This is a very interesting book. A complete indictment of much of mainstream, contemporary Christianity and call to greater discipleship. I like the theology of vocation and they certainly support that. At times I felt they had a reverse theology of the cross - "we are growing smaller so we must be more faithful than those large, worldly churches. The smaller we are, the more faithful we are." I don't know what denomination the authors were, and having no foundation is a danger for a non-denominational church that caused a lot of their struggle and searching, but it sure seemed they were trying to become more Lutheran! Maybe we are so far out of date that we are becoming the new fad. May it be so!
I agree with much of what they said, but thought they made changes that were needlessly drastic and shocking.
"Our purpose is to provide followers of Christ with the necessary tools so that they can establish new front lines where the kingdom of God is breaking out.
Jesus is calling us, as his disciples, as his apprentices in the art of living righteously, to establish beacheads for his kingdom, wherever God has planted us. And so the kingdom of God breaks out not so much when we gather together in the church on the weekends, although that certainly happens, but when a mother cares for her children, a carpenter frames a house, a businesswoman leads a strategic planning meeting, a mechanic tunes an engine, a student sits in class, a couple develops a relationship with their nonchurches neighbors.
To be faithful to the Great Commission, church leaders must push back at a religious culture that measures success by how large our church is, by how many programs we have, by how popular we are. When a church remembers that it exists to supply followers of Christ with realistic, reliable and practical means to live in the reality of the kingdom of God and establish new beachheads, then it is doing what it is called to do."
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