When I first arrived in Southeast Asia, I longed for connection—someone who understood not just my language, but me. God answered that prayer through an unexpected friendship with my coworker Asma, a refugee from Myanmar. What began as shared conversations about culture and life soon deepened into honest discussions about faith, as we began reading the Bible and the Qur’an together, exploring stories of prophets like Adam, Noah, and Moses. Along the way, I’ve been challenged by her perspective, humbled by our differences, and reminded of God’s holiness, mercy, and pursuit of humanity. This journey has become more than a friendship—it is a prayerful hope that, through curiosity and trust, she might one day come to know Jesus more fully.

Almost 20 years after the publication of Missional Church by Darrell L. Guder, there is a lot of misunderstanding and misuse surrounding the term missional. But the missional movement generated by Guder and his colleagues is substantive, and I’d like to give the authors of the book a fresh hearing.