Pirate Island Ecclesiology: The Church as Formational Community

Jesus did not leave behind a book. He left behind a community. The purpose of the church has always been to produce people who resemble Jesus in character and lifestyle, and whose shared life embodies and announces the good news of God’s kingdom.

Many churches today struggle to connect spiritual formation with the actual life of the church and its mission in the world. What might it look like to recover the church as a school of life that forms us in the way of Jesus? Or, to shift the metaphor, how might we understand the church as a “pirate island”: a distinct community with its own rhythms and practices that forms disciples and sends them into the world to spread the holy mischief of God’s kingdom?

Gather with us for a free evening public lecture in the chapel at St. Andrew's Hall or, for our friends outside of Vancouver, join us online via Zoom.

Keas Keasler (PhD, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) is associate professor of spiritual theology and the director of the MA in Christian Spiritual Formation and Leadership at Friends University. He also serves as a research affiliate of the Martin Institute at Westmont College, and is the author of Kingdom Apprenticeship: Dallas Willard’s Formational Theology and Missional Vision (IVP Academic). Ordained as a Baptist minister, Keas has a deep love for the global church, having traveled to over forty countries and preached on six continents. He and his wife, Sarah, and their three children live in Wichita, Kansas.