Twenty years ago, a group of business leaders in Houston came to me with an urgent request. They were committed followers of Jesus, deeply involved in their churches, but they were struggling to connect their Sunday faith with their Monday work. They didn’t want more Bible studies or church programs. They wanted coaching, training, and encouragement to live on mission—right where they were—in boardrooms, construction sites, and classrooms.
What they were asking for wasn’t rebellion; it was hunger. Hunger for integration, for formation, for a way of life that made sense outside the walls of the church.
That conversation, now decades old, was an early glimpse of what Terry Walling names in Unlikely Nomads: In Search of the New Church. Walling describes a growing movement of followers of the Way of Jesus who are stepping away from institutional church structures—not because they’ve given up on Jesus, but because they long to follow him more fully. These “unlikely nomads” are searching for a faith that is embodied, relational, and deeply rooted in everyday mission.
At the heart of Walling’s work is a critical conviction: engaging missionally—actively participating in God’s work beyond church walls—is not optional. It is essential.
For years, we’ve sensed that the local church struggles to make the kind of disciples who live this way. Information-based discipleship—focused on knowing about Jesus’ teachings—hasn’t always translated into doing the teachings of Jesus. In response, many churches have rightly shifted toward spiritual formation: the process of being shaped into the likeness of Christ.
But there’s still a missing link.
Formation doesn’t automatically lead to mission. Even when people begin practicing Jesus’ teachings—prayer, community, forgiveness, generosity—it doesn’t always result in lives that transform the world around them.
Here’s where a robust theology of mission is essential. Missional living affirms that God has purposes for the systems of our cities—education, healthcare, business, law enforcement, politics, the arts. These systems were designed, however imperfectly, to uphold human dignity, promote justice, and serve the common good. But when disconnected from truth, love, and integrity, they begin to deteriorate. Absent the salt and light that followers of the Way of Jesus can bring, they fall short of their God-given purpose.
Mission isn’t just about individual acts of kindness or evangelism. It’s about the long, faithful work of helping the world’s systems better reflect God’s kingdom. This is the call that many unlikely nomads are answering.
The people we’ve interviewed on our podcast—Terry Walling among them—are living this out in compelling ways. These modern-day nomads may not always fit neatly into institutional church life, but they are forming communities, launching businesses, mentoring leaders, and embodying God’s kingdom in creative places. They’re not anti-church. They’re simply more interested in being the Church wherever they go.
At the same time, we must resist framing this as “nomads good, churches bad.” That’s a false dichotomy. We need both. Some nomads remain within the church, working to help it become a more missional home base. The energy of those stepping into new forms of mission must be matched by the rootedness, wisdom, and support of existing congregations. Healthy churches contribute to the work of spiritual formation, community discernment, and corporate worship.
The future of the Church will not be carried forward by one expression alone, but by a rich ecosystem of communities—traditional and experimental—working together for the sake of God’s kingdom.
If you’re disillusioned with the traditional church—or find yourself drifting, not out of laziness but longing—consider that maybe you’re not lost. Maybe you’re being led. Maybe the Spirit is forming something new in you—not just for your sake, but for the sake of the world.
And if you’re still in the church, committed to its future, ask: Are we forming people who can live missionally? Are we equipping them to engage the systems of our cities in ways that bring redemption and hope?
We stand at a crossroads. The institutional church may be shrinking. But the Spirit is not. The Spirit is stirring. And as Walling suggests, that stirring is sending more and more unlikely nomads out—not away from faith, but into a deeper, riskier, more beautiful embodiment of it.
