Mission

The mission of God has a church. So the church needs to be in sync with the mission of God. This is the guiding philosophy of the Forge Missions Training Network, which has helped church leaders and laypeople alike all over the world to reach their neighbors, their neighborhoods and their communities with the gospel. In these guides you and your friends will be equipped to be missionaries where you are―which is why God has a church in the first place. In Mission: Living for the Purposes of God you and your friends will consider how your life and faith experience would change if you conceived of yourselves not as church members but as ambassadors for Christ. You'll explore what a mission-shaped life looks like in your context, and how you can more fully calibrate your life around God's life-giving mission in the world. Other volumes in the Forge Guides for Missional Conversation: Community: Living as the People of GodCulture: Living in the Places of GodPower: Living by the Spirit of GodVision: Living Under the Promises of God

Scott Nelson serves as the director of theology for Forge America where he is responsible for curriculum development for all Forge America training resources. Scott is also a coach with the Forge Chicago hub, has been a small group pastor at a local church and is currently finishing his Ph.D program in missional theology at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Alan Hirsch is the founding Director of Forge Mission Training Network. He is the co-founder of shapevine.com, an international forum for engaging with world transforming ideas. He leads Future Travelers, a learning journey applying missional-incarnational approaches to established churches and is an active participant in The Tribe of LA, a Jesus community among artists and creatives in Los Angeles. Known for his innovative approach to mission, Hirsch is a teacher and key mission strategist for churches across the western world. His popular book The Shaping of Things to Come (with Michael Frost) is widely considered to be a seminal text on mission. Alan's recent book The Forgotten Ways, has quickly become a key reference for missional thinking, particularly as it relates to movements. His book ReJesus is a radical restatement about the role that Jesus plays in defining missional movements. Untamed, his latest book (with his wife Debra) is about missional discipleship for a missional church. His experience in leadership includes leading a local church movement among the marginalized as well as heading up the Mission and Revitalization work of his denomination. Hirsch is an adjunct professor at Fuller Seminary and lectures frequently throughout Australia, Europe, and the U.S.