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Beyond Church and Parachurch: From Competition to Missional Extension
Discovering New Dimensions in Faith-Based Community Work
In a world where the church's relevance is often questioned, Angie Ward offers a compelling blueprint for a unified ecclesial future in Beyond Church and Parachurch. Beyond Church and Parachurch is not just a historical and theological exploration; it's a roadmap for rethinking the very essence of Christian ministry. Whether you're a pastor, mission leader, or nonprofit executive, you will be challenged to transcend conventional boundaries and discover the full spectrum of the church's potential.
Holistic Develops a comprehensive view that integrates both traditional and emerging forms of ministry.Innovative Beyond Church and Parachurch presents forward-thinking approaches to facilitate collaboration between churches and parachurch organizations.Inclusive Emphasizes the importance of diverse leadership in fostering a more inclusive community.Practical Offers actionable insights and case studies to apply the concepts in real-world contexts. Focuses on long-term vision and sustainable practices for impactful ministry work.Dive into a fresh understanding of the church in all its forms—be it campus ministries, mission agencies, or church-planting networks. Ward's vision dismantles the silos that fragment evangelical efforts, urging us to view the church as an interconnected ecosystem of apostolic networks. This paradigm shift empowers leaders to maximize kingdom impact, fostering cooperation and collaboration across organizations. With practical insights and visionary guidance, Beyond Church and Parachurch equips Christian leaders to serve a world in need with renewed purpose and unity. Transform your ministry approach and join a movement that redefines what it means to be the church.
In a world where the church's relevance is often questioned, Angie Ward offers a compelling blueprint for a unified ecclesial future in Beyond Church and Parachurch. Beyond Church and Parachurch is not just a historical and theological exploration; it's a roadmap for rethinking the very essence of Christian ministry. Whether you're a pastor, mission leader, or nonprofit executive, you will be challenged to transcend conventional boundaries and discover the full spectrum of the church's potential.
Holistic Develops a comprehensive view that integrates both traditional and emerging forms of ministry.Innovative Beyond Church and Parachurch presents forward-thinking approaches to facilitate collaboration between churches and parachurch organizations.Inclusive Emphasizes the importance of diverse leadership in fostering a more inclusive community.Practical Offers actionable insights and case studies to apply the concepts in real-world contexts. Focuses on long-term vision and sustainable practices for impactful ministry work.Dive into a fresh understanding of the church in all its forms—be it campus ministries, mission agencies, or church-planting networks. Ward's vision dismantles the silos that fragment evangelical efforts, urging us to view the church as an interconnected ecosystem of apostolic networks. This paradigm shift empowers leaders to maximize kingdom impact, fostering cooperation and collaboration across organizations. With practical insights and visionary guidance, Beyond Church and Parachurch equips Christian leaders to serve a world in need with renewed purpose and unity. Transform your ministry approach and join a movement that redefines what it means to be the church.
208 pages, Paperback
Published May 13, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 16, 2025
Angie Ward gives a solid analysis of the current church and parachurch landscape and primes her conclusions with a solid walk through church history, culture, and scripture. I really appreciate her heart for collaboration between the embodied gathering of congregations (local churches) and specific missional extensions of believers (parachurch).
She calls out problems like comparison, competition, tribalism, and scarcity mindset but with a humble approach inviting the reader to repent and take part in redefining, reframing, and reinventing how we think and live out our mission as follows of Jesus.
My only critiques are (1) some of the historical connections to the modern parachurch felt like a stretch to me. And (2) the solutions seemed out of reach this side of heaven. I guess another way of saying it is it didn’t give proper weight to the human condition. I get that nothing is impossible for the Spirit, but the walls that this book desires to tear down are checks and balances, necessary evils, and workarounds built in response to the reality of broken sinful man. Leaders, even Christian ones, aren’t all going to agree, share all their resources, and play nice for the sake of the kingdom because they have a new perspective. But I struggle with cynicism, and it is good that the author is full of hope and faith, seeking to encourage us in the right direction.
She calls out problems like comparison, competition, tribalism, and scarcity mindset but with a humble approach inviting the reader to repent and take part in redefining, reframing, and reinventing how we think and live out our mission as follows of Jesus.
My only critiques are (1) some of the historical connections to the modern parachurch felt like a stretch to me. And (2) the solutions seemed out of reach this side of heaven. I guess another way of saying it is it didn’t give proper weight to the human condition. I get that nothing is impossible for the Spirit, but the walls that this book desires to tear down are checks and balances, necessary evils, and workarounds built in response to the reality of broken sinful man. Leaders, even Christian ones, aren’t all going to agree, share all their resources, and play nice for the sake of the kingdom because they have a new perspective. But I struggle with cynicism, and it is good that the author is full of hope and faith, seeking to encourage us in the right direction.
November 14, 2025
Summary: A proposal that moves beyond siloed, competitive relationships to a collaborative model of missional extension.
I’ve always been a member of a church, since I was accepted into membership of my childhood Presbyterian church on profession of faith at age 12. My wife and I have been members of our current congregation for 35 years. Until retirement a bit over a year ago, I also worked with a parachurch collegiate ministry for 48 years. Both have been deeply integral to my calling to follow Christ. At times, I enjoyed a delightful sense of collaboration and partnership among Christians. At other times, I’ve witnessed and personally experienced tensions and competition and personal rejection. Truthfully, these hurts were far more painful than anything experienced from the non-believing world. The best of times and the worst of times, to be sure.
Angie Ward writes because she has witnessed both the same tensions and griefs and glimpsed the same visional of missional collaboration together, harnessing the gifts of all God’s people, regardless their location of ministry. This book maps the history of church and parachurch and the meaning and mission of the church. Ward discusses nature of these different structures, why collaboration breaks down, and a new model of missional extension.
She begins by outlining our current state and how church and parachurch are woven into many of our lives. From weekly worship to radio and podcasts, church home groups to Bible Study Fellowship and more, many of us live a both-and existence. She traces the beginnings back to the monastic movements within Catholicism as vehicles of renewal and mission. Protestantism brought movements of revival, mission societies, focused ministries in various sectors, camps and conference centers and ministries leveraging technological advances from radio and television to the internet and the smartphone.
But before we get to the relationship she asks the question of what we mean by “church.” She elaborates the shades of meaning associated with the word. By some uses, even those within identified parachurch groups qualify. Then she explores what the church does and the ecclesiastical “minimums” of the church, she proposes this understanding:
“The church (biblical ekklesia) is the divinely established, called out, and sent collection of all the people of God around the world, animated and united by the work of Christ and guided by the Holy Spirit, who gather regularly in locally embodied community to re-center their lives around God and who seek to live out kingdom values in their relationships with one another and with the world” (p. 89).
Then, going back to the path-breaking work of Jerry E. White (who wrote the foreword of this book) forty years ago, she outlines different theological understandings of parachurch vis a vis the church. She argues that where the focus has been on structures, she think a focus on apostolic function far more helpful. She argues that parachurch groups function apostolically in extending the mission and reach of the church into new places. Thus, she proposes replacing the parachurch terminology with missional extension.
Before elaborating the missional extension model, she notes the problems that have occurred historically. She calls for five movements: 1) from confusion to clarity, 2) from scarcity to generosity, 3) from institutional to movemental 4) from empire to kingdom, and 5) from control to freedom. This results in ministries moving from highly siloed isolation and competition to highly networked and collaborative missional extensions. She offers a number of examples of how this is happening.
She concludes the book with practical steps under the headings: repent, reclaim, reframe and reshape. I will note that the author has put legs on her writing in participating in a series of Church-Parachurch Leadership Summits. In addition she is a professor of leadership and ministry at Denver Seminary. All this gives the book both theological and practical ‘heft.” Most of all, Ward casts a hopeful vision of what we may all be together.
_______________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.
I’ve always been a member of a church, since I was accepted into membership of my childhood Presbyterian church on profession of faith at age 12. My wife and I have been members of our current congregation for 35 years. Until retirement a bit over a year ago, I also worked with a parachurch collegiate ministry for 48 years. Both have been deeply integral to my calling to follow Christ. At times, I enjoyed a delightful sense of collaboration and partnership among Christians. At other times, I’ve witnessed and personally experienced tensions and competition and personal rejection. Truthfully, these hurts were far more painful than anything experienced from the non-believing world. The best of times and the worst of times, to be sure.
Angie Ward writes because she has witnessed both the same tensions and griefs and glimpsed the same visional of missional collaboration together, harnessing the gifts of all God’s people, regardless their location of ministry. This book maps the history of church and parachurch and the meaning and mission of the church. Ward discusses nature of these different structures, why collaboration breaks down, and a new model of missional extension.
She begins by outlining our current state and how church and parachurch are woven into many of our lives. From weekly worship to radio and podcasts, church home groups to Bible Study Fellowship and more, many of us live a both-and existence. She traces the beginnings back to the monastic movements within Catholicism as vehicles of renewal and mission. Protestantism brought movements of revival, mission societies, focused ministries in various sectors, camps and conference centers and ministries leveraging technological advances from radio and television to the internet and the smartphone.
But before we get to the relationship she asks the question of what we mean by “church.” She elaborates the shades of meaning associated with the word. By some uses, even those within identified parachurch groups qualify. Then she explores what the church does and the ecclesiastical “minimums” of the church, she proposes this understanding:
“The church (biblical ekklesia) is the divinely established, called out, and sent collection of all the people of God around the world, animated and united by the work of Christ and guided by the Holy Spirit, who gather regularly in locally embodied community to re-center their lives around God and who seek to live out kingdom values in their relationships with one another and with the world” (p. 89).
Then, going back to the path-breaking work of Jerry E. White (who wrote the foreword of this book) forty years ago, she outlines different theological understandings of parachurch vis a vis the church. She argues that where the focus has been on structures, she think a focus on apostolic function far more helpful. She argues that parachurch groups function apostolically in extending the mission and reach of the church into new places. Thus, she proposes replacing the parachurch terminology with missional extension.
Before elaborating the missional extension model, she notes the problems that have occurred historically. She calls for five movements: 1) from confusion to clarity, 2) from scarcity to generosity, 3) from institutional to movemental 4) from empire to kingdom, and 5) from control to freedom. This results in ministries moving from highly siloed isolation and competition to highly networked and collaborative missional extensions. She offers a number of examples of how this is happening.
She concludes the book with practical steps under the headings: repent, reclaim, reframe and reshape. I will note that the author has put legs on her writing in participating in a series of Church-Parachurch Leadership Summits. In addition she is a professor of leadership and ministry at Denver Seminary. All this gives the book both theological and practical ‘heft.” Most of all, Ward casts a hopeful vision of what we may all be together.
_______________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.
July 3, 2025
In my first (admittedly quick) reading, what begins with an exhortation to raise the value of ecclesiology to more critically think through the nature and relationship of ministry entities, carries forward a pretty thin ecclesiology and ends by lifting up a familiar value of missionality in every form from churches (whether they partner with nonprofits or form their own nonprofits). Along the way, Ward introduces the language of "missional extensions" as a replacement to "parachurch" or "sodality," and I think there's something to appreciate here, even though I don't know that this needs the first third of the book to get there or the last third as a conclusion.
In many ways, it really is fine; I appreciate Ward's work and thoughts here, which she offers with both humility and conviction, and it's well-written.
What I regret most, however, is how little _Beyond Church and Parachurch_ looks to not just the historic Church but the historic and present-day Catholic Church as part of a more robust quest for a comprehensive ecclesiology that imagines and conceptualizes how social ministries, spiritual ministries and local parishes cooperate in complex yet normative ways to comprise the Church. I understand if this ultimately isn't the shape of ecclesiology on which Ward, as a protestant evangelical, is ultimately able to land—but I do think it needs to be acknowledged reckoned with if we insist on an ecclesiology that gives priority to local expressions but leaves us with a question of what to do with what happens outside of them; otherwise, (as a vegetarian) I wonder if it isn't a bit like holding a long discussion on how to solve the problem of getting complete proteins without acknowledging, well, as for others, some people just eat meat.
In many ways, it really is fine; I appreciate Ward's work and thoughts here, which she offers with both humility and conviction, and it's well-written.
What I regret most, however, is how little _Beyond Church and Parachurch_ looks to not just the historic Church but the historic and present-day Catholic Church as part of a more robust quest for a comprehensive ecclesiology that imagines and conceptualizes how social ministries, spiritual ministries and local parishes cooperate in complex yet normative ways to comprise the Church. I understand if this ultimately isn't the shape of ecclesiology on which Ward, as a protestant evangelical, is ultimately able to land—but I do think it needs to be acknowledged reckoned with if we insist on an ecclesiology that gives priority to local expressions but leaves us with a question of what to do with what happens outside of them; otherwise, (as a vegetarian) I wonder if it isn't a bit like holding a long discussion on how to solve the problem of getting complete proteins without acknowledging, well, as for others, some people just eat meat.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews