Books @ Leadership Network

The American Church in Crisis

On my nightstand at the moment is David T. Olson's new book, The American Church in Crisis (Zondervan, 2008). Olson is the director of the American Research Project and director of church planting for the Evangelical Covenant Church. Loaded with charts, graphs and sidebars, his research is based (as are his conclusions) on his study of a national database of some 200,000 churches.

And there is cause for concern.

For instance, despite some optimistic polls that otherwise suggest the American church is thriving, Olson writes, "On any given Sunday, the vast majority of Americans are absent from church and if trends continue, by 2050, the percentage of Americans attending church will be half (of what it was in 1990)."

To avoid this dismal future, "the American church must engage with...three critical transitions...which have altered the relationship between American culture and the church." Namely, Olsen defines these as:

1. The transition from a Christian to a post-Christian society;
2. The transition from a modern to a post-modern society;
3. The transition from a mono-ethnic to a multi-ethnic society.

Of course, transitions 1. and 2. have long been foreseen and understood. It's transition 3. - the new kid on the block - that's getting increased attention from researchers, writers, theologians and practitioners, etc., alike. Indeed, we are making the case for the multi-ethnic church as a Biblical response to address the changing times!

According to Olson, it's not only what's needed; it's the future.

He writes, "In the mono-ethnic world, Christians, pastors and churches only had to understand their own culture. Ministering in a homogeneous culture is easier, but mono-ethnic Christianity can gradually become culture-bound....In the multi-ethnic world, pastors, churches and Christians need to operate under the rules of the early church's mission to the Gentiles."

And I really loved this: "As the power center of (global) Christianity moves south and east, the multi-ethnic church is becoming the normal and natural picture of the new face of Christianity."

It's what we've been saying; it's what increasing numbers of churches are now striving to become.

There are many more insights that make the book well-worth its cover price. But listen, don't read it simply for more stats and info. I recommend you read it with a desire to make personal and corporate changes that will be necessary for the American church - and, ultimately, the Gospel of Jesus Christ - to truly thrive in a changing world.

Mark DeYmaz
www.markdeymaz.com

Face to Face

Three spiritual issues are converging in the emerging pagan world. First, there is the essential mystery surrounding Jesus the Christ. Second, there is the emergence of image in art, cinema, media, and fashion as a primary educational methodology. Third, there is the deep desire to reach out and touch (or be touched by) the Holy. The controversies surrounding this convergence range for the Jesus Seminar, to worship design, to mobile personal spirituality, to the relative truthfulness of cinematic portrayals of the divine. Since the modern world is frequently just a higher tech rerun of ancient times, Robin Margaret Jensen’s book "Face to Face: Portraits of the Divine in Early Christianity" (Fortress Press, 2005) is worth a read by contemporary pastors.

One fascination of the book is Jensen’s ability to trace the portraiture of Jesus through the centuries. The earliest images focused on Jesus’ healing power and portrayed him as a beardless, brawny, beautiful young man reminiscent of Hercules and other mythical heroes. As Christianity spread to the upper classes, a second image emerged of Jesus as an older, bearded, ascetic looking philosopher reminiscent of Socrates. Once the doctrine of the Trinity had been resolved in the 4th century, Jesus began to be pictured as the cosmic Christ, co-eternal Ruler with the Father, in total control of history.

Another fascination of the book is that despite different perspectives on the image of Christ, rooted in different experiences of the power of Christ, his portraits have startling similarities. They all go back to ancient, miraculous images superimposed on cloth and untouched by human artistry. We all know of the Shroud of Turin. One was the “Mandylion”, an imprint made by Jesus himself wiping his faith with a towel, said to have powers of healing in Edessa, later to have rescued the city from invading Persians in the 6th century. Many copies were made, but the original was lost in the sack of Constantinople by Christian crusaders from the west in the 13th century. So how did Jesus look? All the ancient portraits, from various sources, show his eyes looking straight out, under well-defined brows and a high forehead, prematurely bald. He has a long, narrow nose; drooping mustache, and a beard that comes to two points. His hair is parted in the center and hangs to his shoulders.

So who cares? The next fascinating thing about the book is that it is very clear that a lot of people really do care, and have always cared, about the “touchability” of Jesus. Perhaps for sophisticated church people, theologians, Bible students, public school graduates, professionals, and non-profit CEO’s the abstraction, idealization, and obscurity of the “idea” of Jesus is sufficient. Common, ordinary folk are different. Like the woman on the road to Jerusalem, they have to touch him in order for him to be real. As the theological sophistication of the average church person declines, and the spiritual hunger of the pagan public increases, the image of Christ becomes more important.

Jensen’s book about the ancient controversies about image helps us understand contemporary controversies about Christ. Jesus is a “gut issue”. It’s not really a theological issue or an intellectual debate. It’s about the accessibility of God and the experience of the Holy. This is why mere preaching doesn’t work anymore … and mere “Bible Study” does not attract many people under 45. They don’t want a curriculum or even a message from beyond. They want to touch, see, and feel the breath of God. No wonder churches are adding images and projecting videos, and the fastest growing merchandise in Christian bookstores are not books. People want images, pictures, talismans, and anything that will help them have a gut experience of the Holy, at the moment of crisis, wherever they are, when they really need it, without having to read a book or consult a pastor.

So if you happen to be walking down the street and see someone with a drooping mustache and beard that comes to two points, with long hair parted in the middle, prematurely bald but looking remarkably healthy, staring straight out with unblinking, perceptive eyes, be sure to buy him coffee and start a conversation.

Tom Bandy

http://www.easumbandy.com

http://www.netresults.org

Static is not all noise

             

I remember analog devises.  And the static that accompanied them.  All I have to say is thank goodness for digital. 

But static may not be a thing of the past after all.  In his book Static: Tune Out the “Christian Noise” and Experience the Real Message of Jesus, Ron Martoia argues that much of the language we use within the church is not effectively communicating the gospel. 

Ron uses the device of an ongoing conversation with a young couple in his church who are struggling with the question of how to share the gospel with friends at work. Through this ongoing conversation we are introduced to various words which may have lost much of their original meaning.  He goes to great pains to elaborate how faith, repentance, Kingdom and other words which we use so frequently may have been understood by the people with whom Christ spoke in a very different way. We are also asked to re-evaluate whether Jesus really was as concerned about the same things which occupy so much of our thinking.  In particular, the notion is challenged that Jesus’ primary concern was that people go to heaven when they die.  Instead, Martoia claims that Jesus focused on God’s Kingdom and salvation as first and foremost having to do with the reestablishment of God’s rule within our lives.  Martoia is quite willing to ask the question, “Did Jesus really say or do that?”  He is unafraid to push the point that we often read into the scriptures things which simply aren’t there. 

When you reading Static, it is possible to be confused, convicted, upset, enlightened and even feel somewhat helpless, all in a single page.  After all, we want to ask, if all of this is true, why did so few of us encounter this kind of teaching in seminary?  The idea that we might not even be fully aware of the meaning of the Gospel is almost untenable.  Yet it is even more untenable to imagine that we may be communicating through static which makes the hearing, understanding and living out of the Gospel impossible.  The real tragedy is not in not knowing, it is in pride which prevents us from learning. 

By Nick Howard, http://theosyllabic.wordpress.com/

How to re-imagine the world

I just finished Anthony Weston's "How to re-imagine the world", a wild little book about reawakening radical imagination for social transformation.

Weston's strengths are definitely in the realm of futuristic/ideation which completely jives with me. 

He pitches a few ideas that are aching to be implemented like sports for the homeless, turning military bases into retreat centers, cutting the work week in half, preemptive peace, sun-baked roads that generate electricity, and creating floating cities to name a few.

Some quotes I highlighted from the book

Radical imagination begins with a move beyond complaint and resistance, beyond reactive tinkering or hunkering down or cynical accommodation.  The first big move is to an alternative picture of how things could be instead.

Truly generative, inventive, new thinking requires risk-taking and is itself a discipline.  Mental stretching and twisting, conceptual self-provocations, going two steps too far - we need techniques, in short, to shock or seduce our ideas into unexpected and suggestive re-arrangements, freezing up space and generating raw material for the constructive imagination.

How can we make life more ecstatic?

Along with battling poverty we need to ask why we tolerate radical inequality at all.  In many African tribal societies, even a single homeless person is felt as a disgrace by all.  How did we get where we are? We know too little of the natural world to come to love it.

Who would Jesus bomb?

A couple sites Weston recommends worldchanging.com and globalideasbank.org

By Lon Wong / http://solarcrash.com

Why "You All" Should Be On Facebook

Facebook for Pastors: How To Build Relationships And Connect With People Using The Most Popular Social Network On The Internet by Chris Forbes.

So since my wife and I are moving to Dallas this summer I figured I would start with the phrase "you all" to get more familiar to our soon to be new surroundings.  That aside, "you all" should be on Facebook...and a lot of you already are.  This is a much needed book, and it looks like it beat to the market what is sure to be an onslaught of books on Facebook in the coming year.  Lots and lots of ministries and pastors have already discovered this poweful social networking tool, but not all know exactly how to most effectively use it.  And many are still wondering if they should even be on it, or if there are too many downsides to social networking since one cannot control a lot of the content, but it is rather organized and run by the leaderless community.

Let me begin with some reaons why everyone should pick up this book and read it:

1. It's free.
2. It's an easy to access e-book form.
3. You can read it in an hour.
4. If you desire, you can donate $10 for the book to Hearts and Hands International.
5. In the foreward, Greg Atkinson makes a "bold" and unapologetic claim for why you pastors need to be on Facebook.  And it is good.
6. Chris does a great job of laying out a simple and easy to use roadmap for using Facebook effectively.

I have been on Facebook for almost three years.  It was not by my doing either. One of my student leaders came to college group one night and announced to the rest of the group that he created a Facebook group for us and would be posting information for the ministry.  Within a matter of days our group grew to over 100 students and they were planning events, working collaboratively and exchanging information. Despite my initial objections, I was later won over and have been an "evangelist" for Facebook ever since.

Let me leave you with a few quotes from Chris Forbes:

We can't say if Jesus would or not, but Facebook is where people are.  I have spent the last few months thinking about social media and how it can be used in ministry.  I have come to the conclusion that many pastors could benefit their ministry if they would begin to use social media, and a good place to start your "Church 2.0" ministry is Facebook.

Social media (like Facebook) are not going away any time soon.  A new approach to communications has been opened up in the new media.  The question is will your ministry take advantage of the opportunity for communicating the gospel?  The biggest objections pastors offer for not being involved in social media is that it takes too much time.  Pastor's can't afford to simply "spend" time on something; the nature of their work demands that they "invest" it.  Just like any other investment, it must be weighed against the potential return.  In the past, the areas of highest return on investment of time and effort were found in technologies like the telephone and practices such as door-to-door visitation, but those days are gone, probably forever.  As time and technology have marched on, we have moved into a "Web 2.0" world where many of the old rules no longer apply and strategies that used to work no longer yield the results they once did.

Book Review: The Blessed Life

Absolutely fantastic! That's my review of Robert Morris' book, "The Blessed Life". I couldn't put it down. It is one of the best books I've ever read on the subject of stewardship. I was totally challenged in reading it. I was inspired to trust God more. I was grateful for how God has blessed my life.

There are so many quotes that rocked my world. Here's a few:

"No one is a natural born giver. We are all born takers."

"The days of the blessed person are filled with divine "coincidences" and heavenly meaning."

"God doesn't need you to give - you need to be blessed."

"True tithing comes from the heart - not from a legalistic mindset."

"The only people who get offended when you preach on money are those who don't give!"

"People who have the gift of giving respond to a strong vision with clear objectives."

"God is not going to give us more money if we can't even be faithful with the money He has already given."

"Jesus is into rewarding stewardship!"

There's probably 200 more gems that I underlined. But hopefully this will be enough to cause you to pick up the book. I'm going to buy several copies of this book and give them out! You'll want to do the same! Buy it!

by Bob Franquiz

Launching the Church Out Into Deep Water is . . .

. . . the only prophetic way for The Church of the Perfect Storm to effectively address one of the greatest Culturestorms in history. At least that is according to Leonard Sweet and the voices of multiple writers in a new book he edited and Abingdon Press released two months ago.

This book provides a dramatic image of the conflict and challenge facing Christianity if it is to successfully navigate the waters of post-Christendom. The reward is not in the harbor. The reward is in the midst of the storm. The reward is in the deep water. The reward may follow the storm as God displays a special rainbow.

The church cannot stay in the harbor just as the early church could not stay in Jerusalem. But once again it might take persecution to get the church to leave the harbor and to see the opportunities of God in the midst of the perfect storm.

It has been 500 years since the last perfect storm for Christianity. We called it the Reformation. The forces of the Counter-Reformation sought to undermine it, but it could not. The Church of the Perfect Storm paints a clear picture of the challenges that most be faced in the current post-Christendom storm.

At a time such as this some of the Israelites wanted to return to Egypt rather than cross the Red Sea. In the same way many modern Christians are afraid to face the perfect storm present in the midst of post-modernity. They prefer the harbor or, as Stephen Joubert says on page 50, the religious aquarium which some know as churches.

As I shared when I formally endorsed this book for Len and Abingdon Press: "Just as during a hurricane the safest place for ships is not the harbor, but the deep water, so Christianity in a post-modern era must launch out into deep water and face head-on the perfect storm created by the convergence of post-modernity, religious pluralism, institutionalized Christianity, and militant atheism."

Go forth and become storm chasers. Join The Church of the Perfect Storm as shown to us in this book by writers Len Sweet, Greg Glatz, Stephan Joubert, Alan Jamieson, Dries Lombaard, Younglae Kim, Earl Pierce, Bill Easum, Michael Blewett, Mark Batterson, Tom Bandy, and Peter Walker.

--provided by George Bullard at www.BullardJournal.org

The Flow of the Spirit

We all know that the term "spirituality" is more seeker sensitive than terms like "religion" or "denomination". I’ve been reading The Story of Christian Spirituality: Two Thousand Years from East to West (Fortress Press, 2001). It is a large, illustrated, hard cover book unsuitable for my travels. One of the things I enjoy most in life is eating breakfast with the rising sun reflecting through the many prisms we have in our dining room, reading the writings of great Christians. This book has been my focus those rare moments at home from Christmas through Easter. I just finished. Although I often skip ahead, I recommend reading this book from start to finish. It begins with Jesus and the origins of Christian spirituality and ends in 1994 with the release of Nelson Mandela, the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Toronto Blessing, and Matthew Fox expelled from the Dominicans. If any readers out there have failed to take notice of these significant events in Christian spirituality, I hope you lift your heads from the sand very soon!

There is something awesome following the flow of the Spirit from earliest times to the present … and realizing that although the book ends in 1994 the Spirit has still been working in ways unpredicted by the authors of each section. Each section is written by a notable scholar and spiritual leader. This is not a book about theology. Aquinas, Kierkegaard, and Calvin get a paragraph at best. This is a book about spiritual habits, spiritual life, and the day-to-day quest of Christians for hope. The sections describe the early church Fathers; Celtic spirituality; saints and mystics; Eastern and Russian spiritual practices; Protestant innovations and Catholic reformers. It ends with a summary of spiritualities emerging in the 20th century.

This last section is the weakest and strongest section in the book. It is weak, because it seems so fragmented. It describes various movements … some seemingly contradictory to each other … clearly reflecting the dissolution of Christendom and the fragmentation of Christianity. Yet that is also its strength. I realized again how extraordinary is the time in which we live. We are truly at a turning point in Christian faith the like of which has not been seen since the 3rd century. There are many voices crying out for a new Reformation. But there have been several "reformations" in Christian spirituality! The future is as pregnant with possibility as it was in earliest times. What will God’s Spirit elicit from this generation and the next?

Yet the most important strength of this book is that it provides Christian leaders today with very practical, insightful, and powerful advice for the living of these days. This is really not a book about history, but about today. How do ordinary Christians live today? How do they practice faith at home, work, and play? How do they face natural, political, economic, and military disasters? How do they have hope for tomorrow? What do real Christians really do? The story here is really quite incredible. Sometimes I think: "Surely real, ordinary Christian people would not risk so much, do so much, sacrifice so much, or love so much, jeopardizing everything comfortable and secure?" Yet it is true. Real Christians do incredible things, only because Christ infuses them .