The Synodical Council in March 2009 responded to a preliminary report from the Study Committee on Missional Theology (SCMT) with the following motion:

“In light of the fact that the Study Committee on Missional Theology (SCMT) will not complete its work until the 2010 Convention, the Synodical Council advises our pastors and congregations to carefully process missional theology as we await the report from the SCMT.”

The SCMT is working with an extensive list of materials, out of which we also were requested to make a shorter list available to our churches for the purpose of equipping churches with a basis for understanding missional theology and for carefully processing this theology and examining the implications of its teachings for faith and life. The intent of this list is not to offer endorsement for any of these works, but rather to offer suggestions for primary texts that have formed a foundation for the missional church conversation, and also some other works by which the reader might critique these works. Most of the missional material produced so far has come out of the mainline churches, particularly those from a Reformed theological tradition. The committee is aware that while material is readily available that critiques the Emergent Church movement, very little has surfaced so far that critiques missional theology. Although leaders in these two streams are in conversation, and there is some overlap, still, their histories, their theologies and methods are different, therefore, works critical of the Emergent Church movement or the larger problems of Post-Modernism, Post-Conservatism, etc. are not included in the reading list.