Transformational Change in Christian Ministry   

EMQ » April – July 2025 » Volume 61 Issue 2

Reviewed by Austin Hussain, PhD intercultural studies student at Fuller Seminary, Pasadena, CA, researching Christian formation.

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Confronting a culture of individualism, Wan and Raibley argue that personal and communal transformations occur through relationships. Based on the relational nature of the Triune God, the authors’ framework, relational interactionism, suggests that Christian formation leads us into the likeness of the Trinity. Being, belonging, and becoming comprise the core lenses through which this framework understands transformation. 

The authors arrange their book in five parts. Part 1 introduces the text’s structure and relational interactionism. They assert that this framework “helps us understand how socio-cultural reality is formed, preserved, and changed through repeated and meaningful exchanges between personal Beings/beings” (9).  

The next three parts of the text examine being, belonging, and becoming as their framework’s foundational aspects, within which connections, interactions, and consequences shape transformation. Part 2 focuses on being. The chapters in this section articulate the epistemological, theological, cultural, and sociological pillars to understand what it means to be and do. Wan and Raibley essentially determine that we exist via connections to others, wrapped within God’s story. In part 3, they argue that belonging occurs within a relationship with the triune God, which prompts our transformation through relationships with others. Part 4 analyzes the process of becoming. The authors apply theories of change, as well as scriptural and theological examples of transformation, to Christian ministry. Integrating all their findings in chapter 11, they propose several ministry models that encourage connection, interaction, and transformative effects. 

Part 5 demonstrates how relational interactionism can be applied in myriad ministry settings such as evangelism and intercultural learning. Practitioners may find these ten chapters especially helpful since they offer several examples of this framework at work on the ground. 

Wan and Raibley’s book challenges some norms of theorizing Christian ministry. For example, they suggest relational realism as an epistemological alternative to Paul Hiebert’s critical realism. They also offer relational interactionism as a missiological framework instead of Charles Kraft’s functionalist/pragmatist paradigm. Third, their evangelical theology of mission is an alternative to David Bosch’s ecumenical text, Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission (Orbis Books, 1991). Short of persuading the reader to utilize their framework, they at least prompt their audience to consider alternatives to these missiological norms.  

Wan and Raibley’s work is a relevant read for academically inclined ministers as well as scholars. The authors’ integration of several theories and disciplines offers the reader a primer on epistemology, ontology, change theory, and sociology, and they clearly communicate the usefulness of these disciplines for Christian ministry. However, their broad, interdisciplinary construction of relational interactionism results in a somewhat shallow argument for their framework compared to other philosophical, sociological, and missiological theories. While the authors succeed in introducing their framework, the reader may not be convinced to use it. Overall, Wan and Raibley do well to encourage the reader to consider alternative frameworks for Christian ministry. 

For Further Reading

Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission by David J. Bosch (Orbis, 1991). 

Relational Missionary Training: Theology, Theory & Practice by Enoch Wan and Mark Hedinger (Urban Loft, 2017). 

You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit by James K. A. Smith (Brazos Press, 2016).

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EMQ, Volume 61, Issue 2. Copyright © 2025 by Missio Nexus. All rights reserved. Not to be reproduced or copied in any form without written permission from Missio Nexus. Email: EMQ@MissioNexus.org.