Being Interrupted : Reimagining the Church's Mission from the Outside, In - Al Barrett

Being Interrupted

Reimagining the Church's Mission from the Outside, In

By: Al Barrett, Ruth Harley

Paperback | 30 November 2020

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21st Century Britain is a fragmented, anxious place, grappling with its loss of national identity in 'the ruins of empire', and with sharp and deepening inequalities - symbolized most tragically by the horrific fire at Grenfell Tower. To these national anxieties are added the pressures of church decline: numbers, money and influence all seem to be heading in the wrong direction. Common responses include on the one hand strategizing for numerical growth, and on the other hand focusing in on the Church's formation of Christians for our discipleship in the world. This book ventures to suggest that both of these responses miss something of profound importance.

Through careful and unsettling readings of five passages in Mark's gospel, alongside stories from a multicultural outer estate in east Birmingham, the book paints a vivid picture of an 'alternative economy' for the Church's life and mission, which begins with transformative encounters with neighbours and strangers at the edges of our churches, our neighbourhoods, and our imaginations.

From the feisty Syro-Phoenician and the women who hear Jesus' final cry, to a Community Passion Play and the friendships made at 'The Real Junk Food Kitchen', via the provocative encounters that bring the film The Full Monty to its climax, we trace a journey that interrupts the Church's normal flow, with a breaking-in from the outside of the "Kin-dom" of God - with radical implications as much for the Church's worship as for its mission.
Industry Reviews

"A thought provoking and compelling read that is not afraid to tackle some of the challenging issues the Church has had to consider over recent times. Taking into account the turbulent period from Brexit, the Windrush Scandal, the Me-Too Movement to the COVID-19 Pandemic the authors examine the social fractures in the light of the biblical imperative of what it means to love our neighbour. What they offer is an inspired approach that acknowledges both the challenges and the joys that 'being interrupted' can bring in order to envision new possibilities. Taking a constructively critical and accessible theological examination of the current context, Al and Ruth prompt us to consider how we might be intentional about traversing those fractures as Christ's disciples." -- Revd Dr Sharon Prentis


"Here is a primer for our times written by two people who help me to feel hopeful about the church and the future of Christian faith. Rooted in practice as well as wide scholarship and prayer, clear-eyed about the urgent issues of our day, this book challenges the multiple ways in which privilege operates to 'other' and refuse the gifts of those who are different from us. It will help individuals and communities find new ways to co-operate with the Spirit of God in her fluid, generative work of kindling and sustaining life - in unlikely and surprising places and ways." -- Professor Nicola Slee


...a creative, interdisciplinary contextual missiology, which breaks new ground by incorporating a multidimensional analysis (race, class and gender). The book adds to a small number of texts written by theologians racialised as white, that rise to the challenge for racial justice in Christian theology. The book's mix of theory, practice and creative arts make it an essential 'action book' for individual Christians and churches seeking to interrupt the long history of oppression(s) from, and in British churches." -- Professor Robert Beckford

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