Agents of Flourishing: Pursuing Shalom in Every Corner of Society

by Amy L. Sherman

God calls Christians to participate in his redemptive mission in every sphere of life. Every corner, every square inch of society can flourish as God intends, and Christians of any vocation can become agents of that flourishing. Amy Sherman offers a multifaceted, biblically grounded framework for enacting God's call to seek the shalom of our communities in six arenas of civilizational life (The Good, The True, The Beautiful, The Just, The Prosperous, and The Sustainable). Because we believe in what is good and true, we strengthen social ethics and contribute to human knowledge and learning. Because we value beauty, we invest in creative arts. Because we are committed to a just society, we work toward restorative justice and a well-ordered civic life. And our desire to see society prosper sustainably means that our business practices seek the economic good of the community while protecting the physical health of our environment. This comprehensive volume showcases historical and contemporary models of faithful and transformational cultural engagement, with case studies of all kinds of churches advancing human flourishing. It provides a roadmap for leaders wanting to participate in Christ's mission of holistic renewal. Discover how being God's agents of flourishing can change our communities for the better and offer a winsome witness to a watching world.

Genres: Faith, Religion, Nonfiction, Theology, Christianity, Social Justice, Christian

338 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 10, 2022

About the author

Dr. Amy L. Sherman is a Senior Fellow at the Sagamore Institute for Policy Research, where she directs the Center on Faith in Communities. She likes to describe the work of the Center as that of being “a minister to ministries.” She provides training and consulting to churches and nonprofits seeking to transform their communities for the common good.

Dr. Sherman is the author of six books and some 75+ published articles in such diverse periodicals as Christianity Today, First Things, The Public Interest, Policy Review, Prism, The Christian Century, and Books & Culture.

She serves as the Editorial Director for FASTEN, a capacity building project for faith-based organizations that offers a robust website of practical resources for ministry practitioners.

Sherman is the founder and former Executive Director of Charlottesville Abundant Life Ministries, an Evangelical nonprofit assisting low-income, inner-city families. She has served on the Advisory Board of the Christian Community Development Association for several years.

Reviews

[Daniel Greiwe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was first introduced to Amy Sherman through her book Kingdom Calling which I enjoyed. So when I saw her name on this book, I was interested to read it.

Two main take aways.

First, a system for categorizing areas of society: The Good, The True, The Beautiful, The Just, The Prosperous, and The Sustainable. It feels robust and I look forward to how it will help my own thinking about the complex layers of a healthy community.

Second, the idea of asset-based ministry for churches. She describes it as performing a 360 degree cataloging of resources entrusted to the church: human capital, current programs, financial assets, physical assets, and relational capital.

Combine these two ideas and you get an environment ripe with opportunity for meaningful, impactful, shalom-building endeavors sponsored by community churches.

[Tim Veenstra · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one took me a while to get through, but was so encouraging and inspirational. In a world when many seem to be down and out on the local church, this book restores hope that many churches are incredible beacons of hope for their communities. Very refreshing and insightful!

[Corey Shannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another class read, but I beg of you my friends, add this to your reading list! This feels like an essential tool for the church of the 21st century if the Gospel is going to remain relevant and compelling to our neighbors.

Sherman does a phenomenal job setting a clear foundation and direction for this book, anchoring everything she does in some pretty robust research. The entirety of this book seeks to equip the church to live into the exilic responsibility of Israel seen in Jeremiah 29:7 that states the community should “seek the peace and prosperity of the city”. This call, she claims, is a core principle of the life of the Christian as we claim citizenship in the now but not yet Kingdom of God.

This book also scaffolds itself on the “Human Ecology Framework” designed by the Thriving Cities Group, which provides the sections of this book based on their arenas of civilizational life. This book is a teeming resource alone for its theology and well-done research, but its connection to active and trusted research on community thriving and human flourishing makes it compelling and convincing for even those outside the church.

Beneath each section is the underlying assumption that Sherman reemphasizes in her epilogue - that “the gospel affects everything”. This work understands that the God of Christianity is a Creator invested in the full redemption and reconciliation of all creation, and even past that, is seeking the flourishing of all things and all people.

Three of my favorite things of this book:
1. The structure is so helpful. Sherman with kind consistency, begins by studying a particular community factor, providing a theological framework for its importance to the Church’s attention and vision for the world. Following this, she shows how both the world and the church has gotten this area wrong, but then follows it with a brief overview of the major contributions that the Church has made historically to the flourishing of this factor. Sherman does not stop there though, and proceeds to follow this overview chapter with current examples of the Church engaging in the work. This in turn not only revitalizes the discussion for each factor as something necessary to consider for modern Christians, it anchors us to our long tradition of contribution to these areas, and then shows us how we can be learning from our fellow 21st century Christians as to how to lean faithfully into this work.
2. Sherman does not shy away from the challenging parts of the call she is placing on the Church. She recognizes the failures the Church has often made in these different areas, perpetuating injustice for the sake of ease and convenience. But Sherman calls the body of Christ to repent and recommit to the hard but worthy road of seeing the Kingdom come here and now.
3. Dignity remains a consistent thread across this work. Sherman recognizes the Western Church’s tendency to devolve into savior complexes that do more damage than good for those in need. But she reminds readers in multiple sections the necessity of maintaining a vision of dignity for all people. A vision that recognizes the contributions and potential of all people, and holds firmly to the image of God inherent in all.

No book is perfect, so I do not claim this book to be the silver bullet for how the Church should show up in the world. But I think this work is a pretty good start. It addresses one of the major concerns of the 21st century human, which is that Christianity and religion have nothing good to say about life and purpose and meaning for this world. Sherman begs to differ, and claims that the Church has much to contribute to our communities that may even make Christianity “bewilderingly attractive” for those who cross paths with Churches engaging in the work she outlines.

Anybody want to start book club for this one???

[Neill Robson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I once heard a pastor describe humanity's divine calling—while living on a fallen earth—as "being appetizers for the heavenly feast to come." In such a confusing, crazy, and broken world, I would love to give or receive a taste of that redemption. But finding a place to start, even categorizing the battles we face, is overwhelming.

Agents of Flourishing is a dense, practical, and encouraging overview of how we can be appetizers. It splits up creation into six categories, or "endowments," that have both God-breathed intent and brokenness due to sin. Each endowment is then given a historical overview, along with several current-day examples of Christian communities restoring flourishing to that category.

The book is vast and comprehensive. Put another way, it is long. The author's recommendation in the introduction to skip around is not a joke! The first time I attempted to read this book, I did not finish. I felt overwhelmed by the amount of information and examples, just as I felt when looking at the evening news. This time around, I chose to read only the historical overviews of each endowment, allowing myself to dream about small ways I might be an agent of flourishing in that area. Others might find success in choosing one endowment that speaks to them, and doing a deep-dive in that section.

I also struggled with the larger philosophical question of "why bother at all, if eventual victory and redemption is already assured?". Why bother with plating appetizers, when the main course will eventually come?

Alongside the divine imperatives and creational intent communicated throughout Scripture, Sherman concludes her book with an insightful and practical answer: A deeper sense of satisfaction arises from labor that was hard than from work that was easy. Perhaps God invites us to partner with him in his redemptive plan, not because he's dependent on us, but because eternity will be that much sweeter when we played a small part ushering it in.

Though this book isn't for the faint of heart, a curated read is a beautiful and empowering experience for the reader!

[Caleb · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's some really good content here, and it's incredibly well researched and defined! My complaint is more that it adopts a bigger church model for accomplishing things. Churches have hundreds/thousands or they have access to hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars. It doesn't strictly deal with privilege! But definitely leans that way. Churches can be a blessing in countless ways. This book definitely helps inspire ideas for your local church.

[Conner Hinton · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a pretty good resource. Sherman does a good job of detailing the six community endowments which contribute to holistic flourishing. The chapters describing each of these endowments include creation intentions, sinful malformations, and historical information about how the church has worked to bring about good in these areas.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summary: An outline of how Christians may pursue Christ’s redemptive mission in six areas of cultural life, encompassing the whole of life.

Years ago, I listened to Gary Haugen, the founder of the International Justice Mission, an effort responsible for the release of thousands of women and children from human trafficking, discuss the breakthrough insight that led to his efforts. He was wrestling with the question of why God permitted so many injustices in the world when he felt God turning the question around and asking, “why do my people permit so many injustices to continue in the world?”

Amy L. Sherman believes that the redemptive mission of Jesus is intended not simply to bring personal redemption from sin but also bring God’s shalom, God’s flourishing into every dimension of life. And she believes that God’s way of bringing this about is through his people, and in the context of this book, through local congregations working within their own communities.

Sherman follows a model developed by the Thriving Communities Group’s “Human Ecology Framework” that identifies six spheres of cultural life that must be healthy for a community to be healthy. They are:

The Good: Flourishing in the Realm of Social Mores and Ethics
The True: Flourishing in the Realm of Human Knowledge and Learning
The Beautiful: Flourishing in the Realm of Creativity, Aesthetics, and Design
The Just and Well-Ordered: Flourishing in the Realm of Political and Civic Life
The Prosperous: Flourishing in the Realm of Economic Life
The Sustainable: Flourishing in the Realm of Natural and Physical Health

Six of the chapters of this book articulate a basic theology for each of these spheres discussing God’s creational intent, the malformations that the fall has introduced, the ways redemption re-forms this and how Christians have contributed to that re-formation in history and challenges in our current context. For example, under “The True” the creational intent includes our design to be learners, the goal of which is to know God and his purposes in the world, that parents are the first “teachers,” that Jesus affirms education, that God teaches us much beyond religious matters, and that common grace means that God desires all to achieve a broad-ranging knowledge. Sherman discusses the malformations of modernity and post-modernity and educational inequities. She then cites the contribution of Christians to making books in the codex form, to literacy, to scientific inquiry, to establishing schools and the early universities, and in the promotion of secondary and university education in the black community. Two challenges she identifies are the anti-intellectualism in many evangelical quarters, even the suspicion of learning, and the withdrawal of evangelicals from public schools, sadly in some cases, when schools were integrated.

Many books stop here. Sherman goes further in offering case studies of what churches have done in their communities to pursue each of these six initiatives. She discusses instances of churches pursuing the good by strengthening marriages, the truth by partnering with public education, the beautiful by investing in the arts, the just and well-ordered through restorative justice and reconciliation, the prosperous by redeeming business for the community good and using assets to build assets, and the sustainable by fighting environmental health hazards and addressing food desserts.

One of the most inspiring stories for me was that of two churches in a low income area of Los Angeles plagued by petroleum drilling operations that failed to provide health protections that would be standard in richer communities. They prayed, they collected information about health impacts, demonstrated publicly and built media awareness while working with city officials, attending public hearings, resulting in enhanced safety requirements that led the drilling company to decide to cease drilling and clean up the site.

What I love about this book is that it moves beyond a broad and biblically grounded vision to examples of how churches have had a redemptive influence in their communities in each of these area–churches across the country. In the concluding chapter, she outlines the steps church leaders can take for similar engagement in their own communities. The language of flourishing crops up in almost everything I read these days. The difference in the case of this book is that it shows how ordinary believers working together have pursued flourishing in a variety of ways that contribute to healthy communities. This work doesn’t gain the notice that scandals and political alliances do. But it pursues the common good and commends the gospel of the kingdom. In my book that is far better than media prominence!

____________________

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher.

[Tyler Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book for my Contextual Education course under Dr. Dana Preush at Nazarene Theological Seminary. Here is the reflection I wrote for the class after reading the book:

This was a very interesting book that brought the oftentimes intangible ideas discussed in the seminary classroom into concrete expression. I enjoyed each section’s movement from theory to historical precedent to historic mishaps to contemporary expressions. I also appreciated that Sherman largely stayed away from telling us, the readers, a formula of what we should do. Instead, she first attempted to persuade the reader the value of the church’s involvement in each content area and provide the reader with examples of what it might look like. It left room for creative thought and application to our own contexts. Additionally, I found this book refreshingly holistic, covering the whole of our social existence—civic, economic, natural, beautiful, educational, and ethical.

Admittedly, by the end of the book, I was a little overwhelmed by all that my church theoretically could do in each of these areas. Realistically we could maybe do one or two actions in total. I suppose Sherman would advise us to start simply. Pick one action and do it well. With that said, we could probably take some small actions from each of the major categories while still giving our primary attention and effort to one or two major actions.

My favorite section of the book was chapter thirteen, “A Strategy for Cultivating the Prosperous: Deploy Assets to Build Assets.” This likely comes as little surprise to those who know me well and my interest in finances. I have felt for quite some time, partly due to the helpful influence of several undergraduate missions courses where we talked about charity work, that our perspectives on charitable work are terrible at producing the actual result we desire—human flourishing. Our handout mentality is sickening when one considers how powerful the result could be from allocating a mere fraction of that money to work that empowers people out of needing handouts in the first place.

For example, I love the model of micro-loans. This is a concept I have heard of being successfully employed by the church in developing nations, but before reading this book, I had not thought about how it can have the same effect right here in the US. The truly amazing part to me is that the capital keeps regenerating and reapplying itself. A $5,000 loan can aid someone in reaching self-sustainability and then it is repaid and can do the same thing AGAIN. And AGAIN. The money is never lost (and even if some of it is, the amount that is lost is astronomically smaller than handout charities which only perpetuate the conditions they are seeking to alleviate)! For smaller churches, such as my own, which only have relatively small annual benevolence funds in each year’s budget, micro-loans could be a method for making our generosity go further than we could ever imagine. (Our benevolence fund for 2023 was $11,000 this year. However, there was also $11,000 for Missions that could be applied similarly.)

I think a root issue related to why the church is often not helping people reach economic flourishing is the lack of financial education in our churches. We tend to be afraid of talking about money apart from the dreaded once-or-twice-a-year plea for tithing. For goodness sake, Jesus spent a good deal of time talking about money (and made people mad, I admit)! Additionally, we live in one of the wealthiest countries to ever exist on planet earth. If we are not carefully considering how we can steward this wealth for lasting kingdom impact and sustainable community healing, then we are wasting a golden opportunity handed to us on a silver platter (precious metal references intended).

We need to start with educating our congregants on financial stewardship and sustainable asset deployment which in turn will ripple out to increased capital for the church to apply toward educating and empowering the larger community. This investment could pay off for generations as low-income and struggling families could begin to accumulate assets and build generational wealth (in the form of money, property, education, family engagement, etc.). Pretending, in the church, that money is each person’s private affair is an absurd individualist posture that cuts the legs out from under the church when it comes to long-term kingdom impact.

[Bill Pence · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the author’s book Kingdom Calling: Vocational Stewardship for the Common Good for my “Calling, Vocation and Work” class at Covenant Seminary – one of my favorite faith and work books - and looked forward to reading this book. In this book, which focuses on local outreach, Sherman aims to encourage and equip congregations to seek the flourishing of their communities—based on a conviction that this is a central mission of the church in our time.
The author begins by defining biblical flourishing and contrasts it with prevailing secular understandings. She then reviews the church’s identity and mission as royal priests called to advance flourishing in our communities. She introduces the Thriving Cities Group’s “Human Ecology Framework,” which serves as the organizing schema for the remainder of the book. The framework describes six arenas of civilizational life, or endowments. The following chapters take up each of these six endowments. The author writes how contemporary U.S. congregations are contributing positively to the health and strength of the endowment. The stories included illustrate some specific strategies that churches could take to advance flourishing in that realm of community life. The hope of the author is that these stories will inspire congregational leaders to imitate their strategies or try additional ones. The author concludes the book with the next steps you can take in your congregations to live into the calling of being agents of flourishing in your communities.
This is not a book that needs to be read quickly, as the author points out. It would be a good book to read and discuss with your church leadership team how you can apply these strategies or develop new ones.
Below are some of my favorite quotes from the book:
• The problem isn’t that we want to flourish. God wants that for us too. The problem is our definitions of human flourishing fall short of God’s.
• True biblical flourishing involves the good of others as well as our own good. Flourishing is meant to be a shared experience.
• We were made for a purpose. Humans were created to image God in the world, offering up our worship to him alone, and to reflect his character in the world. We were made, in short, for worship and mission.
• God’s vision for the world is shalom—universal flourishing. He has called us to join in his mission.
• We are made for God; thus, we are made for beauty. And we were designed to delight in, dwell upon, and meditate on that beauty.
• God’s will is that his people deal with one another and with others in justice.
• Work is an avenue for our enjoyment and a means by which we bring flourishing to others.
• God desires his creation and his children to flourish.
• People are charged with ruling creation, but this dominion is to be servant-hearted.
• Each believer has opportunities within their spheres of influence to apply the healing, restorative work of priests and the culture-making work of kings.
• We are agents of flourishing. We’re to practice reigning—deploying our gifts in loving, sacrificial ways that bring flourishing to others.
• Prayer is vital to every missional journey. It is how we express our reliance on the Holy Spirit’s equipping grace.

[Zandy Barner · Rating 4 out of 5]

“(Churches) believe that the gospel affects everything. They believe King Jesus is renewing all things and that he has called them to join in that work of renewal…. Jesus was interested in the whole person: mind, body, affections, will, desires, emotions, experiences, passions, fears, motivations.” (p 282)

As followers of Jesus we get to pursue the common good for all people made in the image of God and the world he has made. Amy Sherman does a great job of exploring ways churches have done in six areas of our civil life and inviting churches to explore and bring their church’s assets to meet felt needs in their community.

[Kalyn Dixon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highly recommend in light of church work/planting, or even just learning how to be an advocate in the congregation. I loved learning about the church body’s role the way this book framed it using the wellness of the society it is present in.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of proof texting in my opinion and an extremely American POV, but she had some good ideas.

[John Chaffee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great read. I expected particular things but this went above and beyond that. This book will challenge and push certain people but I felt as though I kept reading along and saying AMEN TO THAT. This is a book about Shalom in overt direction from a Protestant perspective. There were more than a few references to early church history, which I greatly enjoyed.

[Will McCauley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amy L. Sherman swings for the fences with Agents of Flourishing, a big book of possibilities for church leaders who want to take an active role in bringing God’s kingdom to their world today. Exploring six “endowments” of society (ethics, education, art, justice, economics, and health), Sherman presents a biblical rationale for each arena’s kingdom value, then provides a case study (or two) about a church working to redeem or “flourish” (Sherman coins the transitive verb) that aspect of their community.

This book will saturate readers with dreams and plans for a better tomorrow. Not unlike Jemar Tisby’s hyper-practical How to Fight Racism, Agents of Flourishing is a reference book for church leaders to mobilize their community and make a real difference.