The second book in The Missional in Marginal Places series discusses a range of ways in which Kingdom-centred mission can be embedded in existing realms of activity and need in marginal places.
If you look hard enough you will find groups of Christians deeply embedded in the life of every city – serving faithfully, innovating in extraordinarily creative ways and living sacrificially.
This book explores five different realms of practice, each presenting opportunities for innovative expressions of incarnational attentiveness to marginalized communities and people. It seeks to inspire prayerful and discerning activity that tunes into what Jesus is doing in local places, rather than providing any kind of "off-the-shelf" checklist of prefigured mission tactics. It challenges readers to take their faith-praxis beyond orthodox congregational settings and out into the everyday realms of life in marginal places.
This book is the second in The Missional in Marginal Places series, which specifically explores the theologies and practices that are arising as groups seek to follow Jesus in these challenging situations. At the heart of the series are the core convictions that such involvement must prioritize the marginalized and socially excluded; that theology must be liveable and practical; and that mission studies benefit from engagement with insights from contemporary social science.
Mike Pears is a tutor of Urban Theology and Mission at Bristol Baptist College. He also works with Urban Expression. Paul Cloke is Professor of Human Geography at the University of Exeter. Paul previously worked in the Geography departments of the University of Wales, Lampeter, and the University of Bristol, before taking up an appointment at the University of Exeter in 2006. He is also Adjunct Professor at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, and from 1984-2012 was Founder Editor of Journal of Rural Studies, an international and multidisciplinary journal published by Elsevier Science. He was elected as an Academician of the Academy of Learned Societies for the Social Sciences in 2002, as an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 2005 and as a Fellow of the British Academy in 2009.