I have known Scott Boren for many years and watched as he has worked with the issues of small groups and the missional call of God upon us in local congregations. In the midst of this wrestling Scott has continually worked at the ground level, with real people in local churches seeking to figure out just how to invite people into missional life around small groups.

Scott's new book, Missional Small Groups: Becoming a Community that Makes a Difference in the World, is the result of those years of hard work, theological reflection and practical experience. I generally give books on small groups a wide birth; however, this one is excellent. It’s a wonderful gift to the church, a resource leaders will be able to use, make sense of and be helped to practice missional life through the small group.

A focus on biblical theology shaped the Executive Consultation Craig Van Gelder and I hosted in Vancouver this past week. We met in the beautiful setting of the Vancouver School of Theology on the campus of the University of British Columbia.

Denominational Executives came from all over Canada and the US as well as New Zealand. We worked with case studies written ahead of time that focused on the work of each Executive in his or her context. Our work together involved Biblical-theological framing of the issues and challenges these leaders face in framing and leading missional communities of the kingdom.

What makes a book significant, even great, is the convergence of many factors. One of these these is addressing the questions a generation is wrestling with at a moment in time and bringing to these questions more than just a momentary framing or technical fix. Another factor is the capacity to know, through training and intuition, the core issues and critical directions that are required to invite dialogue at a whole new level.

These are just some of the elements that make the Jesuit, Daniel Izuzquiza’s book Rooted in Christ: Toward a Radical Ecclesiology enduring, important and a gift to our moment in time. Blending together the work and insights of Liberation Theology, the linguistic turn in Biblical studies, Radical Orthodoxy and critical political theory from Europe, Izuzquza has given us a critical theology of the church shaped in praxis and firmly rooted in the Trinitarian God and the revelation of God in Jesus Christ.