Book Reviews

Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America
(The Gospel and Our Culture Series)
by Darrell L. Guder
Edition: Paperback

This is book is the first in a series entitled “The Gospel and our Culture Series.” It was written by a team of six authors and it provides an excellent introduction to the relationship of the church and culture and why the church must see itself not as “having” a mission, but “being” a missional community. The book challenges the consumer approach that is found in much of the North American church and promotes a missional ecclesiology that sees the church as a living, breathing organism that is being sent (Apostolically) into the culture to bring transformation where ever it goes.

List strengths of book.
The book does an excellent job, better than I have ever read anywhere else, on presenting the mission of God. The book also offers an excellent bibliography of more than twelve pages for research on a missional ecclesiology.

List weaknesses of book.
While the book is probably strengthened by the work of the research team the writing in the book seemed at times to be too varied between authors. Secondly, the book would have been strengthened with concrete examples of what a missional church look likes.

Deep Change: Discovering the Leader Within
(Jossey-Bass Business & Management Series)
by Robert E. Quinn
Edition: Hardcover

Quinn’s purpose in writing Deep Change is to challenge the reader to recognize that everyone is a potential change agent, if they are willing to take the difficult, yet necessary steps to experience deep personal change. He lays a strong foundation by first differentiating between deep change and incremental change. There is little doubt that most change that takes place in the life of an individual is incremental. Because people are uncomfortable with major change they choose to move in small steps. The possible exception to the choice of incremental change occurs when a person is faced with a major crisis. For example, when a person experiences a heart attack, they are motivated to make deep lifestyle changes in habits such as smoking or dietary chooses. Or when a marriage is on the brink of divorce, marriage partners are motivated to make sweeping changes in how they communicate or handle conflict. However, beyond these periodic times of being motivated by crisis, people usually make changes slowly and incrementally, rather than making needed deep change.

The tendency towards incremental change over deep change is also true on an organizational level. Rarely do organizations, including the church, make deep major changes. While it may be argued that leadership needs to be mindful of bringing people along in the midst of change, there are certainly times that organizations need to experience deep change to survive. Quinn is correct in stating that without deep change, routine patterns move organizations increasingly toward decay and stagnation. This is true in the life of the church today. The church has grown comfortable with the patterns of ministry from years past and as a result has lost much of its influence in the changing culture.

One of Quinn’s foundational themes is that personal deep change must precede deep change within a system or organization. While most of the time organizational change is seen as a top-down process, Quinn argues that it can also happen from the bottom-up. He states that deep change requires a personal evaluation of the ideologies that under gird the organizational culture. This is a refreshing insight that has application to other relational contexts. As people desire to see change in the lives of others, whether in parenting, marriage or work relationships, they first need to examine what changes need to occur in themselves. It is true that we do not easily recognize the part that we play in the problem. This thought is consistent with the words of Jesus in Matthew 7:3, “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?”

Another topic that is very applicable to numerous arenas of life is Quinn’s discussion of the logic of task pursuit. Most people, under the pressure of task completion, have no opportunity to consider routine maintenance. This is true in the life of the individual on multiple levels. If a person does not take time to experience physical renewal through rest and exercise the body will experience exhaustion. This is certainly true with the spiritual life as well. People need to carve out time from the pursuit of tasks to spend time alone with God. The logic of task pursuit is also true in the life of the church. Each church needs to set aside time to revisit its mission and to ensure that the work of the church is in alignment with that mission.

Other helpful insights are found in Quinn’s discussion on why organizational change doesn’t take place. He states that the dominant coalition in an organization is seldom interested in making deep changes. Therefore, deep change is often driven from the outside. This has been true in the life of many organizations. Furthermore, there are pressures within most organizations to conform to the prevailing structure. Quinn does an excellent job of identifying the barriers of bureaucratic culture, embedded conflict, and personal time constraints. It is helpful to recognize that in most cases people do not need new skills and competencies, but instead they need a new perspective that allows them to act as empowered leaders in a changing organization. While this section on overcoming resistance to change was helpful, it would have been strengthened with practical examples of how individuals brought about significant change.

There is also much to appreciate with Quinn’s emphasis on the transitions from the technical, the transactional, and the transformational paradigms. Quinn’s description of each paradigm and the paradigm’s representative would prove to be very beneficial to any organizational leader’s attempt to understand those that they lead and the unique perspective they hold about the organization.

Finally the culmination of Quinn’s emphasis on empowerment and ultimate transformation of an organization is what he refers to as the transformational cycle. The cycle is a helpful visual reminder that deep change does not come to a point of completion. It is a cycle that will itself become routine and stagnate if there is not a time of reinvention and realignment of self and the organization.

While written from a business perspective, Deep Change is applicable for anyone who desires to bring about change within an organization. The book is structured in an easy to follow format and includes reflection and discussion questions at the end of each chapter to provide further assistance to the reader in taking steps towards deep change, on both a personal and organizational level.

The Great Giveaway: Reclaiming the Mission of the Church from Big Business, Parachurch Organizations, Psychotherapy, Consumer Capitalism, and Other Modern Maladies
by David E. Fitch
Edition: Paperback

Fitch’s overall intention in the book is to show how modernity has transformed clear gospel teaching into modernistic trends, he does this by looking at eight areas including success, evangelism, leadership, the production of experience, preaching, justice, spiritual formation, and moral education. Then the “task” of the book is to (1) examine the ways we have “given away” being the church to modernity by allowing its influence to individualize, universalize, syncretize, and commodify the tasks, truths, and even the very salvation we have been given as a people from god through Jesus Christ, and (2) to offer practices to evangelicals by which we may receive back being the church, the people of God ruled by Jesus as Lord in resistance to such modern influences.

List strengths of book.
With each of the eight areas of discussion there are clear strengths to be found in the explanation and solutions offered, however the strongest areas of the book include the chapters dealing with success, evangelism and spiritual formation. With the topic of success, Fitch contends that we measure success by size because we have accepted the modern values of individualism and efficiency. Instead, success should be measured by measuring faithfulness rather than size. With the topic of evangelism he states that we rely on arguments, presentations, and proofs in our Gospel presentations, rather than embodying the reality of Jesus Christ being lived within our churches. And with spiritual formation we have accepted therapy and psychology, and in many cases have substituted these for the biblical practices of confession, repentance, and speaking the truth in love in the context of community. Additionally, the book includes over thirty pages of excellent notes for further study and reflection.

List weaknesses of book.
While I believe there will be more than a few people who believe Fitch’s assessment is incorrect because they find it difficult to see beyond a modern perspective, I find very little not to like about this book.

Emerging Churches: Creating Christian Community in Postmodern Cultures
by Eddie Gibbs & Ryan Bolger
Edition: Paperback

This book is the result of a five year research project by the two authors whereby they attempt to describe/define emerging churches. The authors identify nine characteristics, or core practices as (1) identifying with Jesus (2) transforming secular space (3) living as community (4) welcoming the stranger (5) serving with generosity (6) participating as producers (7) creating as created beings (8) leading as a body and (9) merging ancient and contemporary spiritualities.

List strengths of book.
The authors illustrate the nine core practices by allowing practitioners, those that are doing the work, to give examples of how the practices are being lived out. Another strength is the book shows that the emerging movement is very diverse and is not centered on one person or organization. Lastly, the book concludes with over 100 pages of personal stories and examples of emerging leaders and the work they are doing.

List weaknesses of book.
First, the book may come off to some as being overly sympathetic to the emerging movement. Second, the research is limited to churches in the UK and the United States, while the emerging movement is a phenomenon that is much more far reaching.

Evaluating the Church Growth Movement: 5 Views
(Counterpoints Series)
by Gary McIntosh
Edition: Paperback

“Evaluating the Church Growth Movement” is a book from the “Counterpoint” series by Zondervan where different views are articulated on a particular issue by one of the major proponents of each perspective and then those holding differing views have the opportunity to refute or disagree. With this book there are five differing views of church growth that are presented: Effective Evangelism View by Elmer Towns, the Gospel and Our Culture Network View by Craig Van Gelder, the Centrist View by Charles Van Engen, the Reformist View by Gailyn Van Rheenan, and the Renewal View by Howard Synder.

List strengths of book.
I believe there are many things to like about this book. Each of the presenters (except one that I will discuss under the weaknesses) offered very thoughtful insight on their perspective, as well as helpful debate with each response. I like the fact that each view is presented by someone who is a proponent of that view, rather than having someone else tell you what the other group believes. This approach is a much more “honest” way of presenting differing perspective. I also believe the responses added much to understanding each view. I thought each perspective was theologically grounded and at the same time a healthy concern for the importance of the cultural context was present. A very beneficial historical perspective was given on the overall topic of church growth. It was helpful to better understand the roots of the church growth movement and how different individuals play significant roles.

List weaknesses of book.
There were two major weaknesses of the book. First, most of the views, if not all, seemed to be a bit pushed. In other words, it seemed the editor had to come up with these somewhat arbitrary views of church growth. I do certainly believe there are those who are for and against the traditional church growth perspective, but to say there are five different views seem arbitrary. Secondly, the Centrist View by Charles Van Engen was very muddled and confusing. It was certainly the least helpful of each of the views presented. Additionally I thought the title of Van Rheenan’s view (Reformist) was not a very good title, it should have been called something like the Complementary View.

Planting New Churches in a Postmodern Age                by Ed Stetzer

Planting New Churches in a Postmodern Age is a comprehensive guide for starting new churches regardless of the approach and/or philosophy of ministry. Stetzer includes a good description of different approaches of starting churches as well as different types (ethic, house church, etc.) of churches that maybe planted. Additionally, he discusses the basic steps or procedures that every planter must consider when planting a church, such things as the name of the church, focus group, development of a core group, evangelism, small groups, and selection of a meeting place.

List strengths of book.
There is must to commend with the book. First, as mentioned above the book is very comprehensive. If a planter had a chance to read only a few books on church planting, this would certainly be one that should be included. Second, Stetzer supports the need and importance of church planting from both a strong biblical and historical perspective. Third, the book gives an excellent description of emerging postmodern generations and how churches need to think differently to reach those generations. This I believe is the strength of Stetzer’s book and makes so timely. He discusses what it means to me incarnational in ministry and service and the importance of reaching postmoderns. Lastly, the book is highly practical. Stetzer gives many hands on types of examples and practical advice, from his own personal experiences that a new planter could make easily apply.

List weaknesses of book.
I find little to be critical of with this book. Most of the book, especially the section on basic steps in church planting, can certainly be found in other resources; however Stetzer does a nice job of bringing it all together in this volume.

The Starfish and The Spider
by Ori Brafman & Rod Beckstrom.

While the book deals primarily with business issues I found the research on decentralized organizations by Brafman and Beckstrom to be very applicable to the church.

The title of the book comes from the analogous use of the starfish and the spider. A spider has eight legs coming out of a central body. It has a tiny head and eight eyes. If you cut off the spider’s head, it dies. It may survive without a leg or two or even stand to lose a couple of eyes, but it certainly can’t live without its head.

On the other hand, while a starfish may appear to be similar to the central body and multiple legs of the spider, it is really quite different. The starfish doesn’t have a head. Its central body isn’t even in charge. In fact, the major organs are replicated throughout each and every arm. If you cut the starfish in half, the animal won’t die and pretty soon you’ll have two starfish.

The authors provide an entertaining description of the starfish system:

“Starfish have an incredible quality to them: If you cut an arm off, most of these animals grow a new arm. And with some varieties, such as the Linckia, or long-armed starfish, the animal can replicate itself from just a single piece of an arm. You can cut the Linckia into a bunch of pieces, and each one will regenerate into a whole new starfish. They can achieve this magical regeneration because in reality a starfish is a neural network - basically a network of cells. Instead of having a head, like a spider, the starfish functions as a decentralized network. Get this: for the starfish to move, one of the arms must convince the other arms that it’s a good idea to do so. The arm starts moving and then - in a process that no one fully understands - the other arms cooperate and move as well. The brain doesn’t “yea” or “nay” the decision. In truth, there isn’t even a brain to declare a “yea” or “nay.” The starfish doesn’t have a brain. There is no central command. Biologists are still scratching their heads over how this creature operates.”

With the analogy firmly in place the authors precede to illustrate the power of decentralized organizations in today’s internet savvy world (using examples as varied as eBay, al Qaeda, eMule, Craigslist, AA, and Wikipedia) with those that are much more centralized. In the midst of this discussion they offer six principles of decentralization:

1. When attacked, a decentralized organization tends to become even more open and decentralized.

2. It’s easy to mistake starfish for spiders.

3. An open system doesn’t have central intelligence; the intelligence is spread throughout the system.

4. Open systems can easily mutate.

5. The decentralized organization sneaks up on you.

6. As industries become decentralized, overall profits decrease.

But how does one go about identifying a Starfish organization? The answer is found in asking the right questions:

1. Is there a person in charge?

2. Are there headquarters?

3. If you thump it on the head, will it die?

4. Is there a clear division of roles?

5. If you take out a unit, is the organization harmed?

6. Are knowledge & power concentrated or distributed?

7. Is the organization flexible or rigid?

8. Can you count the employees or participants?

9. Are working groupls funded by the organization, or are they self-funding?

10. Do working groups communicate directly or through intermediaries?

The authors contend that a decentralized organization stands on five legs. As with the starfish, it can lose a leg or two and still survive. But when you have all the legs working together, a decentralized organization can really take off. These “legs” include:

Leg 1. Circles. Small, nonhierarchical groups of people with each group maintaining its own particular habits and norms.

Leg 2. The Catalyst. The person who initiates a circle and then fades away into the background.

Leg 3. Ideology. The glue that holds decentralized organizations together.

Leg 4. A Preexisting Network. Infrastructure or preexisting platform to launch from.

Leg 5. A Champion. A relentless promoter of the new idea.

One of the most helpful aspects of this portion of the book comes in a chapter titled “The Hidden Power of the Catalyst.” The following chart summarizes the different tools that the CEO and catalysts type of leader draws upon:

CEO   vs.   Catalyst

The Boss - A Peer
Command & Control - Trust
Powerful - Inspirational
Directive - Collaborative
In the Spotlight - Behind the Scenes
Order - Ambiguity
Organizing - Connecting

The authors conclude this chapter by stating:

This type of leadership isn’t ideal for all situations. Catalysts are bound to rock the boat. They are much better at being agents of change than guardians of tradition. Catalysts do well in situations that call for radical change and creative thinking. They bring innovation, but they’re also likely to create a certain amount of chaos and ambiguity. Put them into a structured environment, and they might suffocate. But let them dream and they’ll thrive. (can anyone say “church planter”)

In the final chapter the authors offer what they perceive to be the “new rules to the game” in regards to understanding and capitalizing on the power of decentralized organizations:

Rule 1: Dis-economies of Scale

Traditionally, the bigger the company or institution the greater the power. However, as counterintuitive as this sounds, it can be better to be small. . . . We have entered a new world where being small can provide a fundamental economic advantage.

Rule 2: The Network Effect

The network effect is the increase in the overall value of the network with the addition of each new member. “Often without spending a dime, starfish organizations create communities where each new member adds value to the larger network. . . . Companies like eBay have used the network effect not only to survive but to thrive: buyers and sellers have stayed loyal to the site because of the value of network.

Rule 3: The Power of Chaos

Starfish systems are wonderful incubators for creative, destructive, innovative, or crazy ideas. Anything goes. Good ideas will attract more people, and in a circle they’ll execute the plan. Institute order and rigid structure, and while you may achieve standardization, you’ll also squelch creativity. Where creativity is valuable, learning to accept chaos is a must.

Rule 4: Knowledge at the Edge

In starfish organizations, knowledge is spread throughout the organization. Wikipedia may be the best example of this rule.

Rule 5: Everyone Wants to Contribute

Not only do people throughout a starfish have knowledge, but they also have a fundamental desire to share and to contribute. Once again is the example of Wikipedia or free book reviews on Amazon.

Rule 6: Beware the Hydra Response

Attack a decentralized organization and you’ll soon be reminded of Hydra, the many-headed beast of Greek mythology. If you cut off one head, two more will grow in its place.

Rule 7: Catalysts Rule

Catalysts are crucial to decentralized organizations! But it is not because they are in control but because they inspire people to action.

Rule 8: The Values are the Organization

Idology is the fuel that drives the decentralized organization. Most successful starfish organizations were started with what seemed at the time to be a radical ideology.

Rule 9: Measure, Monitor, and Manage

Just because starfish organizations tend to be ambiguous and chaotic doesn’t mean that their results can’t be measured. But when measuring a decentralized network, it’s better to “be vaguely right than precisely wrong.” Even if we could, it wouldn’t really matter if we were able to get a precise count of how many members are in a network. What matters more is looking at circles. How active are they? How distributed is the network?

Rule 10: Flatten or Be Flattened

There are ways to fight a decentralized organization. We can change members’ ideology or try to centralize the organization. But often the best hope for survival if we can’t beat them is to join them.

Finally, I found much of the discussion throughout the book to relate directly to the form and function of the church. I guess as you have read this summary you have made application to the church as well. Specifically the Starfish and the Spider brought me back several times to Alan Hirsch’s chapter on organic systems in The Forgotten Ways. Hirsch continuously emphasizes the need to move away from institutional forms of organization and recover a movement ethos that includes a starfish like, decentralized network. In chapter 7 Hirsch writes:

“What is clear is that movements have a very different composition and feel to that of the denominational institutions we had become. The differences are nothing less than paradigmatic. H.R. Niebuhr noted that “there are essential differences between an institution and a movement: The one is conservative, the other progressive; the one is more or less passive yielding to influences from the outside, the other is active in influencing rather than being influenced; the one looks to the past, the other to the future. In addition the one is anxious, the other is prepared to take risks; the one guards boundaries, the other crosses them.”

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