Abstract
Eat What Is Set before You is a powerful case study evaluating a single church’s current mission strategy and reimagining how it could be more effective in mission in the future. As the title of his book suggests, Hagley—who is a professor of missiology at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and has a background in pastoral ministry—grounds his research firmly within the life and location of one congregation. The church in focus is a “typical . . . progressive evangelical congregation in a rapidly changing neighborhood in an urban center” (24), pseudonymously named Midtown Baptist Church, but he intends his observations and insights to be helpful in other churches and contexts as well.
Hagley offers a wise critique of the “missionary hero” narrative, on which many Western Christians have been raised. He reminds readers that “the one sent by Jesus to heal and proclaim the good news of the Reign of God will be able to do so only by being dependent upon the gifts and hospitality of others” (14). In light of this “complex symbiosis between congregation and community,” Hagley offers “perduring presence” as a model for truly effective relational mission in a given neighborhood. This is not momentary compassion but “learn[ing] to participate in the suffering-love of God” (23).
Hagley notes frankly that “mission evokes crisis for our faith” by introducing limitations to “agency,” which necessarily prompts a congregation “to rethink and reimagine their life together, learning to be a guest in the neighborhood” (23). The members of Midtown did not choose the particular set of circumstances in which they find themselves, but the congregation is invited to “find [their] place at the table God has set for it in the neighborhood” (24). Hagley suggests that the purpose of congregational mission is not ultimately to change the world but rather to dwell faithfully within it (26). As an outflow of this humbled, observant posture, Hagley ends the book with practical and helpful exercises that can be carried out in any location in which a church finds itself. This is a paradigm-shifting street-level book for congregations seeking to be fruitfully present in their neighborhoods.