Transmogrification

It seems like I am going to make it. This is my penultimate post for this year, just one more tomorrow and then I have reached the 50 (posts that is, no funny comments please!) and I will never again write a blog with an –ation header. Tomorrow I suppose I have to write a blog about the happenings of the year that is running out, so what do I write about today? We are still enjoying being on holiday, so the days are fairly uneventful and does not give a lot of material for writing. I could of course write a post about nothing (would not be the first time), but I can’t think of nothing to write about. I really should be reading instead of writing. I have a deadline for an essay in January, and I am far behind in my reading for it, but how can I post that? Facing this dilemma inspiration suddenly came to me: I will write about reading – at least it might make me feel like I am doing what I am supposed to be doing. So below you will find a list of some of the books I have read during the year, with small comments about what I thought about them. There will be a quote from each book and finally I will grade it on a scale from 1-5, with 5 being the highest. You, my dear readers, will get all this for free! Almost like a present arriving late. Hope you will enjoy it!

Biblical Foundations for Small Group Ministry

(Gareth Weldon Icenogle)
This book was recommended by our lecturer on small group ministry and being eager to please my teacher, I got hold of it. The book has three parts: I. Old Testament Foundations for Small Group Ministry; II. Jesus’ Small Groups: Gospel Foundations for Small Group Ministry and III. The Church as Multiple Groups: Apostolic Foundations for Small Group Ministry.

This is actually the book I am reading at the moment and I am still only half way through part two, but it is really good, so I wanted to recommend it already. Everyone in church life knows small groups are important and vital. Everyone knows that healthy, growing churches have small groups and many are asking the “How?” question. How do we implement a small group ministry? How do we organise small groups? How do we find the right format? Before asking the How? Questions, we need to ask the Why? and What? questions. Why are small groups important to us and what is it we are hoping to achieve? This is what this book is about. It does not give a lot of directions concerning how, but does give a lot of reasons for why? and inspiration for what?

It is not a book you, or at least I, can just race through. On every page there is something to think and reflect about. Just the chapter on Small Group Leadership in part one is worth the price of the whole book for me and it is from there I will take a quote, or maybe two:

“Small group leadership is about becoming the whole person God wants each person to be. It is about becoming vulnerable to help others become more open, to help others change for the better, to hold others in the group accountable to improve their lives and lifestyles. Small group leadership is about the freedom to show emotion and share feelings; it is about drawing close to others in the group. Small group leadership is about developing and nurturing the freedom to see, touch and embrace. Small group leadership is about helping the group resolve their conflicts. It is about calling the group back into covenant relationship with God. Small group leadership is about building a stronger sense of family in the midst of broken relationships. It is about giving up control and about giving away resources. Small group leadership is about creating a home for others, empowering others to live their own lives, and equipping them to go away and help others” (p. 87)

“The theological meaning of leadership is formed out of the very character of God...God’s nature is to create humanity to take responsibility for creation and share dominion with men and women. God’s ultimate style of leadership is the empowerment and delegation of leadership to humanity...The Spirit of God at work in human groups is an empowering Spirit, a delegating Spirit, and a Spirit for the nurturing of shared and mutual ministry” (p. 88)

Rating: 4+

The Powers That Be

(Walter Wink)
A look at principalities and powers and how we should understand them in our present world. Wink does not have a charismatic or Pentecostal view of the subject, although he treats them with respect. Wink defines the powers as “the institutions and structures that weave society into an intricate fabric of power and relationships”, but goes on to say that these structures have a “personality” or “spirit” and if we want to change the we have to change their inner spirits as well. An interesting and thought provoking book. I think there are dimensions of the subject left out by Wink and I cannot fully agree with his thoughts, but there is a lot of good stuff to be picked up from the book. His approach is social action and non-violence and in those areas there is a lot to learn from the book.

“We cannot come to terms with our shadow except through our enemy, for we have no better access to those unacceptable parts of ourselves that need redeeming than through the mirror that our enemies hold up to us” (p. 171)

Rating: 3

Prayer Evangelism

(Ed Silvoso)
If Walter Wink is at one end of the spectrum, I suppose Ed Silvoso is at the other. Or maybe if Wink is predominantly green, then Silvoso is blue (this is NCD language, for those who do not know what I am talking about) and therefore I initially find him easier to identify with. The book is a practical look at how to change the spiritual climate of a city and it is very much about prayer (not surprisingly). Half the book is about 17 paradigm shifts Silovoso has identified that affects the Church and its relationship with the lost in our cities. The first is that there is One Church in a city, expressed through many congregations, and that the One Church should come together to spiritually reclaim their city. The book is full of illustrations, and maybe its weakeness is that the evidence brought forward primarily is anecdotal. That does not mean it is not true, but maybe it lacks a bit of credibility and depth. You cannot help being inspired and challenged by the book, both towards winning the lost and towards praying that they might be set free.

“Knowing the truth means experiencing the truth through a power encounter rather than the inconsequential intellectual assest we have made it out to be inthe Western Church” (p. 109)

“We became the best choice for the job the day God chose us. Let us walk according to his calling” (p. 235)

Rating: 3+

Total Church

(Tim Chester and Steve Timmis)
This is a brilliant book. It is not long and it is easily read. The subtitle “A radical reshaping around gospel and community” sets the tone. The book is an argument for we should not choose between the proclamation of the truth (gospel) and the living and sharing in community. It is a call both to the evangelical and the emerging church not to lose the balance. They highlight how social work only becomes evangelism if it is done with “gospel intentionality”, but also that “The truth of the gospel becomes compelling as we see it transforming lives in the rub of daily, messy relationships”. I was thoroughly blessed and challenged by the book, don’t really want to write more about, get it yourself!

“Most gospel ministry involves ordinary people doing ordinary things with gospel intentionality” (p. 61.)

“To say we should point to God and not his church is a false distinction if God’s purpose is to save a people for himself” (p. 103)

Rating: 4+

Post Charismatic

(Rob McAlpine)
Another easy read and very commendable. McAlpine addresses some of the excesses of the charismatic movement, both looking at the history of these and some of the present outworkings and especially how they affected believers. He realises that for some, charismatic is “a bad dream they want to forget”, but argues that we should not throw out the baby with the bathwater. Again a book that argues for balance., but specifically in the area of a dynamic faith and experience of God. It is a helpful book to learn about some of the renewal movements in recent church history, but also a challenge not to avoid the charismatic just because it has been abused.

“While some post-charismatics will be relieved to simply avoid the over-promising of what being a Christian can mean in this life, to miss out on the genuine activity of the Spirit, which can be explained only by the intervention of God, would be a tragedy” (p. 247)

Rating: 3+

Leading Change

(John P. Kotter)
Leadership is about change. A leader will always be a change agent and John P. Kotter’s book is about how to lead change. Notice it is not about how to manage or cope with change, but how to lead change. It is not a Christian book, but very worth while reading for any leader. It is based on Kotter’s research, which first was published in an article called “Why Transformation Efforts Fail”. Here Kotter list the 8 most common reasons why change fails. In the book he converts them into positives and outlines an eight stage process for leading change. Very informative, very enlightening and very useful. Kotter has also published “The Heart of Change”, “Creating Urgency” and also a fable “Our Iceberg is Melting”.

“Transformation requires sacrifice, dedication, and creativity, none of which usually comes with coercion” (p. 30)

“Nothing undermines the communication of a change vision more than behaviour on the part of key players that seems inconsisten with the vision” (p. 97)

Rating: 4

The Second Reformation

(William A. Beckham)
I was given this book as a gift in return for the promise of writing an article for a book. I knew about the book, but had never gone to the trouble of getting hold of it, something I regret after having read it. The subtitle is “Reshaping the Church for the 21st Century” and it is basically about cells and Cell Church, the Two Winged Church as Beckham calls it. Beckham puts forth a very compelling vision of cell life and especially Christian community. Reading I found myself again and again thinking: That is how it should be – that is what I want to be part of. Beckham not only casts a vision, but also presents a model for how to build a church round the vision. It is inspirational reading.

“Christ in the midst of His people is the one dynamic that can’t be duplicated in any other type of groups. This is unique. No other group expexts this, prepares for it, or claims it. Only oups that live in the presence, power and purpose of Christ as their intentional focus will experience the incarnate, indwelling, resurrected and living presence of Christ in their midst. These are Christ-groups just as surey as I am a Christ-ian” (p. 142)

“It is not the structure; it is the dynamic life of Christ Himself released in and through the small groups that makes the small group essential to the church” (p. 61)

“Large group worship provides a setting for inspiration, information, revelation and celebration. Small group community allows application, edification, incarnation and preparation” (p. 76)

Rating: 4+

Where do we go from here?

(Ralph W. Neighbour, Jr.)
A classic book on cell church that has been sitting in my bookshelf for more than 10 years, but I have never read it. I wish I had read it when I got it. It is more technical than The Second Reformation and to some extent you only need to read one of them and then I would choose the former, but this is still at very good read.

“There could not be church until there was community” (p. 109) (referring to the 10 days the 120 spent together between the ascension and Pentecost)

Rating: 3+

Leadership and the New Science

(Margaret J. Wheatley)
This is the best leadership book I have ever read. Reading it felt like coming home. Here was someone expressing and explaining things I had felt, but not been able to neither understand nor put into words. Wheatley theory is that the principles which governs science and physics also are the principles that governs human relationships and leadership (does it sound like something you have heard before, said about church?). It is not necessarily and easy read, but very, very inspirational.

“We need leaders to help us develop the clear identity that lights the dark moments of confusion. We need leaders to support us as we learn how to live by our values. We need leaders to understand that we are best controlled by concepts that invite our participation, not policies and procedures that curtail our contribution” (p. 131)

“Instead of the limiting thought that “information is power” they began to think of information as “nourishment”. This shift keeps their attention on the fact that information is essential to everyone, and that those who have more of it will be more intelligent workers that those who are starving” (p. 101)

“We are so needy of this resource (information) that if we can’t get the real thing, we make it up” (p. 99)

“Its (a system’s) stability comes from a deepening center, a clrity about who it is, what it needs, what is required to urcive in its environment.” (p. 83)

“As we struggle with the designs that will replace bureaucracy, we must invent organizations where process is allowed its varied-tempo dance, where structures come and go as they support the work that needs to get done, and where forms arise to support the necessary relationships” (p.70)

Rating: 5

The Appeal

(John Grisham)
Grisham finally returns to the legal thriller and there a few, if any, that masters that genre as him. While not reaching the levels of some of his other books, this is true Grisham and truly addictive reading. Grisham has always had a political edge to his writings, and it becomes very clear in this book. Maybe it would become even better if you live or fully understand the American legal and political system. Still even without it a very enjoyable read.

Rating: 3+

Time is running, and although I am really enjoying myself, looking through all these books again, being reminded of the truths I discovered in them and being inspired once again, I cannot get through the pile of books in front of me, but here are a few more titles and ratings for them:

Making Small Groups Work (Henry Cloud and John Townsend) Rating: 3+
The Complete Book of Discipleship (Bill Hull) Rating: 3+
The Missional Leader (Alan J. Roxburgh and Fred Romanuk) Rating: 4
Natural Church Development and Cell Church (Leslie H. Brickman) Rating: 3

If you are wondering how the title relates to this post, then it is all about what happens in me while reading these books, how they change my perception, understanding and hopefully ultimately me.

Tomorrow is the last day of the year and will also be my last (and 50th) post for this year. See you then