This book came to me at a very important time in my life. My family and I are in the process of re-immersing ourselves into gathering with and  the rhythms of a local church family after a seven year hiatus. I found Todd’s thoughts refreshing and right on for what I have been wrestling through as my family and I have been sorting out our involvement with a local church.

Todd starts out by making a great point that church is not just the “Sunday service”.  The service is one small part of how God wants to shape and form us so that we can go into the watching world around us and live out the good news of the kingdom. An analogy that my wife and I have used to explain it in a similar way is by looking at the difference between a football game and the on-field huddle. The huddle is not the game; it helps the players play the game better. That is how church can be in the life of a Christ follower.

The book is very readable and each chapter looks at a specific part of a church service or liturgy. Todd writes from his new Anglican perspective on church but what he has to say is applicable to my Evangelical Covenant Church or whatever church you might find yourself a part of. In each chapter Todd helps us re-purpose or re-practice the essential element needed for the development for kingdom life and practice. Too often we “throw the baby out with the bath water” and miss out on what God wants to transform us with.

In many ways this whole book is like an old parable I once heard about the cooking of a ham. A mother and daughter were preparing to cook a ham. The Mom cut the end off the ham before she put into the pan. The curious daughter asked her Mom why she cut the end off the ham. She answered that her Mom always cut the end off when she made ham but that she would check. Later she inquired with the young girls Grandma and asked why she cut the end off the ham. The answer the Grandmother gave was that her pan was too short. After years and years of doing the same thing this young woman finally found the real reason for the action and realized that for her, it was an unnecessary step. For many, this is what is needed in order to breathe fresh life into our church experience. In this book Todd helps us get to the true “why” questions behind the purpose and structure of church. Much like finding out why the end was cut off the ham, rediscovering the purpose behind the forms will help us re-purpose and appreciate the God given womb for helping nuture us into faithful kingdom service. Giving Church Another Chance is well worth the time in order to help understand and appreciate the local church.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Todd Hunter to read and post a review on my site. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Technorati Tags: Todd-Hunter, Church-Chance, Book-Review

As I sat down to write this book review my family was getting ready to celebrate Easter weekend. One of my kids wanted to know why we would call Good Friday, “good”?  My wife and I explained that Good Friday is “good” because that was the day Jesus died on the cross. It is good for us because of the death and resurrection of Jesus we have the ability to have purpose and meaning in life and an eternal relationship with God. As amazing as this is, it is even more amazing that the Bible tells us that we will do even more amazing things than Jesus. (John 14:12) Neil Cole is someone who is taking this challenge seriously. Neil has devoted his life to creatively releasing the reproduction of healthy disciples, leaders, churches, and movements for the Kingdom of God. Neil wants to raise the bar on what it means to be a disciple and lower the bar on how to do church. This book has a very interesting title. It uses  the motif of a software upgrade, which is a common analogy for most Americans in 2010. Neil’s desire is to call the church back to its roots of fertility and function which will allow it to make a difference in the world and if it is making a difference in the world the world will be different.

Many of us know that software upgrades can be good and bad. Often new and needed features are bogged down with unexplainable headaches. Many institutions and organizations need to make upgrades in how they function to meet new demands and stay true to their vision and mission. Unfortunately the church is usually the slowest to upgrade and make changes in how they seek to carry out their mission. Now more than ever the church needs to get over stereotypes about change and make some much needed upgrades. Neil feels that that a good upgrade will do some very important things. A good upgrade will make things more intuitive. A good upgrade will also make the church more powerful in accomplishing all of its important tasks. Finally, a good upgrade will open up the church to a new market of people who will have had no previous experience with the church.

The First Century Church in Acts was Church 1.0. The church in this period was mostly a marginalized movement under the heat of intense persecution. Church 2.0 dramatically occurred during the reign and rule of the Roman Emperor Constantine. During this period the church went from an underground, grassroots organic movement to a more institutional organization. Now there is a need for Church 3.0 so that a shift can occur from a program-driven church and clergy-led institutional approach to church to something that is more relational, simple, and viral in its spread. For Neil, this book is not a defense of organic church, it is rather a clarion call for us all to do church better. He believes it is not just a question of “Will this happen?” but rather “Will you and your church be a part of what God is up to in these incredible times?”

The first two chapters of the book give many reasons why we are in a new era and that are many changes with global impact upon us. We must adapt as a church in order to be faithful to the charge given to us by God. One of the best parts of the book are the list of shifting values that we must take notice of in order to be making an impact in our world. The changing values are as follows:

• Relationship over mission
• Authenticity over excellence
• Experience over proposition
• Mystery over solution
• Diversity over uniformity
• Journey over destination

Neil closes his book with the fact that Church 3.0 has arrived. It is actually at work and spreading. We can duck our heads and cover and try to pretend these realities are not happening, or we can embrace the changes and run full speed ahead and join in with what God is doing in the world around us. Either way what we can’t do is stop the changes that continue to come. Even if we cannot agree completely with Neil and his propositions, it is important to see that we must make foundational changes in the way we are the church and the way we do church. It seems very much like my favorite quote from Gandhi. “We must be the change we wish to see in the world.”

[tags]Church3.0,organic-church,Neil-Cole,book-review[/tag]

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Jossy Bass to read and post a review on my site. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”