Philip Nation

Ed Stetzer

Missional and love are two words that need to be spoken together. Love is one of the key ideas taught in scripture. In fact, God describes himself as love in 1 John 4:8. As that is the case, it is essential to seek an understanding of love if we are to live like Christ - especially if we are going to join him on his mission.

Missional is a new word to many readers. Simply defined, it is living like a missionary no matter where you are in the world – home or foreign field – focused on and living for the mission of God.  We believe that the church needs to take on a missional attitude in our ever-increasingly unchurched culture.  But, just as we would send out missionaries to foreign lands to love the people and lead them into a relationship Christ, we must fulfill both parts of the equation as well.

Compelled by Love has been written to reorient people to the biblical portrait of love in the heart of God, the establishment of the church, and the formation of individual believers. When the ethic of “love” is combined with the attitude of “missional” in the church, believers will follow after the mission of God.