy
Executive Director, The GO Center
 
“Being the church instead of doing church! In ReMission, Gary Comer brings us back to the heart of God—others! Strap in to read it. He has sized it absolutely right.”
—John Blue
Pastor, Mission Orange County
 
“Gary Comer understands that any mission without movement is meaningless! Yet, we need to ask ourselves to what extent movement defines or at least refines mission. As you read these pages, you will find that not only your community but also your calling will be challenged and empowered to not only survive, but to thrive, as God builds His kingdom in you and through you.”
—Jim Solomon
Associate Pastor, First Presbyterian Church, Baton Rouge, LA
 
 “Dr. Gary Comer’s ReMission challenges us to think outside the pews of the church and assume a countercultural outlook to the existing church itself. He puts this responsibility on Christian leaders to create a missional culture—one that extends beyond their own circles. Through his provocative, innovative, and catalytic approach, coupled with relevant cultural examples, Dr. Comer presents what health in the body looks like—to bring together the strategy of the church with the vision of Christ.”
—Martin Alvarez
Operations Director, Ethnos Asia Ministries, USA
 

Interviews

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