A Little Exercise for Young Theologians
Helmut Thielicke

Eerdmans—Theology
56 pages

In this short “book”, theologian Helmut Thielicke lays out a spectacular treatiste for beginning the journey into theological studies containing warnings for misuse and abuse as well as encouragement for the transformation that will arise out of our exploration of God. Thielicke speaks straight to the beginning student and provides a wealth of words of reinforcement to the more “seasoned” theological mind.

I haven’t picked this book up since college, and on a whim while packing I pulled it from the shelf and came across this exhortation:

…every theological idea which makes an impression upon you must be regarded as a challenge to your faith. Do not assume as a matter of course that you believe whatever impresses you theologically and enlightens you intellectually. Otherwise suddenly you are believing no longer in Jesus Christ, but in Luther, or in one of your other theological teachers.

Such a statement reminds me that through all the different thoughts that come racing, all the different ideas that continue to be formulated and presented through different media’s it is Christ and Christ alone that we must return to in each and every situation. Thielicke provides a beautiful reminder of that essential and brings it home in the realm of theological study and exploration.

Despite being translated from German and a little hard to read in places and at times, this book is an essential piece of literature and thought for anyone in their exploration of God.

The Volunteer Revolution
Bill Hybels

Zondervan—Church & Ministry | Church Life | Church Growth

Although the early church started out with this beautiful concept of the priesthood of all believers—with every member an active minister and good works carried forth in all directions—during the last couple of centuries, most churches have retreated to the Old Testament model. Here’s how it often plays out:

A group of a hundred people get together, decide to form a congregation, and “hire a minister.” …Then they say to their new minister… ‘Preach. Teach. Marry. Bury. Make hospital calls. Visit members. Counsel the confused. Evangelize the community. Raise money. Print the bulletins. Do announcements. Pray for the sick. Then, come year end, we’ll get out our report cards and determine whether you have met our expectations. If you have, we’ll sign you up for another year. If not, we’ll hire someone else.’

…The congregation hires “the clergy” to do the ministry.

So the church ends up with a few overworked professionals, paid by the tithes and offerings of the congregation ot fulfill the whole gamut of priestly functions, while everybody else remains passive observers, their gifts and talents atrophying from disuse.

This is the most widely practiced ministry paradigm in existence today—and it doesn’t have a shred of biblical support. Tragically, this approach has left many contemporary churches in shambles: weak, unorganized, and powerless. And unfortunately, it’s a tough mindset to change. (pg. 62)

When I read these words in a book written by Bill Hybels I was a little taken a back because if you didn’t know who wrote it or aren’t aware it could sound very much like something from Emergent Village. Hybels published this book back in 2004. It makes me wonder how much more we have in common with each other than we truly realize. From much of the rhetoric that gets thrown out in bloggy-land you’d think we were arch-rivals. Hopefully we can begin to find more of a middle-ground and set aside our differences for the greater good of the Kingdom.

I was impressed with this book and although at times it felt “elementary” and “simple” it was a good refresher with great reminders not only for myself but for the church at large. I enjoyed many of the stories and it certainly gave a great glimpse into the world that is Willow Creek Community Church.

Starving Jesus
Craig Gross & J.R. Mahon

David Cook Publishing—Religion | Christian Ministry | Evangelism
239 pages

This book wasn’t quite what I was expecting… although admittedly I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I picked this book up at a Borders after browsing the shelves looking for another book. This one in particular caught my attention because I had seen it laying around the office at Community and figured it must be worth a read, so I snatched it up and paid for it with a gift card.

Starving Jesus was the dream of xxxchurch.com founder Craig Gross and his associate J.R. Mahon born out of numerous rants about the church. It certainly takes on the form of a rant in its writing style, however in the middle it takes a major shift away from what’s wrong with the church towards the spiritual discipline of fasting—particularly 40 day fasts.

I’m not quite sure there was a cohesive theme that ran throughout the entire book, and if there was one I completely missed it. However, if you see each chapter as a sort of essay tied around the hope of what the church can be then it hit the mark. There was deconstructionist tones towards the beginning that found themselves muted at the end, lost in the conversation of fasting. I’m not sure there was a great deal of understanding that I gained from the book, however if you’re looking for something to explain fasting this can certainly be a good start ripe with story and testimonial that I found to be somewhat helpful. Otherwise, I’m not sure there’s anything in this book that I haven’t read or heard elsewhere.

The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community
Hugh Halter & Matt Smay

Jossey-Bass—Church Ministry | Leadership
179 pages

I blogged my thoughts throughout this book and overall found this to be a very refreshing book. I believe I’ve grown tired of the continual deconstructionist thought that never offers up a solution new or old, that never moves us forward as a church in any direction but simply mopes about calling us a failure of mission and calling us to change–but to what? Halter & Smay are a breath of fresh air combining deconstructionist thought with solutions and offering up their own reconstruction of the Kingdom in their cultural context that can help spur us own towards creativity and solutions in our own contexts!

Take a walk through the posts listed below and pick up the book… it certainly won’t disappoint!

[part 1]
[part 2]
[part 3]
[part 4]
[part 5]

Uh oh… looks like a big hole has just been shot in the “facts” (a.k.a. “well-researched scholarship”) presented by Barna and Viola in their book Pagan Christianity?.

“We have uncovered what we believe to be the first church in the world, dating from 33 AD to 70 AD,” the head of Jordan’s Rihab Centre for Archaeological Studies, Abdul Qader al-Husan, said.”

Is there an upcoming retraction?

(ht: bob.blog)

Planting Fast Growing Churches
Stephen Gray

Church Planting
160 pages

This book came highly recommended by Stadia (the organization that we are planting in San Francisco with. This book is packed full of statistics and research based upon a questionairre developed by the author regarding the commonalities found in churches that broke the 200 barrier in the first 3 years vs. churches that did not (even though they wanted to).

There were several very important factors that were involved from number of staff, to size of core-group prior to launch; number of preview services to the amount of funding from a supporting organization; even stewardship questions of “when to bring up the tithing series” were determining factors in the success of a new church plant. There were several “aha” moments for me in reading the book, and at the same time several disagreements with the research. Maybe the biggest “aha” moment occurred while thinking through the budget of the church. We will already be giving 10% of our weekly offerings towards the planting of new churches and campuses in San Francisco, the Bay Area and around the world… but that’s it. There isn’t anything set aside for any other “benevolence” or giving to other ministries or opportunities in the community. This certainly is an area to address in our planning.

Certainly my disagreements with this book are in its the lack of scope especially as it relates to a metropolitan church plant. In the beginning of the book “urban” was considered a population of 30,000 or more, and although the statistics seem to fit right in to a suburban context, cities of 100,00-200,000; I think that when the population becomes more cosmopolitan, and cost of living broaches the upper echelon the statistics in the financial realm become skewed.

It is suggested (through the research) that a church plant should be self-sufficient within a two year time frame and that the total cost should be somewhere between $200,000-300,000. This is exactly what it should cost for a suburban plant, however in a metropolitan setting what is being found is the costs are far higher and the time-span to self-sufficiency is much long (4-5 years as opposed to 2).

I found this book to be extremely fascinating and will be very helpful for me. My hope is that this book is not seen as an end-all-be-all rule book for planting successful churches and that there is still the freedom allowed of the planter (another important feature noted in this book of successful plants) to approach a given situation in the best manner possible.

So, if you’re planting a church… check this book out. It’s very informative.

Divine Nobodies
Jim Palmer

Religion | Spirituality
190 pages

I’ve got to say this was a great book! The transparency of Palmer’s journey coupled with the various stories of the people that have intersected his path were tremendous. This book is certainly in the same vein as Donald Miller’s Blue Like Jazz without some of the quirkiness that makes Miller so likable. Palmer, doesn’t have the same quirks, but instead takes a darker approach to his journey of faith as he references his leaving of Evangelicalism as an outcast after being a pastor in a mega-church, he references his family hardships and the deep depression he has had to face throughout his life. Perhaps one of the greatest sections of the book is when he walks through his depression and questions surrounding God’s presence during this time. In the conclusion to this section, he writes:

I used to be ashamed of my depression, but now I see it’s a secret trapdoor to God. When it hits, I sink down into that black hole and often find Jesus there. I acquired in seminary a lot of theologically correct answers to the question of who Jesus is… But now when I am asked, I am most inclined to say, “Jesus is the one who sits down close to me in my black hole of despair, offering himself until it passes.” In some strange way, even though my black hole remains, I’m starting to really know Jesus, and knowing him makes me feel whole.”

I can completely identify with that statement, not as a sufferer of depression, but as someone who has found himself in a tremendous sense of despair from time to time wandering through my dark nights of the soul and experiencing Jesus in new and profound ways. Jim Palmer beautifully sums this up with his engaging and relevant stories of hope, grace, and mercy.

I wish that I would’ve found this book a year ago. It would’ve been a great addition to my own personal healing process, but even now on the other side it has been a valuable reminder that Jesus is constantly present in some of the most mysterious and beautiful ways imaginable.

Jim and Casper Go To Church
Jim Henderson & Matt Casper

Religion | Evangelism | Church Life
169 pages

I read this book fairly quickly as the chapters and stories were short and yet fairly engaging. The premise of this book is Jim Henderson takes his newfound friend Matt Casper, an atheist, on a tour of churches over the course of 4 months. Jim and Casper visited churches from Willow Creek to Mosaic, Imago Dei to Mars Hill, Potters House to Lakewood (think Joel Osteen), and various ones in-between. During the course of their trip they maintained their objectivity, pulled out laptops during services and took notes describing the details of their trips and documentation of their conversations.

I was intrigued by this book from the get-go, wondering exactly how this would turn out, expecting a negative response all throughout, yet what I read was rather objective and insightful. I enjoyed reading their comments and conversations, and found a great deal of value in many of their conversations. There were only a couple of times that I cringed at their comments, not because it hurt to hear, but because it took a fairly negative and nasty tone…however, for the most part I took it very well.

My biggest beef with the book was that it wasn’t enough. They spent two months traveling to over 10 different churches, taking notes, and conversing over the issues at hand, yet they only gave about 10 pages of the book (give or take) to each church intermixed with their own conversations about their personal relationship with each other. Although I appreciated their personal dialogue, I would have rather had learned more about their observations. I feel that this book fell terribly short in that department (the main thrust of the book). The book didn’t seem to be well organized in though content, never really hearing exactly what their criteria for observations really were, and exactly what it was that they were attempting to measure. Instead, it was formatted as a narrative—not necessarily a good approach for a study intending to be somewhat “scientific” and objective.

I appreciated the book and what they did… I just feel they didn’t communicate enough of their observations throughout. If they happen to do a sequel and visit other churches (it was suggested a time or two that this may be possible) I would have to seriously examine the book to see if it’s more in-depth than this one before making the purchase.

It’s a good quick read, and for many churches might prove to be earth-shattering… but for many, it’ll just fall short of expectations.

Paul
N.T. Wright

Religion | New Testament
174 pages

This is not for the faint of heart, nor is it an introductory, lay-man approach to the debate concerning the “New Perspective” on Paul as I was anticipating. It was, however, very fruitful once I gathered my thoughts, got my bearings straight and realized what I was reading. I very much appreciated Wright’s “introduction” and addition to the “New Perspective” and gleaned a great deal of insight from this endeavor.

Wright takes you through the major lenses of understanding the Apostle Paul, his relationship with Jesus and his Jewish perspective and approach to the gospel he suffered and died for. This was, perhaps, my greatest insight/reminder into the life of Paul—he was Jewish through and through. No matter how often we (Western, Gentile Christians) attempt to divorce Paul from his cultural understanding and re-introduce him as a Post-Enlightenment guru of Jesus, this is simply an un-faithful approach to understanding and interpreting Paul.

I did find one of my own hypothesis very blatantly displayed in various sections of Wright’s understanding of Paul and the gospel—everything revolves around not only the resurrection, but around your understanding of eschatology. I found this a refreshing elevation of eschatology to the realm of importance in the denunciation of eschatological understandings that neither compliment nor coincide with the gospel as presented by Jesus and proclaimed by Paul. In this Wright exposes the “rapture” myth of 1 Thessalonians 4 from a historical perspective and ties it into a beautiful understanding of the Lordship of Jesus that would have been more than understood by the church and people that inhabited Thessolonica as written by Paul. (Side note: This also gave me pause while reading this book to realize that Rob Bell isn’t necessarily a scholarly mind as he is very well read—he purported this idea as well as several others from this book in sermons and conferences I have listened to and attended. I am in no way attempting to discredit Rob Bell, rather I am extremely appreciative of how he contemporizes and communicates scholarly work!)

While reading this book it was easy to see why so many in the Reformed movement are so quick to cast Wright aside, label him a heretic (Presbyterian Church of America), and excommunicate those who would agree with his understanding of Paul for in this work he certainly takes Reformed Theology and Calvinism to task, albeit in very subtle, nuanced and profound ways.

I wish that before reading this I would have read New Testament and the People of God, which I believe is Wright’s foundational work for all the rest of his theological arguments. It is my goal to tackle this by the end of the year and in doing so, hopefully better shed light on the argumentation here within this work on Paul.

The Art of the Start
Guy Kawasaki

Portfolio—New Business Enterprise | Entrepreneurship
215 pages

My church-planting coach, Phil Claycomb, assigned me to read this book and at first I was not only skeptical but wasn’t really looking forward to reading a business book as preparation for planting a church. I put it off until the last possible minute, fully expecting it to take me a good couple of weeks to trudge through the material, however I finished it in a grand total of 3 days. It was absolutely fantastic and it gave me a great deal of confidence and information to proceed through the incomprehensible black cloud of confusion that was enveloping my psyche. (Easily put: The fog began to lift.)

Granted, this is a business book so as you read it you have to skip over certain parts that don’t pertain to church work but the rest of it aligns rather beautifully. If you read it from a church-planting perspective, you begin to see that this book is more than a business book but a book that gives a practical and insightful look into what it takes to start something from nothing.

Perhaps the most intriguing, helpful and inspiring chapters for myself were:

• The Art of Pitching, a chapter that helps you create a “sales pitch” for potential donors and partners. This gave a real simple outline on how to create a short and powerful presentation that clearly communicates your vision and your plan. This helped me by helping to clarify my communication strategies.
• The Art of Writing a Business Plan, a chapter that helps you create an in-depth approach and 5-year strategy for getting up off the ground—and in the realm of church-planting, making it to self-sufficiency. This also helped create a sense of confidence for where this thing is heading and even just a sense of how this thing is truly possible!
• The Art of Recruiting, gave a sense for how to go about finding and wooing a potential team that will be on this Jesus Mission with us. This was extremely valuable not only for helping to go about finding a paid staff, but a volunteer staff that is truly sold out to the vision and mission—especially when you combine this chapter with the The Art of Partnering.

This was a fantastic book that has truly helped to give some concrete thoughts where before there was mush. I would highly recommend this book for anyone getting ready to embark on a new journey, a new venture, and a new church-plant. It’s been invaluable to our journey.

Church Planting from the Ground Up
Ed. Tom Jones

College Press—Church Planting | Christianity | Evangelism
337 pages

This book was a labor of love… not because it was a horrible book, but because it was so meaty! This was a great step-by-step, yet broad overview of what it looks like and should look like to plant a healthy, successful and vibrant church in almost any community.

This is a practitioners book, written by church planters for church planters with a vast amount of information and tools that will take me a lot more time to filter through and process… therefore, this review is rather slim. However, I would recommend taking a look through it if you’re interested in or planning on planting a church… this is a great resource for that. And if you’re not, there might still be some useful information in there for going multi-site as well as principles that can be used in the traditional church.

They Like Jesus But Not The Church
Dan Kimball

Zondervan—Religion | Christianity | Evangelism
260 pages

“Ask someone today if he or she likes Jesus, and the answer is usually yes. But ask if that person likes the church, and chances are you will get a far less favorable response.”

I jumped into this book on the heels of reading Pagan Christianity? and experienced some striking overlap between the two in thought and in practice, however there were two striking differences… Kimball was gracious in his observations, and never tried to coerce people to leave the church. In fact, he brilliantly quotes one of my favorite “fathers of the faith” Henri Nouwen: “When we say, ‘I love Jesus, but I hate the Church,’ we end up losing not only the Church but Jesus too. The challenge is to forgive the Church. This challenge is especially great because the Church seldom asks us for forgiveness.”

I found Kimball’s observations about the way in which we “do church” to be very insightful and relevant to the church today. There were 6 common perceptions of the church that he laid out in detail backed by the stories of people in his community that have virtually nothing to do with the church. The 6 common perceptions were:

1. The church is an organized religion with a political agenda
2. The church is judgmental and negative
3. The church is dominated by males and oppresses females
4. The church is homophobic
5. The church arrogantly claims all other religions are wrong
6. The church is full of fundamentalists who take the whole Bible literally

I found this list is a fairly comprehensive assessment of church today based on the conversations I have had with people in my own community in the coffee shops I frequent. It’s amazing how quickly a conversation ends when someone finds out you’re a “pastor”.

I appreciated very much Kimball’s attitude towards the subject, not as a “know-it-all” bringer of the perfect solution, but rather as a humble practitioner who is trying different modes and means to reach out in real, authentic and tangible ways to the people in his community. Perhaps the most valuable section of this book was “Part 3: How the Church Can Respond”. The first two parts were important at making the point, but they seemed to drag on for me… almost a little too much information, and overstating the point—although this could be extremely important for other people to hear. I would recommend this book for a scan-through, paying particular attention to the second chapter: “Why I escaped the Church Office” and a few chapters throughout that may strike your fancy. But the meat of the book, the suggestions that get your creative mojo flowing are mainly found at the end. So, give it a whirl and see how it might affect your church, and ultimately the Kingdom.