"What are Christians For?" (Jake Meador)

TITLE: What Are Christians For?: Life Together at the End of the World
AUTHOR: Jacob R. Meador
PUBLISHER: Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2021, (192 pages).
 

In a self-driven, self-seeking, and self-centered world, it is common to ask questions about one's identity, purpose, and significance. Who am I? What am I called to do? What is my purpose in life? These are all familiar questions about the self. What if we take some time to think about our role in the community we are in? What if we take it even further to think about our role as believers in Christ? What if more of us recognize that the individual is incomplete without the whole body of believers? What if we begin not with the self in mind, but with the people, the very people that God has called us to love and to be a part of? That changes everything. In a powerful reminder of how interdependent we truly are, author Jake Meador shares with us the simple but powerful effects of simply being faithful to our calling no matter where we are. Called the "whole life approach," Meador draws our attention to the need for believers to be active in social justice and everyday spirituality. Like how Father Ted played his part in supporting the persecuted during the apartheid in South Africa, or how Frederick Douglass helped battle slavery in the 19th Century. Why are not more people stepping up to do the good that they ought to do? Why are we not seeing more of such radical practices in our modern world? Why are we increasingly disenfranchised with society, with political divisions, and isolated? Meador uses the title of the book as a veiled challenge to all Christians to do something about authentic discipleship. This book is a guide to help us understand the reasons why we fail to live up to the expectations of our callings; to remind us once again of our need for interdependency, and the courage we need to step up. 

"The Church on Mission" (Craig Ott)

TITLE: The Church on Mission: A Biblical Vision for Transformation among All People
AUTHOR: Craig Ott
PUBLISHER: Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2019, (160 pages).

What is the mission of the Church? There is a narrow view and a broad view. For the narrow view (or some would prefer to call 'focused view'), some like Kevin DeYoung and Greg Gilbert would say that it is the Great Commission. When that is the case, as far as the Church's mission is concerned, the Great Commission is primary, and everything else is secondary. This perspective is important for any Church that is becoming confused about how their programs and activities work toward a single goal. In the broad view, one might even claim that everything they do will be based on their mission statement. That is usually more theoretical than practical. Many churches have already invested in many ministries that do not translate into such mission purpose. Just like what Stephen Neill once said: "If everything is mission, nothing is mission." That is to say that if we don't have a proper focus, then we are not aiming squarely at anything at all. In other words, if we are too broad, we could become all things to all people making the Church's mission overly diluted with different emphases. Author and professor Craig Ott has looked at a variety of mission definitions and focuses and proposes a new way of understanding the mission of the Church. He puts it as "to glorify God by multiplying transformational churches among all people."  The rest of the book is to look at this central statement from six perspectives.

"Ministry Mantras" (J.R. Briggs and Bob Hyatt)

TITLE: Ministry Mantras: Language for Cultivating Kingdom Culture
AUTHOR: J.R. Briggs and Bob Hyatt
PUBLISHER: Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2016, (269 pages).

A mantra is a short word, phrase, or a chant. It can be a proverb or a wise saying. Inspired by Guy Kawasaki's words "Don't write a mission statement, write a mantra," authors Briggs and Hyatt have taken up the challenge to do just that for the Church ministry and Christian ministries in general. Writing a mantra forces one to choose only the most appropriate and significant words to project a thought or a meaning. It brings clarity to the hearers by first bringing clarity to the writers. According to the authors, mantras need four elements.

1. It is wise and truthful
2. The message is clear
3. It is compelling
4. It is memorable

A ministry mantra is basically describing the organizational mission or vision in a brief statement. It is important because its simplicity promotes clarity; clarity encourages creativity; and creativity inspires ease of communications. Briggs and Hyatt call it "the proverbial seeds of kingdom values planted in local communities of faith." They structure this book in 80 short chapters, with each chapter titled with a mantra. They supply mantras in two parts: for leaders and for the community. For leaders, there are sections pertaining to leadership; vision; motivation; ministry; pastoral care; leadership development; opportunities; success; and Self-Development. For the community, they write on matters to promote community; formation; tips on responding to conflicts; learning to do outreach and stewardship. Many of the mantras have given rise to creative thinking and opportunities to think out of the box. Some of my favourites are:

• "Leadership is Purposefully Choosing Whom You will disappoint"
• "Structure must always submit to Spirit"
• "Don't Try to make Church relevant to the crowds; Make the Gospel Relatable to the Context"
• "If they know you love them, you can say anything to them"
• "Ministry is Meeting People where they are and Journeying with them to where God wants them to Be "
• "Ministry happens in the interruptions"
• "The essence of discipleship i snot knowledge, but imitation"
• "Quit looking for leaders and start building them"
• "It's kingdom, not competition"
• "We will let you down: If we're close enough to help, we're close enough to hurt"
• "Community is made, not found"
• "Rotate your crops"
• "Church is free, but it ain't cheap"

Mantras are languages spoken or written in a clear and brief manner. It cuts away the spaghetti of mass information to yield an important point. While we can always say that context is important, being able to communicate something is better than people disengaging completely. In an attention-deficit world, many are jumping on the bandwagon of short quips and easy quotes. They prefer abbreviations and straight to the point messages. They have no time to bother with long essays. Reading has also taken a beating, with more people choosing electronic media over print. This is why I believe books like this will reach a segment of readers in a way that traditional books could not. It is a great resource for leaders to learn how to do ministry without letting unrealistic expectations overwhelm them. The mantras does three things.

First, it challenges our set thinking. Just because things have been done a certain way in the past does not mean it must be so for the present and future. Indeed, churches that are struggling tend to look back at the good-old-days, forgetting that the past can never be repeated in new contexts. By shaking up the status quo, leaders are forced to be creative and innovative in their ministry approaches. This does not mean throwing the past away. It means being open to change. This openness enables us to humbly seek God for what is best for the Church or ministry. Second. it helps us think out of the box. The ideas like "disagreeing without disengaging" forces us to learn how to disagree without running away from the disagreement altogether. For every conflict, there is a chance to learn more about the other parties and ourselves. Learning to work together is a core need in the Church. If churches fail to work together, what kind of a testimony will that present to outsiders? Third, the book may comprise of brief chapters but what it lacks in depth it more than compensates in the breadth of coverage of issues in ministry. 

JR Briggs is founder of Kairos Partnership and calls himself the Pastor/Cultural Cultivator of Renew Community. He has previously written a book entitled "Fail." Bob Hyatt is author, coach, and spiritual director. He is pastor and elder at the Everygreen Community as well as a staff member with Ecclesia Network.

Rating: 5 stars of 5.

conrade

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This book has been provided courtesy of Inter-Varsity Press and NetGalley without requiring a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.

"God Dreams" (Will Mancini)

TITLE: God Dreams: 12 Vision Templates for Finding and Focusing Your Church's Future
AUTHOR: Will Mancini
PUBLISHER: Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing, 2016, (288 pages).

Vision is an integral part of Church. Mission is an outflow of the vision. Both go together but how can we make the process more effective and clear? Without clarity, how can any organization know where to go and how to motivate their members to fulfill the objectives? What is the purpose of its existence? Many people know the importance but lack the necessary tools and processes to clarify their vision and mission. Based on more than 15 years of experience, more than 500 churches, and over 10000 hours of work with church team facilitation, author Will Mancini makes vision sharpening as a key priority in this book. He lists three benefits for reading this book.

1. Leading meaningfully
2. Inspiring the community
3. Focusing on God's vision

By honing on clarifying our Church's vision and direction, Mancini believes that Church Identity; Church Direction; and Church Story can be connected as one. The six parts of the book are:

1. Restart the Conversation: of vision and dreams
2. Discover Visionary Planning: visualizing the future
3. Find Your Future: Adopt templates toward fulfilling the goals
4. Focus Your Long-Term Vision: 
5. Execute Your Short-Term Vision
6. Lead with Freedom: personalizing the vision

(From Will Mancini's "God Dreams" Overview)

"The Most Excellent Way to Lead" (Perry Noble)

TITLE: The Most Excellent Way to Lead: Discover the Heart of Great Leadership
AUTHOR: Perry Noble
PUBLISHER: Carol Streams, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2016, (288 pages)

What defines good leadership? If you have attended one of the many leadership conferences, courses, or classes, you might have heard about traits such as vision, influence, confidence, courage, and other impressive characteristics that make the leader looking like some hero from the movies. While many of these leadership gurus are not necessarily wrong in highlighting these leadership features, the questions for us are: Are they the most excellent things for leaders to have? What is the heart of great leadership? Is there a more excellent way? What should be the biblical approach? What makes leadership Christlike?

Perry Noble is pastor of Newspring Church, one of America's fastest growing churches. Beginning with a group of 15 individuals with no budget, no employees, and no buildings, the Church has grown tremendously to 19 campus locations, with an average attendance of 35000 people, and a $50 million annual budget! Having experienced humble beginnings, he leads with conviction with the following principles:

1. It is not titles but voices people want to listen to that matters
2. The most excellent way is also the most difficult way
3. Leaders do not make declarations but are servants through and through
4. Leaders will do whatever it takes to turn a vision into reality.

"A Vision For Preaching" (Abraham Kuruvilla)

TITLE: A Vision for Preaching: Understanding the Heart of Pastoral Ministry
AUTHOR: Abraham Kuruvilla
PUBLISHER: Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2015, (214 pages).

Three words anchor this book: "Preach the Word." The purpose is to let the Word shine in this world biblically, pastorally, amid an "alchemical and distillatory tendencies of this generation." This means not submitting to humanistic desires for newness but to re-tell God's story faithfully regardless of old or new. This means not succumbing to tendencies to reduce to Word to what it is not, but let the Word speak clearly, insightfully, and powerfully. As far as the author is concerned, it involves eight questions based on eight preaching thrusts:

1. Whose words were these words originally? (Biblical)
2. Who said it? (Pastoral)
3. In what context? (Ecclesial)
4. What should these words convey? (Communicational)
5. What is the general thrust of the text? (Theological)
6. Who was the audience? (Applicational)
7. Why was it said? (Conformational)
8. To what ultimate end? (Doxological)
9. By whose power? (Spiritual)

All of these are summarized in one vision statement: "Preaching is biblical (Biblical) - by a leader of the church (Pastoral) - in a gathering of Christians for worship (Ecclesial) - is the communication of the thrust of a pericope of Scripture (Communicational) - discerned by theological exegesis, (Theological) - and of its application to that specific body of believers, (Applicational) - that they may be conformed to the image of Christ, (Conformational) - for the glory of God (Doxological) - all in the power of the Holy Spirit (Spiritual)."

"What's Best Next" (Matthew Perman)

TITLE: What's Best Next: How the Gospel Transforms the Way You Get Things Done
AUTHOR: Matthew Perman
PUBLISHER: Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2014, (352 pages).

Not too long ago, there was a bestselling productivity book that helps us manage our time and achieve our best use of resources. Entitled, "Getting Things Done," author David Allen shows us the way to live "stress-free" as we practice the art of "do it, delegate it, defer it, drop it" rule and so on. What about a similar book but written from a Christian perspective? Like many well meaning Christians, it is easy to talk about ideas and generate tonnes of them. When it comes to putting ideas to work and finding workers to do them, the ideas and suggestions remain pieces of paper to be shoved somewhere in the building. Then there are also myths that are far too often been brandished as facts. Dispelling myths first is like getting a person to stop doing wrong before starting to do right. Halt the rot and begin the recovery. I summarize Perman's initial 12 myths as follows:

1. Productivity is less about efficiency but more about effectiveness;
2. Productivity is less about having the right tools and techniques but more about character and right decisions;
3. Productivity is less about man helping himself but more about stewarding God's gifts to us;
4. Productivity is less about how productivity forms us but more about how God reforms us;
5. Productivity is less about tightly managing people and ourselves but more about engagement, motivation, and unleashing our best;
6. Productivity is less about achieving peace of mind but more about serving people for the good of others and for the glory of God;
7. Productivity is less about succeeding for self but more about putting others first;
8. Productivity is less about getting everything under control but more about letting the gospel drive everything;
9. Productivity is less about to-do lists to be made and accomplished but more about appreciating time and space as "support material" for our activities;
10. Productivity is less about achieving "tangible outcomes" but more about intangibles like "relationships developed, connections made, and lessons learned."
11. Productivity is less about the amount of time spent working but more about results we get;
12. Productivity is less about concerns for work stuff but more about concerns for all areas of our lives (work, home, community, church, etc);

"Vision Map" (Joël Malm)

TITLE: Vision Map: Charting a Step-by-Step Course for Your Biggest Hopes and Dreams
AUTHOR: Joël Malm
PUBLISHER: Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2014, (112 pages).

What is life all about? What does God want me to do with my life? The first question is a quest for significance. The second is a desire for meaning and purpose in life. This book affirms the point that there is nothing more rewarding to see God's will be done in our own lives. Recognizing the many people who struggle with their self identity as well as their purpose in life, Malm brings us back to the drawing board to help us discover and draw out our vision maps. Do not be deceived. Mapping is only the first step. There are other elements needed such as time, diligence, tweaking from time to time, and "total dependence" on God. Malm comes from the standpoint of an ordinary guy, just like you and me. It must first begin with the assumption that God had given each one of us some purpose, message, or vision in life. This vision needs a captivating "one-liner" that is clear, concise, and communicable, that tells us what our destination is. It also needs time and patience to formulate it. If necessary, find advisors who are knowledgeable and who can assist through asking good questions and provide guidance. Then comes the mapping or the visualizing of the message, which essentially tells us HOW to get there. Drawing out the plan becomes interesting when the details are slowly fleshed out. What makes it more exciting is to see ourselves being in the part of God's overall picture. This means prayer and more prayer in order to discern the whole journey and to be alert about how it meanders through the ups and downs of life. His section about "Big Asks" is risky but is also considered a big step of faith. It rides on the mantra: "Fortune favours the bold." I like that.

"Futureville" (Skye Jethani)

TITLE: Futureville: Discover Your Purpose for Today by Reimagining Tomorrow
AUTHOR: Skye Jethani
PUBLISHER:Nashville, TN: Thomas-Nelson, 2014, (224 pages).

This book is not about the future. It is about today with an eye on the future. This kicks off a very fascinating look at what it means for us as individuals and how each of us has a role to play in the present leading up to the future. Skye Jethani, author and pastor gives us ten aspects of what he calls "Futureville" for us as a people and society. Readers will be curious to find out how. The author shows the way ahead with creativity and poise.

In Vision, he urges us to be constantly moving forward, not to be trapped by the problems or cynicism of today, but to be inspired that there is more purpose and dignity than what the world is telling us right now. In "Culmination," Jethani tries to put the future in context, using two biblical metaphors of the garden and the wilderness as he paints a vision of a garden city. He then explores three pathways to such a vision. The first is "Evolution" which has flourished since the time of Enlightenment and perpetual progress. Despite the progress, there are signs that the world is increasingly broken and fragmented. The second is "Evacuation" of such a progress-driven road. Such a path is also not as fulfilling as it is more escapist from the world rather than living with hope. The third path is a lot more promising, called "Resurrection." Jethani uses the story of Mandela to show us that hope wins. Like Jesus, we are called to be gardeners working out in this world according to our calling. He guides us through the important topic of "Vocation," which is a lot more crucial in engaging people rather than becoming distracted over the different ways of doing church. With calling comes the need to cultivate "Order" in unity, social action, and justice. With order, we move away from chaos toward creative endeavours that reflect the goodness and blessings of God. With order comes "Beauty" for life is not about doing stuff. It is also admiring God's creation and the pro-creative activity that God has empowered us with. The last two segments cover "Abundance" and "Hope" which tie up the Futureville vision of the author.

So What?

Skye Jethani has a bold vision for the future, vividly sketched out in ten ways. Filled with illustrations and imageries, readers will discover that there is more hope for the future as we bask ourselves in the promise of God's new city. We as gardeners have a role to play. Let me offer five observations. First, the book is a breath of fresh air to a stale world infatuated with progressive activity. There is a unconscious faith in progress as if progress per se will be able to buy us salvation. So we upgrade. We do home and personal improvements. Yet, there is something lacking about progress. Progress to what? Second,  I appreciate Jethani's emphasis on calling, something which we need to be reminded of over and over again. The topic of vocation (calling) is a crucial piece of the overall purpose in life. Without understanding our calling, how do we know how to participate in the bigger picture of the world? The chapter I find is too brief and more could have been said about it. Third, the three pathways can be integrated better with a diagram. I find the first two pathways easy to grasp, but I would have appreciated a gentler movement toward the third path, which I find a quantum leap rather than a gradual climb. Maybe, a bridge can be helpful to move from paths 1 and 2 toward 3. It is like paths 1 and 2 are earthly while 3 is too "heavenly" for earthly appreciation. I am just writing my first impressions, and perhaps, given time as I let the chapter sink in, I will understand more. Fourth, the title of the book may be a little misleading, as it tends to communicate a science-fiction kind of a futuristic world. I know where the author is coming from, but I suppose readers of sci-fi will be disappointed. Finally, I must commend the author for a bold vision that attempts to shine light on our great hope despite the problems of today. We need that. We need a re-focus on God's kingdom that will come. What is needed is for more of us to be energized, excited, and enthused to live out our calling.

Rating: 4.5 stars of 5.

conrade

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This book is provided to me courtesy of Thomas-Nelson and BookLook Bloggers in exchange for an honest review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.

"The Rebirth of the Church" (Eddie Gibbs)

TITLE: Rebirth of the Church, The: Applying Paul's Vision for Ministry in Our Post-Christian World
AUTHOR: Eddie Gibbs
PUBLISHER: Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2013, (272 pages).

Many different churches, denominations, movements have tried to relate Church, mission, and culture, but few have reportedly succeeded in what they planned to do. In the past few decades, the idea of "church growth" was the popular paradigm for Church and mission. Programs and literature are produced to accompany the excitement. The next paradigm becomes "church health" in which churches tend to prefer to be healthy inside first before reaching out to others. More recently, the excitement hovers around the term "missional" which is an initiative to let any mission work reflect God both directly as well as indirectly. The belief is that the heart of missional work is not about initiatives, projects, or programs. The heart of missional is God. Missions in this instance is not simply a program, but a full-fledged demonstration of one's identity in a missional God. While in the past, the evangelicals tend to be more "defensive" of key doctrines and theological stands as they live counter-culturally; the liberals tend to be more concerned about "relevance" to the culture around them; the Anabaptists work toward purity and separation from the culture; the missional aims to be the Church within the culture. All of these movements struggle with acceptance by the wider Christian population. All because of the increasing separation of Ecclesiology and Missiology, so says Eddie Gibbs, Professor Emeritus of Church Growth at Fuller Theological Seminary.

Gibbs begins with a no-holds-barred criticisms of the post-modern Church, calling them fragmented, reductionistic, and largely reflective of the culture around them, instead of being an influencer or them. He looks at the collapse of civil societies through the ages, and laments the similar plight of the Church at large. The few shining spots of Christianity are increasingly being threatened by postmodern influences like pluralism, secularism, relativism, and of course, acts of terrorism that create a negative backlash against any religion. A response is needed. So Gibbs relooks at the Early Church, eager to learn on the one hand, but also cautious about the different contexts involved. This is something that the Apostle Paul did. Although there were population centers throughout the Roman Empire at that time, what we learn is that instead of strategizing on the different approaches to the different cities, Paul was primarily led by the Holy Spirit.  Gibbs then looks at the cultural backgrounds and the lifestyles of the people in the first century, noticing the rise of institutional power; increasing crowdedness and busyness; households the building blocks of society then. In terms of understanding and applying the idea of "oikos" (housing) then, Gibbs notes how the house meetings flourished then, and how many modern churches adopt that same idea into their home-based meetings like small groups. The difference is that first century "oikos" is more about bonding, obligatory protection, and subordination to authority; while our modern home meetings are more about independent lives coming and meeting together on the basis of convenience and independence, instead of community and co-dependence. In terms of the locations of Paul's ministry, Gibbs notes that while the population centers at Galatia, Ephesus, Philistia, Corinth, Rome, and many others are large, our modern cities are even larger. This is one reason why modern churches need to design their missional strategies from the ground up, instead of simply transplanting what Paul had done to our complex world. Three challenges need to be considered:

1. The richness and treasure the gospel itself is and how to share this message;
2. Our culture's historical and social baggage;
3. Various economic and political powers that world-class cities exert on its citizens as well as outside.

"Innovation's Dirty Little Secrets" (Larry Osborne)

TITLE: Innovation's Dirty Little Secret: Why Serial Innovators Succeed Where Others Fail (Leadership Network Innovation Series)
AUTHOR: Larry Osborne
PUBLISHER: Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2013, (176 pages).

It is one thing to have a wonder hit. It is yet another to keep the hits coming. In a book that talks, breathes, and sings all things "innovation," readers are quickly brought down to earth with the "dirty little secret" that pronounces the death sentence: "Most innovations fail." What a way to begin a book. Observing that most leadership gurus and conference experts tend not to be upfront about this secret, Osborne believes that the ability to respond to failures is the ultimate secret of continued innovation. There is no such thing as a guarantee for success. Neither are failures debilitating. Perhaps, one reason why gurus and leadership trainers skirt the failure issue is because the general culture prefers an optimistic ideal rather than a harsh reality check. Osborne, a senior pastor of one of America's most innovative churches provides readers with many kinds of reality checks, six pitfalls of growth, three leadership felonies, and eight critical leadership questions to ask when embarking upon any idea or innovation. Let me summarize the book through seven reality checks.

Book Review: "Transformational Church"

TITLE: TRANSFORMATIONAL CHURCH - Creating a New Scorecard for Congregations
AUTHOR: Ed Stetzer and Thom S. Rainer
PUBLISHER: Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing, 2010, (256 pages).

This book is an interesting blend of quantitative and qualitative analysis that leads to a strategic plan for churches to become a 'transformational church' or TC for short. The old scorecard for church health basically revolves around 3 Bs: "Bodies, Budgets, and Buildings." In other words, churches measure their health through numbers, dollars, and the physical structures they have. Unfortunately, many of these do not lead to real spiritual growth as depicted by the New Testament. This book contains many valuable insights for us to consider and re-consider how we can transform our own churches.