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The church faces great tension today, which if not properly
addressed will cause strategic mistakes. One tension is to change our message to
reach today’s generation. Another is to assume that we have to do ministry as we
have always done it. Man’s need of a Savior has not changed since the garden,
but how that need is expressed and how the answer has been communicated have
gone through many changes over the years. This book presents the challenge of
doing creative thinking about today’s church for the purpose of discovering how
to effectively reach this generation.
In the foreword, Leighton Ford writes, “He [White] is
typical of this generation of new leaders that God is raising up, not only in
the United States but around the world.” Ford goes on, “He is not at all
satisfied with ‘ministry as usual. Rethinking the Church—‘rethinking’ is a good
translation for the word repentance, for to repent means to change our way of
thinking.”
The author is aware of the need for continuity with the
past. At the same time he is aware that the church cannot reach this generation
effectively if it insists on using yesterday’s models. He believes, with Barna
and others, that it is vital for the church to listen to what the unchurched are
saying, if we truly want to reach them with the Gospel. He cites the example of
the Swiss watch-making industry when it ignored the development of the Quartz
watch. “Past success had blinded them to the importance of seeing the
implications of the changing world and to admit the past accomplishment was no
guarantee of the future success.” Their business went down the drain.
White makes it clear throughout the book that “Rethinking
the church has nothing to do with compromising the church’s message. It has
nothing to do with attempting to provide a single model for all churches to
follow. It is about individual churches, under the leadership of the Holy
Spirit, grappling with the words of Jesus when he said, ‘You find it easy to
forecast the weather—why can’t you read the signs of the times?’ Later Jesus
said, ‘ . . . No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins’.”
From that backdrop, White selects these six vital areas of
the church’s mission that merit rethinking: evangelism, discipleship, ministry,
worship, structure, and community. The readers who have been through CE/P’s
Strategic Faith Planning process will recognize many of these elements. Like
many of us, White believes that understanding the church’s mission is vital to
effectiveness in ministry. He states, “Rather than worship or evangelism, a
church can fall prey to thinking that its purpose is keeping up a tradition,
holding a particular event, meeting a budget, or maintaining a building . . .
but they do not make up the purpose of the church itself.”
The last chapter entitled “Rethinking Community” is worth
the price of the book. For the church to be effective with today’s generation,
it is necessary that the truth be developed in both vertical and horizontal
relationships. If we listen carefully to the younger generation, they are not
seeing the reality of those relationships in the church; hence they are calling
the church inauthentic. White points out, ”Real acceptance involves looking at
people, differences and all, and accepting them for who they are and how God
made them. It doesn’t matter if they are white or black, male or female, rich or
poor.” But what is real Christian community? “It is when the masks come off,
conversations get deep, hearts get vulnerable, lives are shared, accountability
is invited, and tenderness flows. People really do become brothers and sisters.”
You might be uncomfortable reading this book, but you will
be blessed. It does not provide ready-made answers to today’s challenges, but it
will stimulate the reader to think about the church in some different ways. It
could be used effectively as a study book for church leaders in seeking to know
God’s vision and will for their particular church’s mission. Taken seriously, it
could open new doors to making your church’s ministry more effective in reaching
people with God’s truth.
- Charles Dunahoo, CEP Coordinator
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