a book of encouragement

A couple of years ago I read Reggie McNeal's other book, The Present Future, and really enjoyed it. Naturally, when the Christian book store salesman informed me that Reggie had a new book out, I gobbled it up. Today is the conclusion of this gobbling.

I don't know how to do proper book reviews (and don't even know if that's my intent on this blog) but I'll give this a go.

Reggie makes the case that the people of God are called and sent by God on a mission. A mission to bless the world for Him. The message that the purpose of the church is not the church comes through loud and clear in this book (probably a reason I like this book so much).

Reggie says the church needs to undergo 3 shifts in thinking and practice to be the people of God in our world.
1. Move from an internal focus to an external one. He helps us remember how much of "church" life is really focused inwards (worship time, prayer concerns, budgets, buildings with policy manuals to keep the public out, keeping people busy with "church", etc.) and that all these resources can be focused towards the community in which the church finds itself. Furthermore, the purpose of the external focus is NOT to bait and switch people into church. It's simply to bless them like the Abrahamic covenant and Jesus' life indicate. Then, as relationships grow and develope, the opportunities to share the reason behind why we do what we do will be immense.
2. Focus on people development, not programs. He classically says in this book repeatedly, "Don't hear what I'm not saying!" Programs are not the problem if they serve people. But when programs are the measure of success and we simply get people serving them, then we're not helping people grow and become the children of God that He came to bring life abundant to. All we end up doing is making Christians tireder and poorer.
3. Transition from church based leadership to community biased leadership. It's time that leaders exist for more than running the church. Let leaders be leaders to and in their community.

Reggie gives lots of PRACTICAL imagination starters on how to implement these ideas and begin nudging the church towards this way of being what he calls a Missional Community (MC).

This leads me into another thing I appreciate about Reggie's approach. While he recognizes and supports the growing non-institutional version of church, he also sees value in the traditional institutional model of church that so many find themselves in (some love it, some hate it). In other words, he believes that the institutional church can move towards being a Missional Communty just like more organic forms of church. He offers tips for how to begin leading in this transistion.

For starters, what get's rewarded gets done (this is a prominent theme in the book). New scorecards need to be created. Measure new things. Celebrate new things in church life.
How many people are serving in the community rather than how many are attending church.
How many people are growing in their personal life (overcoming addictions, marriage improvement, etc.) rather than how many are attending church programs.
The list of different ways to measure things is sprinkled heavily throughout the book.

At this point, not knowing how much to keep saying about the book, let me suggest you read it or read this other great review on it (link below). Furthermore, listen to the following inspiring videos in which most of the ideas are unpacked.

Video 1

Video 2

Great review of this book.