Book Review - Sun Stand Still

I'm trying out a new format for book reviews. Let me know if you like it or not.

At the recent NewSpring Leadership Conference, Steven Furtick kindly gave all participants an "Advance Reading Copy" of his new book, Sun Stand Still. The book has been waiting in que, until now. I half expected the book to be an account of the startup and "success" of Elevation Church in Charlotte. I was pleasantly surprised. 

Purpose - Sun Stand Still was written to inspire audacious faith in an incredible God. Believers often live life to the lowest common denominator, but God remains a great God, desirous of doing amazing things.

Content - Joshua's battle against the Amorites in Joshua 10 provides the backdrop for most of this book and, obviously, the title. God had promised Joshua victory over the pagans, but night was creeping up, threatening to short-circuit a complete victory. Joshua requested the absurd from God - that God would make the sun stand still. Not a whole lot of precedent for this prayer. Furtick encourages believers to place their faith in an awesome God and similarly ask for incredible things from God, in all areas of life - Sun Stand Still prayers. Furtick also encourages the development of Page 23 visions. He was reading the book Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire and came across this sentence on page 23: "I despaired at the thought that my life might slip by without seeing God show himself mightily on our behalf." Furtick isn't promoting a gospel though that promises you the world if you only plant the seed money. In fact, he cautions that "if the dream in your heart isn't biblically based, focused on Jesus, affirmed by the key people in your life, and tethered to your passions, gifts, and life experiences, chances are, you're way off prompt." In short, this book isn't that different from William Carey's encouragement to "expect great things from God, attempt great things for God."

Analysis - For some reason it's natural to start uncomfortably squirming in your chair when someone starts into the "believe in God and watch Him do incredible things" line. However, this book was one of the better sources I've read on the connection between faith, prayer, and our relationship with God. He demonstrates all the biblical reasons to absolutely believe in God for a Page 23 vision while firmly staking our expectations on the word of God and the faithfulness of God. He aptly addresses the cost of asking God for great things, why God doesn't grant us the miracles we desire every time, the delays in God's answers, and the need to "push while you pray. This book would have been less than half the book it turned out to be if Furtick had ignored these questions that press on most of our minds. 

Application

• Who will benefit from the book? Every believer can and will benefit from this book. The examples given in the book range from the page 23 vision to start a church to reach Charlotte to the passion to reach a loved one for Christ.

• How will they benefit? This book is fantastic help for those seeking God's direction and plan for their lifes. It encourages us to looks above the pile of work we are buried in and seek what God desires to accomplish. It pushes us beyond existence to participating in God's plans. Furtick also soberly reminds that there is a price to be paid and that we must put feet to our prayers.

Where does this book fit into the process of ministry design? Reading through this book would be particularly helpful early in the stage of setting up your ministry. It encourages you to think beyond what everyone else is doing and seek God's face for what he would have you to do. Probably not a bad book to read before planning a new year either!

Aha Thoughts - "The world is waiting for change. God's people are the change the world is waiting for. So seize the vision. Activate audacious faith. Make your move."

Book Review - The Trellis and the Vine

A friend of mine sent me a video of Mark Dever reviewing The Trellis and the Vine, in which he states, "this is the best book I've ever read on the nature of church ministry." Now if I stated something like that, it wouldn't mean much. But, when Mark Dever makes a statement like that, it's worth taking a second look. So, my search to get my hands on a copy of this book began. That leads me to one of the few negative comments I can make about the book - the title and cover. Neither the title nor cover real jump out and get your attention. I can prove this! My search for the book finally ended up on my bureau! I had been given the book by a friend back in April, but the book had never caught my attention. In fact, it did little more than collect dust with some of my other "someday books." Maybe it's just because I'm not into the whole gardening thing, but a book with a title about vegetation and lawn ornaments doesn't exactly demand my attention.

Now that my big negative is off my chest, the rest of the book remains! To be fair to M & P, the trellis/vine analogy makes a lot of sense, once you read the book. The authors compare the trellis to the structure and programs of the church while the vine represents the people of the church. Sometimes structure is helpful to support the growth of people, but more often than not, the structure soon becomes an uncontrollable prima dona, demanding all the attention and resources of the church. Eventually, the church forgets about its mission to build people and focuses on building and maintaining an organization. As beautiful and as impressive as the structure may be, the authors contend that this structure is not accomplishing and is even impeding the work of God.

This book calls for a radical ministry mind-shift. Here are 11 shifts that the authors feel are necessary:

• from running programs to building people
• from running events to training people
• from using people to growing people
• from filling gaps to training new workers
• from solving problems to helping people make progress
• from clinging to ordained ministry to developing team leadership
• from focusing on church polity to forging ministry partnerships
• from relying on training institutions to establishing local training
• from focusing on immediate pressure to aiming for long-term expansion
• from engaging in management to engaging in ministry
• from seeking church growth to seeking gospel growth

I know that list is tedious, but think about those paradigm shifts. I'm sure that your church may not land on every bad side of the issue, but I think every church struggles with the gravitational pull of focusing on the organization. Or, if they aren't struggling, they have simply succumbed to the pressure.

The authors make it clear that they aren't advocating more lectures or classes on the issue of discipleship. Convictions, character, and competency must be carefully developed through life on life interaction.

For those of you whose version of packing light for a trip includes bringing a U-Haul on an overnite trip, this book is your ministry philosophy equivalent. I don't possibly have time to give all the highlights of this book. I simply want to encourage you to read it. Here's a few questions this book attempts to address:

• I'm very busy with ministry as it is! How can I possibly make time to invest my life in people?
• Should I prioritize the people I invest my life in? If so, who? and why?
• If every believer is actively ministering God's word to each other, what is the need and role of the Sunday sermon?
• If everyone is really called to minister, why do we pay someone in particular to do it (the pastor)?
• Oh yeah! Let's say I buy into all the stuff and I want to shift my thinking and practice. Where in the world do I begin? (yes, he thankfully does answer this question in great detail.

The book concludes with a very insightful section addressing possible objections to his paradigm shift. The neat thing is the questions he is answering are genuine questions that many readers might be left asking.

The question is, was Mark Dever right? Is this really the best book on church ministry? I would answer with a hearty affirmative! Apart from the Bible itself, this is the best I have seen.

Book Review - Exponential

A few months ago, Zondervan sent me a free book to review. Exponential: How You and Your Friends Can Start a Missional Church Movement came to my doorstep. I started the book with great excitement, but a kitchen remodel, a new roof, and two hard drive crashes set me back a little in completion time. However, I finished the book yesterday and here's the bottom line on it.

The book was written by Dave and Jon Ferguson, two brothers who started a church in Chicago. They founded the church with almost no resources - nothing but a vision from God. This one church has birthed several campus churches, started various other churches, and has now organized many of these into networks.

The book is written from Dave's perspective, with Jon throwing in random snide comments. If my brother Peter ever writes a book, I definitely want the "snide comment" job! The book is well written and easy to read as it's largely just their story.

The book could be summarized by two points. 1. Stop thinking small, get all your friends together, and plant a million churches. Then, keep going. They use their story to convince, motivate, and persuade you that this can be a reality. Should we need this encouragement? No, we probably shouldn't. The Great Commission commands the radical, widespread, yep, even exponential growth of God's kingdom throughout the world. This command is backed by the power and presence of God. If you're still unsure about Christ's ability to bring His plans to fruition, check out Revelation 19-20. However, years of disobedience and a lack of faith have given us spiritual cataracts, leaving us unable to see what God really desires to do. This book is encouraging, not because they give us some magic formula, but because their story affirms today what we should already know - that God will build His church!

2. Intentionally develop leaders! Here again, this should be kind of a no brainer. That's what discipleship is all about, but this book does a really good job of giving some practical ways to develop leaders. Community (their church) believes that every person in every position ought to have an apprentice. In this way, leadership is being intentionally developed on every level. The Fergusons correctly point out that if you wait to mentor leaders until you need the leaders, it is way too late and you are actually hindering the progress of winning souls. Unfortunately, most leadership training occurs more like this. "Hey, I've got the flu. Can you teach my class this morning?" It's sink or swim. What a great way to help people!

At Community they laid out a leadership flow chart. Everyone starts as an individual (obviously!). Then follows leader, coach, director, campus pastor/church planter, and finally network leader. I think it's interesting to how Community is structured, but it doesn't need to be precisely emulated. The big point is, the are intentionally developing leaders. Sounds kind of like 2 Timothy 2:2, doesn't it? :)

They do a great job of breaking down leadership development into five basic steps:

1. I do. You watch. We talk.
2. I do. You help. We talk.
3. You do. I help. We talk.
4. You do. I watch. We talk.
5. You do. Someone else watches.

This completes the leadership circle and creates mature believers who are training others. I've seen these steps listed very similarly somewhere else, and I have no idea who canonized it first, but I think this approach is simple and effective. The three questions that guide their conversations are (1) "What worked?" (2) "What didn't work?" and (3) "How can we improve?"

In summary, it was a great book if you want one path to do this. I loved the emphasis on leadership development and faith in what God can do. Some chapters kind of reitterated their previous motif of leadership develop (ex, reproducing artists, reproducing groups, etc). Each chapter added a little to it, but not exceptionally. Worth a read? Definitely.... but I still like Viral Churches better.

"Viral Churches"

I was recently given the book Viral Churches. The book remains unfinished as reading with my daughter definitely slows down my typical pace. However, the first 50 pages have been inspiring, challenging, and thought-provoking. The premise of the book (the best I understand it after 50 pages) is that the current model of planting a church is both small-minded and not in keeping with the Scriptural precent. Our goal should be towards the frequent and widespread multiplication of churches rather than being content with the addition of a single church.

I'll try to post a more complete review later, but so far it's been fantastic. I feel like I've been reading a more intelligent, better researched, and passionate version of myself. The book's emphasis on leadership development is right on!!

Here's an excerpt from the book:

It's very possible to plant a church but not enlarge God's kingdom or to limit Satan's domain. Churches based on worship preferences and musical styles, or built around celebrities with the Christian subculture, reinforce consumerism and promote church shopping among those who are already believers (34).

Do you think this is an accurate assessment of some segments of American Christianity?