Halter and Smay, AND: The Gathered and Scattered Church

Share this:

Hugh Halter and Matt Smay, AND: The Gathered and Scattered Church. Zondervan, 2010.

Companion volume: Halter and Smay, The Tangible Kingdom

Referenced in:

LifeandLeadership.com Summary

This is a follow-up to the authors’ popular volume, The Tangible Kingdom. These volumes present a very “organic” model of mission communities similar to that described in the works by Frank Viola and Neil Cole.

The value of AND is its focus on helping established churches, whether mega, multi, or mini in their orientation to conceive of themselves more missionally into their communities. Ed Stetzer, one of the most balanced and thoughtful missiologists among evangelicals, writes the Foreword.

The authors focus on the word “AND”, with its subtle power in the following dialectic:

  • There is a balance between gathering a community together and scattering them in the world.
  • The right things are centralized AND the right things are decentralized.
  • Resources of people and money find a blessed balance between maintenance AND mission, survival AND sending, tradition AND innovation.
  • Fans are turned into followers, disciples are made into made into apprentices, AND consumers become missionaries.
  • Leaders influence according to the design of God instead of the whim of the people or the pride associated with production.
  • Old skills matter AND new habits of mission take centre stage.
  • You can have huge vision for thousands AND live life in deep community and communal witness.
  • Your church learns to live a fluid organic Christianity AND has enough structure to provide any level of growth God wants.
  • You’ll have to work hard, give up your life AND have a blast.” (26)

For helping established churches become more missional, this book is more of an idea generator than a clear strategy, but it is excellent for that purpose. For those wanting to go to the level of planning and strategy for missional transitions in established churches, see Gary Nelson’s Borderland Churches, and Berquist and Karr’s Church Turned Inside Out.

From the Publisher

AND, by Hugh Halter and Matt Smay, asks and provides an answer for one of the most important questions for church leaders today: What is happening to the church in America?

By all appearances, it looks like we are ‘doing’ church better than we ever have. In the past thirty years the number of mega-churches has increased from under 100 to over 7,500. In the past ten years the number of multi-site churches has increased from under 100 to over 2,000. By the numbers, these church movements enjoy the national platform, the national voice, and the resources to profoundly impact the Kingdom.

In spite of the rapid growth of these prevailing church movements, why is the Western church still in massive decline?

Numerous books have been written documenting the flight of members from the institutional church. This is not another book about how to do church better or how to just get people back into the pews.

AND helps you—-whether you are a mega-church, traditional, contemporary, or organic church leader—-focus on the vast majority of unchurched Christians and non-believers who are not moving toward any form of church.

You will learn how to value existing church forms—-attracting people to a physical church and releasing people into hands-on ministry … bringing together the very best of the attractional and missional models for church ministry.

AND will equip you and all church leaders to value existing church forms while catalyzing a missional movement of incarnational people into the world for Jesus Christ.

AND is the second book in the Exponential Series—-a partnership between Exponential Network, Leadership Network, and Zondervan featuring several signature books each year to tell the reproducing church story, celebrate the diversity of models and approaches God is using to reproduce healthy congregations, and highlight the innovative practices of healthy reproducing churches.

About the Authors

Hugh Halter is the national director of Missio, serving as a mentor to a global network of missional leaders and church planters. He is lead architect of Adullam, a congregational network of missional communities in Denver, Colorado (www.adullamdenver.com), and is the coauthor of The Tangible Kingdom with Matt Smay.

Matt Smay serves as the director of the Missional Church Apprenticeship Practicum for Missio, where he works directly with church planters and existing church pastors as a mentor, coach, and consultant, and he is also a leader of Adullam. Matt lives near Denver, Colorado, with his wife, Maren, and daughter, Maegan. He is an avid golfer, loves mountain biking and fly-fishing, and enjoys the outdoors with his family.


***For additional information on this resource, including reviews, click the bookstore links. Check the reference at page top or the links below for resource guides on related topics.***


See Resource Guides on Related Areas:

See Resources on Over 100 Areas of Ministry Leadership: