Comments on "Breaking the Missional Code"

by Brian Koehn

In this business, you get a lot of books. I've been reading my way through the pile and have finally had a chance to absorb Breaking the Missional Code by Ed Stetzer and David Putman. I know many of you have already read this book, but I wanted to pipe in with a few comments from a different perspective.

If you are looking for the next trendy model to guarantee church growth, then this book is for you...because that is not what it is about. It is also not about why to be missional. It is about how to let your mission transcend your personal subculture. For those who have heard Ed Stetzer speak, the book might be fairly redundant, but will still have good practical advice and examples of churches that have changed the way they do things in order to reach the people they are trying to reach.

"The key to breaking the code of a community is to have the heart of the Father for that community." (page 22).

"If a church does not regularly examine its culture, it ends up as a culture unto itself." (page 28).

The introduction seemed to last about 50 pages, but then the book started covering the shift in focus from Church Growth to Church Health to Missional Church, and how this means shifting from:

Programs to Processes

Models to Missions

Attractional to Incarnational

Uniformity to Diversity

Professional to Passionate

Seating to Sending

Decisions to Disciples

Additional to Exponential

Monuments to Movements

When the authors get down to the nuts and bolts of planting missional ministries, it's clear that they are writing to a fairly conservative audience. I would recommend this book for pastors to share with their leadership team to lay the foundation for getting them on board with different ways of doing church. This book is fresh enough to serve as an introduction to missional thinking, yet conservative enough to keep church folks engaged and still practical enough to cast a vision for being a missionary in your own community.

[Shameless plug for PCI:] On page 197, the authors write about Harold Bullock and Hope Church. "(Hope Church) moved into their first permanent facilities after a decade of moving from place to place.[...] it became apparent to me that Harold had paid an incredible price, putting the development of leaders and the multiplication of churches ahead of developing a local campus." [Here it comes] PCI exists to take the pain out of portability. By investing in a chasis for portability, and equipment that is durable, light, compact, and 'volunteer friendly', churches can experience tremendous flexibility, leveraging buildings that are empty on Sunday morning, and put off the resource draining phase of building a facility that is often their first step away from missional thinking. (Sometime you'll have to ask me how I really feel.) [And Done].

Having grown up on the mission field, it has not always been easy for me to get excited about the local church. This book is about local churches forcefully advancing the kingdom by incarnating in their target culture and reaching the lost, and that's exciting.


Brian Koehn is the General Manager of Portable Church Industries and has served on the planting team for Kensington Community Church in Troy, MI and Citadel of Faith in Detroit, MI. Currently, he serves as part of the leadership board for Citadel of Faith. He is married to Lesley and has three wonderful children - Jessie, Lydia and Robert.