CyberTsunami

Book Review: Help, I'm a Frustrated Youth Worker

Case, Steve. Help, I’m a Frustrated Youth Worker! Grand Rapids: Zondervan. 2009 

Steve Case is the director of youth ministries for Windermere Union United Church of Christ, Windermere, FL. He is a frequent columnist for Youth Worker Journal.

This small book is an interesting combination of humor, confession, and help. Case has been known for his humorous columns in Youth Worker Journal. That humor carries over here. Sadly, much of the humor is sophomoric (note the title of the first chapter). Case also uses his own past as illustration of mistakes that youth ministers make and of toxic churches that minister can serve. One begins to wonder how much the past toxic churches have affected Case’s perception of youth ministry.

In the midst of all this, Case does provide a few gems of youth ministry wisdom. Chapters two and three on complaints and complaining are particularly noteworthy. On the other hand, some of the myths of youth ministry (chapter 10) reflect a view of youth ministry as the marginalized ministry that was prevalent decades ago. One hopes that most churches that actually have paid youth ministers have moved far beyond that.

The book is worth a quick read and maybe a review once a year or so as a “pick me up.” The basic outline is below.

1       There’s Always Somebody Willing to Pee in Your Froot Loops

Looking Out for Number One

A)    People who pee in your Froot Loops can’t see the ministry for the trees.

B)     Understanding is the key.

C)    You’ll find complainers no matter where you go.

D)    Don’t start to question yourself.

E)     Remember, God put you where you are.

2       Do You Know What Those @!*# Kids Have Done Now?

Dealing with Church Members’ Complaints

A)    Why Complain?

i)        Some people are born complainers.

ii)       Some people complain toe protect the status quo.

iii)     Some people complain because they are uninformed.

iv)     Some people complain because they feel bad about themselves.

v)      Sometimes there really is a problem worth complaining about.

B)     When It’s Your Turn to Respond

i)        God sent the critic.

ii)       Tag backs aren’t allowed.

(1)   Never respond immediately to an email.

(2)   Say, “Let me see if I’m hearing your right,” then repeat the complaint back to the person.

(3)   Promise a response.

iii)     Two magic words can work wonders: “however” and “therefore.”

iv)     Find the truth in the matter.

3       Oh, Yeah? Well, Same to You

When It’s Your Turn to Complain

A)    The Fine Art of Complaining

i)        Make sure you’re looking at the situation properly.

ii)       Inform your boss.

iii)     Be completely clear and honest about what’s making you unhappy.

iv)     Be completely clear and honest about what you want to happen as a result of your complaint.

v)      Complain to the right set of ears.

B)     How to Complain to a Parent

4       Exit: Stage Left

When It Really Is Time to Go

A)    Consider This

i)        Everyone has a limit.

ii)       It is a job.

iii)     You can have a heart for Jesus and still be fairly compensated.

iv)     They aren’t your kids.

B)     How Do You Know When It’s Time to Go?

i)        Pray…a lot.

ii)       Get advice.

iii)     Listen.

iv)     Don’t ask for advice if you’re not going to pay attention.

v)      Look before you leap.

vi)     You work according to God’s timing, not yours.

vii)   Don’t look back.

5       Getting Fired for the Glory of God

When Leaving Isn’t Your Idea

A)    Losing Your Job Is Not That Different from Losing a Loved One

i)        Denial: Why me, God?

ii)       Anger: Why aren’t you helping me?

iii)     Bargaining: I need a new ministry job, God. Now. Please.

iv)     Depression: Forget it. I’m outta here.

v)      Acceptance: I am Your servant.

6       Do Not Ride This Ride If You Have Back Trouble or a Heart Condition

When You Feel Like You’re Getting Too Old for This Stuff

This chapter just doesn’t outline well. Case talks about the myth of the midlife crisis, but just describes how one often happens. He tells a few funny stories about getting old, then he simply encourages youth workers not to give up just because they are getting older. He doesn’t address the reasons people think about leaving other than “I can’t keep up” or “it’s time.” The only real suggestion he makes it to get someone younger to mentor. This could have been a great chapter, but it’s not one of his best.

7       Religion and the Pomophobic Church

Or, Fear and Loathing in the Board Meeting

This chapter is simply about getting along with other people. The chapter refers to people in the church and from other traditions. The basic response is “try to get along.” Case provides a little help in understanding other people, but his main advice is to just take a deep breath and decide it the ground is worth dying for.

8       Carry My Rat

What? There’s Stress in Your Job?

This chapter doesn’t outline well, either. The phrase “carry my rat” comes from the image of items that cause stress are like rats that run around the office and home. When others try to unload their “rats” on someone, they add stress. Case does a decent job of describing ministerial stress in a like manner. He says that stress is normal in life and in ministry and that youth ministers just need to accept it and deal with it. Learning to say “no” also helps. He doesn’t provide much in the way of dealing with stress except to slow down and rest in and rely on Jesus. Yes, that will help, but he could have provided more. Then, that wouldn’t be keeping with the light hearted nature of the book.

9       Stuff Happens

What to Do When the Worst Thing That Can Happen…Does

A)    Start Here: You Have No Idea What You Are Doing

i)        Do not panic

ii)       If the student is in danger of any kind, respond immediately

iii)     Your students see you has someone who has answers.

iv)     Don’t case the wide blanket of “everything’s doing to be okay” over everything.

v)      If you’re dealing with a massive tragedy, expand the invitation.

vi)     You can’t for students to talk, unload, or spill their grief.

B)     Invite God

C)    God Is Not to Blame; God IS in Charge

D)    You Are Not Alone

10  Myth-Understanding

Some Lies and Truths about Youth Ministry

Myth	Truth
Youth ministry is about numbers.	Youth ministry occurs in small, quiet, one-on-one settings.
Youth ministry is about office hours.	You have to go where the teenagers are.
You can “fix my kid.”	You can’t fix a kid.
Students are servants of the church.	Students are servants of God.
Youth ministry is about helping youth become nice people	Youth ministry comes from the Greek for “messy noise.”
Youth should be present for all youth activities.	There’s no such thing as an inactive member.
Youth ministry is about giving the kids answers.	Anyone who says he has all the answers is either lying or selling something.
Mission trips are about serving others.	Mission trips are [also] about turning teens into disciples.
Youth ministry is a stepping stone to real ministry.	There is no higher calling than ministering to youth.

Case has presented some nice ideas here. Many youth workers do deal with a lot of these “myths.” At the same time, Case reveals a lot about his own mistakes and toxic situations of the past. A grounded youth minster knows that “office hours” of some sort gives credibility, stability, and connection for a youth ministry. And sometimes there just had to be rules. But, all in all, Case has presented some good arguments against some of the most common myths.

11  It’s Better to Burn Out Than to Fade Away

The Art of Winnowing

A)    The 18 Month Myth

i)        Case points out that this data has not empirical backing

ii)       The average paid youth minister (according to Group) has been at the same church for 3.9 years and in ministry for 4.2 years.

B)    Signs of Genuine Burnout

i)        No Vision

ii)       No Heart

iii)     No Prize in the Cereal Box (disappointment)

   

C)     Fixing the Hole

i)        Monitor your own spirituality.

(1)   You must carve out your own prayer time.

(2)   You must be part of church, not just a leader.

(3)   You must continue your education.

(4)   You must network.

(5)   You must take time off.

ii)       Remember that this is a calling.

iii)     Understand that youth ministry does not involve a method or formula. [Case maintains that while office work is necessary, it is not an office job.]

iv)     Remind yourself what your not in this business for.

(1)   Not to make money

(2)   Not to “fix” kids.

(3)   Not as a stepping stone to “real” ministry.

Book Review: Getting Fired for the Glory of God

Yaconelli, Mike. Getting Fired for the Glory of God. El Cajon, CA: Youth Specialties (Zondervan). 2008.

Mike Yaconelli was one of the founders of Youth Specialties and one of the pioneers of youth ministry as a career calling. He died in 2003 in an auto accident. He is greatly missed by legions of aging youth workers like me.

Getting Fired is mostly a collection of columns that Mike wrote over the years for Youth Specialties (then) flagship publication, YouthWorker Journal. Most of the articles are short since they had to fit in one page. The book also contains a couple of longer presentations by Mike (2 videos and 4 audios) in front of 1,000s of youth workers usually at a National Youth Workers Convention (another flagship innovation by Youth Specialties).

I liked Mike's writing and speaking. Like most thinking people, he irritated me sometimes and scared me at others. But he always challenged me and made me think. Sometimes you didn't know if he was being satirical or using hyperbole, or if he really was that radical and just didn't care what others thought about what he was saying. I know that some of his ideas had no chance in the world of ever being useful or even possible, but Mike did live in the world of possibilities and he loved a God who can make all things possible, so who knows.

As one reads this, keep an open mind, try to understand the youth ministry world which spawned Mike in the late 60s and early 70s.

Over the top? Maybe. Radical? Definitely! Perhaps (on a very small scale) emulating? Possibly. Entertaining and thought provoking? Absolutely.

Book Review: Breakout Churches Part 2

Rainer, Thom & Sam Rainer. Breakout Churches. Grand Rapids: Zondervan. 2009, 252 pp

BV652.25.R365 2004                                 ISBN #0-310-25745-X

Continued from previous post

6.     The VIP Factor

This chapter is similar to the Hedgehog Concept in Good to Great. The VIP factor is the “Vision Intersection Profile.” Rainer opens with the shocking statement that breakout churches do not seek to discover their vision. The key phrase is “seek to discover.” These churches all have a clear, compelling vision, but in Rainer’s words, it “was a vision that discovered them.”

When the vision of the leader can be matched with the gifts and passions of the congregation, then the church can find what community needs it can adequately meet. Most often, the leader’s passion came first, then the people’s passions were molded to his.

Rainer states that of the 427 church’s his team looked at, only 6% of the pastors were passionate. The others were motivated by survival, conflict avoidance, self-promotion, tradition, or fear.

For the congregation passion, the church didn’t rely on spiritual gift inventories or surveys. They created an atmosphere were people’s passions bubbled to the top and gave the people permission to follow them. What isn’t clear is how they filtered out the passions that did not align with the leader’s.

7.     A Culture of Excellence

This chapter is patterned after Collin’s “Culture of Discipline.” Closely tied to the VIP Factor, breakout churches found the intersection of the leader, people, and community and demanded excellence in every ministry that fell within that intersection and usually let other ministries die. These churches also gave ministry leaders and workers, both staff and volunteer a high degree of freedom, but with a high degree of expectations. Rainer came up with a quadrant similar to Collins discipline/entrepreneur quadrant, but Rainer’s is expectation/freedom. The chart below shows the quadrant arrangement. All the breakout churches were in quadrant 2. The comparison churches in each of the other quadrants are listed in the quadrant.

1 High Freedom Low Expectation 7 Comparison Churches	2 High Freedom High Expectation 13 Breakout Churches
3 Low Freedom Low Expectation 25 Comparison Churches	4 Low Freedom High Expectation 7 Comparison Churches

The breakout churches also had a generally acknowledged “do not start” or “stop doing” list. They simply didn’t do things that didn’t fit their VIP Factor or that they could not do well.

8.     Innovation Accelerators

Patterned after “Technology Accelerators” in Good to Great, the key idea of the chapter is that breakout churches use innovation as aid to growth, not to cause growth. The concept seems a little subtle. Is it really possible to say that an innovation did or did not cause the growth? The real issue seems to be one of how the church filters innovation and how much it relies on innovation.

Rainer states that most churches are either Traditionalist/Resistors or Innovator/Embracers. The first is troubled by change and generally resists all change. Twenty four of the 39 comparison churches fit this category (69%). The latter see innovation as the “magic bullet” or panacea. They blindly follow the latest innovation. Fifteen comparison churches fit this category (31%). Like the little bear in Goldilocks, breakout churches had the “just right” approach to innovation. Again, the difference seems to be not on the speed of innovation, but on the wisdom and discernment of the leadership.

Rainer finally addresses this when he comes back to the VIP Factor. The church has to evaluate technology with regard to how well it fits within their vision intersection.

The book digresses into a discussion of how innovation could become “the tail wagging the dog.” True, but Rainer uses this section to drive home more importantly how that most of the comparison churches didn’t have a dog to wag. The dog, of course, would be the main mission/vision of the church and leaders. There’s the problem. It’s not the innovation.

The book also includes the old warning that innovation can be a trap. What you use to bring them is what you have to use to keep them. Rely on innovation and you could get stuck with the innovation long after it ceases to innovative.

9.     Big Mo or Blind Erosion?

This chapter is based on Collin’s chapter The Flywheel and the Doom Loop. The big mo is, of course, momentum. Rainer says that the momentum is caused by a variety of things including the longer tenure of breakout pastors. Other factors include, preaching, Biblical authority, and prayer.

Blind erosion, on the other hand, stems from lack of accountability, poor theology, and ignorance and resistance on the part of the leaders. In the comparison churches, the laypeople had little understanding of their doctrinal beliefs and little evangelistic zeal. Many concluded that there were alternate ways to heaven.

Rainer lists six types of leaders who have the resistance to change that leads to erosion.

Ø      The burned leader is demoralized and hurt. He is unwilling to try great things for God out of fear of conflict.

Ø      The ignorant leader lacks interpersonal skills and basic leadership abilities.

Ø      The lazy leader takes advantage of low accountability.

Ø      The theologically weak leader has doubts about some basic tenets.

Ø      The conflict avoider is like the burned leader except that conflict avoidance is a basic personality issue and not the result of previous conflict.

Ø      The accolade seeker lives for recognition. He spends time on pastoral care and things that will increase his value in the eyes of the people.

1o.        To Become a Breakout Church

The last chapter is Rainer’s wrap up to reinforce salient issues one more time. The most beneficial section is the final chart on page 200.

Some steps toward breaking out

Acts 6/7 Leadership

Ø      develop core biblical values.

Ø      Pray for Christlike Spirit in all areas.

Ø      Decide in God's power to love the people of the church no matter what.Seek to lead your church to an outward focus, beyond the walls of the congregation.

Ø      In God's will make a commitment to stay with the church long-term.

The ABC Moment

Ø      Seek outside counsel to help you see the church from an outsider's perspective.

Ø      Be a lifelong learner through numerous media.

Ø      Pray for your critics and maintain an attitude of love toward them.

Ø      Be prepared for the reality that most crises will be the result of conflict with Christians.

Ø      Pray that God will allow you to see beyond the crises and see His work in the difficult moments.

Who/What Simultrack

Ø      Deal quickly but compassionately with a major people problems.

Ø      Develop a high expectation culture in the church that will attract more of the right people.

Ø      Work on major structural needs in the church will simultaneously working on the people issues.

The VIP Factor

Ø      Discern your passions for ministry is a leader.

Ø      Discover the gifts and passions of the members of your congregation.

Ø      Discover the needs in the community.

Ø      See where the above three factors intersect, and focus many resources at this vision intersection.

Culture of Excellence

Ø      Attempt to do all things with excellence in God's power.

Ø      If the church cannot do something with excellence, consider discarding or discontinuing the effort.

Ø      See innovation as a means, not as an end.

Ø      Carefully evaluate each innovative opportunity; be open but cautious with innovations.

Big Mo

Ø      Learn that the success God gives is often a beginning point for another opportunity for success.

Appendix A: Frequently Asked Questions

Most of the questions answered here have already been addressed in the body of the work.

Appendix B: Selection Process and Research Steps

1.      Determine the Criteria for Selection

Ø      26 conversions in at least one of the past five years.

Ø      Maximum of 20:1 evangelistic ratio in the past five years.

Ø      Five years of sustained growth.

Ø      No change in senior pastor during the decline, breakout and growth.

2.      Locate a Database of Churches

The team gathered data on 52,333 churches.

3.      Apply the Two Evangelistic Screens

The evangelistic screens reduced the number of churches to 1,936.

4.      Seek Other Screening Data from Remaining Churches

The team asked the 1,936 churches for more extensive data over the past 10 years. Only 881 churches responded.

5.      Apply Breakout Screen

This screen reduced the number of churches to 211.

6.      Apply Consistent Leadership Screen

The senior pastor stayed the same in only 17 churches.

7.      Begin Intensive Research on Screened Churches

Detailed scrutiny ruled out 4 more churches.

8.      Research the Breakout Churches

1.      Gathering internal and historical documents on the churches.

2.      Gathering published material on the churches where available.

3.      Conducting interviews with staff and laity.

4.      On site observation.

5.      Testing according to Good to Great.

6.      Testing against comparison churches.

Appendix C: Selection Process of Comparison Churches

This is a brief explanation of how Rainer’s team picked the comparison churches for each breakout church.

Ø      Size: the comparison church had to have an average attendance within 10% of the breakout church’s.

Ø      Geography: The comparison church had to be in the same state or a contiguous state.

Ø      Demographics: The two communities had to be with 20% in size.

Ø      Doctrine: If the breakout church was part of a denomination, the comparison church came from the same denomination.

Appendix D: Synopsis of Churches Selected

This section gives a short synopsis of the 13 breakout churches. Most of the information has already been anecdotally mentioned within the main body of the book. They are listed below for easy reference.

1. Bethel Temple Community Church, Evansville, IN

2. Calvary Memorial Church, Oak Park, IL

3. Central Christian Church, Beloit, WI

4. Fairfield New Liife Church, Farfield, CA (Nazarene)

5. First Gethsemane Baptist Church, Louisville, KY

6. Grace Church, Christians and Missionary Alliance, Middleburg Heights, OH
7. Grace Evangelical Free Church, Allen, TX

8. Grove City Church of the Nazarene, Grove City, OH

9. Korean Central Presbyterian Church, Vienna, VA

10. Lenexa Baptist Church, Leneza, KN

11. Southwest Baptis tChurch, Amarillo, TX
12. The Temple Church, Nashville, TN
13. Xenos Christian Fellowship, Columbus, OH

Appendix E: Church Readiness Inventory

This 50 question inventory is one that Rainer’s former organization, Church Central, uses in preparation for a consultation. It covers many areas of church life including prayer, strategy, evangelism, fellowship, staff, vision, leadership styles, relationships, and conflict. Permission is granted for the survey to be used in the book purchaser’s local church.

Book Review: Youth Ministry 3.0

Oestreicher, Mark. Youth Ministry 3.0: A Manifesto of Where We’ve Been, Where We Are, and Where We Need to Go.

Grand Rapids

: Zondervan. 2008.

 

Mark Oestreicher is the president of Youth Specialties.

 

Over the brief history of youth ministry, several people have attempted to trace the history, show where we missed it, and get us ready for the new iteration. My exposure to this was in Mark Senter’s Book The Coming Revolution in Youth Ministry. Oestreicher plainly states in the title that he believes he has the handle on the next, the third, iteration of youth ministry.

 

The brief introduction gets one at least partially interested because it recalls the days when youth ministry gurus actually endorsed the use of the hot seat (a stool with a mild electric shock) as an acceptable, fun apparatus for youth group meetings. Mark asks the question of was it really okay then? If so, why isn’t it okay now? If it wasn’t okay, why did so many thinking people (including parents) not rise up in arms against it? Perhaps it is a good metaphor for youth ministry and the uncertainty we face with what we are doing now.

 

The introduction also introduces a unique literary tool Mark uses. The margins of several pages are peppered with comments from youth workers. These have probably been gleaned from Youth Specialties events where Mark was formulating the basis for the book.

 

The first two chapters form a basis of Oestreicher’s view of youth ministry and its history. He draws greatly on a work by G. Stanley Hall, Adolescence: Its Psychology and Its Relations to Physiology, Anthropology, Sociology, Sex, Crime, and Religion (Appleton. 1904). He refers to Hall’s three key elements that were common to all adolescents: conflict with parents, mood disruptions, and risky behavior. In the endnote, the author states that this idea “was popular for a few decades, but then it fell out of style.” [129] He mentions that recent attention to it has been relegated to being a “blip” on the adolescent radar. I find this a little hard to accept. It seems to fall right in line with some of the recent findings in teenage brain development.

 

Then the author makes an unexpected turn. He returns to the idea of Hall’s three themes of adolescents, but this time they are different. He spends the remainder of the chapter discussing identity, autonomy, and affinity. While he spends several pages unpacking these themes, his point (seen only at the end of the chapter) is that early youth culture (and, by extension, youth ministry?) emphasized identity. Later youth culture emphasized autonomy. Now it is the time to address the area where he believes youth ministry has failed: affinity.

 

The next three chapters compare Youth Ministry 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0. Oestreicher traces a quick (and admittedly incomplete history of youth ministry. He really starts in the 1950s almost a decade after the rise of Youth for Christ and YoungLife, totally ignoring the Youth Movements of the late 1800s and pre World War II. Nor does he really deal with the local church aspects of youth ministry like 3rd

Baptist

Church

,

St. Louis

.

 

Oestreicher uses the Beatles to illustrate how youth culture came into it’s own in the 60s. In the early 60s the Beatles wore suits and had longer than usual, still short, hair. By the late 60s they had transformed into the “hippie” movement look. At this time church begin to high youth ministers in earnest. This was also the time of the birth for Youth Specialties. Since it is Oestreicher’s organization, he has some humorous insights into the creation in his endnotes.

 

Oestreicher does not hide his frustrations with the failing of 2.0. He blames it for the internalization of youth ministry, making it isolated, numbers driven, and too tied to cultural models. Though he does admit that it was in this kind of youth ministry that he grew up and it worked for him at the time.

 

The author almost “begs the question” as he describes what youth ministry 3.0 should be. He seems to suggest that 1) it is possible to know and understand a movement while one is in it, 2) that youth culture is a deeper and more mysterious thing than it was in the early years and 3) that affinity is a new principle. I’m not sure it ever had been. Just the affinities have changed and perhaps become smaller units, less based on geography and less hierarchical.

 

Yes, communion and mission seen to be taking a larger role in this general, but I’m not sure that we can yet call them the themes. Even if they are, programs certainly have sprung up to support them.

 

Here is his chart comparing the three iterations.

	Youth Ministry 1.0	Youth Ministry 2.0	Youth Ministry 3.0
Youth Culture Fixation	Identity	Autonomy	Affinity
Cultural Influence on Youth Minister	Language and Topics	Models and Success	Contextualization
Key Themes	Evangelism and Correction	Discipleship and Creating a Positive Peer Group	Communion and Mission
Driver	Proclamation	Programs	Not Driven, but Present
Theme Verse	Matthew 7:13-14 (the narrow and broad gates)	Matthew 28:19-20 (the Great Commission)	Acts 2:44-16 (the early church and the five purposes)

While Youth Ministry 1.0 may have helped youth culture establish identity, I’m not sure that Youth Ministry 2.0 helped establish autonomy. In fact, it may have done more to establish identity than 1.0 did. The main area where autonomy may have been an issue is in the buying power of the youth culture. It became the secret desire of every marketing plan (as it is still somewhat today).

 

Oestreicher at least attempts to make the book practical with the last chapter. He suggests three options to answer the question of how we get there. Alignment – the arrangement of the ministries, program, and staff around the same simple process.

1. Multiple Youth Ministries to Multiple Subcultures – this might be the easiest response and is easily visible in the life of churches with multiple ethnicities.
2. One Youth Ministry with a Bream of Supra-Culture, Kingdom of God Culture – Oestreicher seems to doubt that this might be possible, tending to migrate back to multiple groups. This might also be limited to the larger church.
3. Some Hybrid of the Two

• One group for some stuff, smaller subculture-specific groups for other stuff.
• One group most of the time, but with some specific, contextualized efforts to create space for the subcultures to which your ministry is called.

Oestreicher also suggests that these approaches mean that churches have to cut programs. This is a little of a straw man. Programs are not the problem. The problem is that churches hardly ever cut programs after they have run their course. In any iteration of youth ministry (or any ministry) programs need to be re-evaluated. This includes programs that don’t look like programs including mission trips, third space gatherings, and small groups.

Oestreicher ends the chapter with a warning against being “driven.” Driven, as he defines it is bad, but he doesn’t define it like Saddleback would. Again, he sets up a little of a straw man. His “driven” is more like George McDonald described King Saul in Ordering Your Private World.

 

The epilogue is more of a motivational tag at the end. Oestreicher gives his kudos to several youth workers he has met you illustrate the benefits and struggles of “getting” what he is saying.

For each of the youth ministry iterations, he provides a set of themes and drivers.

Book Review: The Gospel According to Starbucks by Leonard Sweet

The Gospel According to Starbucks

Colorado Springs

: Waterbrook Press. 2007

BV4501.3.S93 2007

ISBN #978-1-57856-649-5

 

Leonard Sweet is professor of evangelism at

Drew

Theological

School

,

Madison

,

New Jersey

.

Normally I tend to outline a book and make notes on it chapter by chapter. I simply can’t do it with this book. Now I know why I got it off the discount bin for $4.95. Leonard Sweet is obviously a brilliant man and a passionate and creative writer. His knowledge of such a wide variety of history, art, and pop culture shows not only his intelligence, but also his wealth of graduate assistants to do research for him. Sweet is one of those rare souls who can take almost any two isolated ideas or objects and draw a connection between them. It is right brained thinking to the extreme.

I’m not sure what Sweet’s main purpose in writing this book is. Perhaps he found Starbucks to be the perfect vehicle to describe the EPIC acronym.  More likely, he spends an inordinate amount of time at Starbucks, saw the connection between the two and simply couldn’t resist putting it on paper. Such is the curse of creativity. It just has to come out.

Sweet’s idea of EPIC is well known. It stands for Experiential, Participatory, Image-Rich, and Connective. This has become a mantra for the emergent, emerging, postmodern, and all related categories churches. I must admit that while the EPIC acronym does make some sense to me, I find it difficult to delineate the differences between Experiential, Participatory, and Connective, particularly between the last two. Yes, I can see some differences, but even in Sweet’s discourse in the book, some of the same ideas seemed to pop up over and over again.

Indeed, Starbucks did help me see and somewhat understand the EPIC idea better. Sweet devotes two chapters to each element. The first chapter is each duo deals with how Starbucks illustrates or uses the element. The second chapter relates more to how the church (or more accurately, Christianity) can learn from and appropriate the element.

Is it useful? Hard to say. It could be the starting point for some helpful discussions among church staff and leaders. Sweet even provides two sets of discussion starters. Some are imbedded in the chapters. The others are in an appendix written by Edward Hammet from the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina. Both sets tend toward a “touchy-feely” examination of the group navel. (Ok, maybe that’s just my take on it). In any case, the discussions will have to drive through (or around) Sweet’s many, many interesting and distracting illustrations.

Should you buy it? If you can find it on the bargain rack for $4.95 or less…definitely.

Introduction: The Brew of the Soul

Your Spiritual Life on Drip

1.        Reading a Starbuck’s Cup

Why Spirituality Is Going to Pot

2.        Life on an EPIC Scale

Choose the Spiritual Life You Can Taste

3.        Drinking In the Starbucks Experience

Epic: Starbucks Is Experiential

4.        The Gospel in an Experiential Cup

Living at the Intersection of Faith and Irresistible Experience

5.        Life Is Empty Until You Join In

ePic: Starbucks Is Participatory

6.        The Gospel in a Participatory Cup

Get Fully Immersed in What God Is Doing

7.        Brands as Image Statements

epIc: «bux Is Image Rich

8.        The Gospel in an Image Rich Cup

God Speaks in More than Just Words

9.        Your Undeniable Thirst for Connection

epiC: Starbucks is Connective

10.   The Gospel in a Connective Cup

Connecting

Like St

. Arbucks

11.   Epilogue: Jehovah Java

The epilogue is a somewhat contrived and truncated history of coffee. Like the rest of the book, it doesn’t seem to really make much of a point other than that of being an interesting bit of right-brained connection to coffee.

 

Book Review: Outliers by Malcolm

New York

: Little, Brown and Company. 2008

BF637.S8G533 2008

ISBN #978-0-316-01792- 3

 

Malcolm Gladwell is the author of Blink and Tipping Point. He is a staff writer for The New Yorker. I have previously listened to Blink on audio and found it fascinating.

Introduction: The Roseto Mystery

Gladwell is a master at telling stories and taking seemingly disconnected stories and weaving them into a teachable moment. The story for the Italian-American community of Roseto is a typical example. In the late 1800, they were healthier than other communities. The only explanation was that they had a great community spirit. More importantly, they were different from others. They were an outlier, a data point that is on the edge of the chart. This book is about what people can learn from outliers.

Part One:

OPPORTUNITY

1.     The Matthew Effect

The stories in this chapter start with Canadian hockey. Players born right after the cutoff date can be almost one year older than other players. This gives them an advantage in size and maturity. These players are recognized for their abilities and are given better coaches, better opportunities, and more practice time. The chasm between the older players and the younger players grows. Eventually they are simply perceived as better players, not just older player. The same thing happens in American baseball. The cutoff date is July 31. People born in July have a disadvantage compared to those born in August.

Sociologist, Robert Merton, called this “the Matthew Effect” taken from Matthew 25:29.

2.     The 10,000 Hour Rule

The basic premise of this chapter is that one must put in about 10,000 of practice or experience in a field to become an expert or rise to the top. True to Gladwell’s style, he uses several examples, some well known and some more obscure.

Bill Joy is a relative unknown to most, though he wrote the UNIX operating system. Gladwell shows how several factors came together to give Joy about 10,000 hours in programming before the opportunity came to write UNIX. This happened in a time when few people had an opportunity to get computer time. Similar factors would come to play in the rise of Bill Gates. Gladwell lists nine different “lucky break” factors that helped Bill Gates reach the 10,000 hour rule.

The area of music has a similar rule. Gladwell shows how the Beatles were able to get a massive amount of performance time early in their careers and how it prepared them to break out later. An academic study of musicians showed that students who practiced 10,000 hours before age 20 rose to professional level and those who didn’t practiced less than 10,000 hours. They found no exceptions to this rule.

The thing that distinguishes one performer from another is how hard he or she works. That’s it. And what’s more, the people at the very top don’t work just harder or even much harder than everyone else. They work much, much harder. [39]

Gladwell introduces here the concept that just as with the athletes in chapter one have an optimal month to be born, outliers in certain field have an optimal year to be born. The leaders of industrial business were born mainly in the 1830s. Leader in the electronic revolution were born in the early to mid 1050s.

3.     The Trouble with Geniuses, Part 1

This chapter serves mainly as an introductory chapter. It shows that being smart really isn’t sufficient to become an outlier. The example is Chris Langan, who has an IQ of about 195 and is possibly the smartest man in the world. Yet, Langan has not succeeded in his education or in publishing his many scholarly works. Gladwell also discusses a study by Lewis Terman at Stanford in the 1920s. Terman closely followed a set of young geniuses. He discovered that they did not fare much better than their non-genius counterparts.

The conclusion is that being smart is an asset only up to a point. All one has to be is “smart enough.” After that, any more intelligence doesn’t really matter. All one has to do is reach the lowest level to get be eligible for the advantages of education, occupation, or to produce intelligent enough work to be noticed. After that, other factors come into play, which is the discourse of the next chapter.

4.     The Trouble with Geniuses, Part 2

In this chapter, Gladwell contrasts Langan with Robert Oppenheimer, the head of the Manhattan Project. Langan appears to have gotten a series of very bad breaks which combined together to force him out of college. Oppenheimer got a series of “lucky” breaks. The most notable is that when he tried to kill one of his teachers in college, he was merely put on probation. The difference between the two men is that Oppenheimer has something Langan lacked, practical intelligence. Both men had analytical intelligence, but Oppenheimer was much more people smart.

Gladwell uses this observation to discuss the importance of family background in helping to create outliers. Middle and upper class families tend to cultivate practical intelligence in their kids whereas lower class parents don’t. He supports his conclusion by noting that in the Terman observations (from the previous chapter), students from middle class families made more As while equally smart students from lower class families made more Cs.

5.        The Three Lessons from Joe Flom

This chapter takes family background even further as Gladwell traces the rise of Jewish lawyer Joe Flom and others similar to him. Jewish immigrant families in the late 1800s were better adapted to urban life in American than their Irish and German counterparts. Their families had strong work ethics and were good at starting businesses. The next generation usually ran those businesses, and the third generation was able to go into a prestigious profession like medicine or law.

The third generation was born during an economic lull. They were able to get into better colleges because of less competition. Their teachers were more available to them and they graduated after the Great Depression was over. There is a real advantage to being born in a smaller generation.

In the law profession, the situation was even better for Jewish lawyers. They can into being at a time with the “old boy” law firms did not do litigation. The Jewish lawyers were resigned to form small companies that picked up the less attractive business of litigation. In the 1970s the legal situation in American changed and litigation was where the action and the money was. The Jewish firms had already logged in more than the 10,000 hours of litigation to be the experts, the outliers.

Part Two: LEGACY

6.    

Harlan

,

Kentucky

The second section of the book deals with how culture and history affect outliers. The example of

Harlan

,

KY

shows how culture can be isolated. In the

Appalachians

, there is a “culture of honor” that is endemic to marginally fertile areas like the Scottish highlands where many of the Appalachian residents’ families originally lived. The fact that people in these areas are more likely herdsmen rather than farmers assists this culture. The aggressive response to a personal insult or attack is so much stronger in these areas. For this reason, researchers have noticed that the American South has a much lower rate of crime against property or against strangers, but the murder rate among known associates is much higher. In summary, “traditions and attitudes we inherit from our forebears can” also affect success.

7.     The Ethnic Theory of Plan Crashes

This long chapter boils down to how a country’s culture can affect success. Gladwell uses airline crashes as the central example. He notes that most crashes are not due to catastrophic failures or bizarre accidents. It is usually a series of small errors that begin to add up. To analyze the human factors, Gladwell uses the “Hofstede Cultural Dimensions” that are frequently used in cross cultural training: Masculinity (MAS) versus, femininity, Long-Term Orientation (LTO) versus short-term orientation, Individualism (IDV) versus collectivism, and the two that Gladwell discusses.

Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI) – Countries that have a higher tolerance for ambiguity can have a more difficult communicating it high stress, cross cultural situations and can communicate incorrectly is a way that could contribute to a crash.

Power Distance Index (PDI) – Countries that have a higher perceived distance between bosses, supervisors, and managers over employees and subordinates make is difficult for a person with a lower power level to correct a superior. Hence, a first officer will wait to the last minute to correct a captain who is piloting a plane.

8.     Rice Paddies and Math Tests

Are Asians better at math because they are smarter? Gladwell says “no.” First, their language makes them better at math. The numbers in Chinese are easier to say and therefore to memorize than western numbers. Second, eastern counting systems are more logical and consistent. The ten basic numbers are all the same in the language whether they are in the tens column, the hundreds column, or wherever – just like they are when they are written. There are no “teens” or “fifty” rather than “five.” This makes it easier for eastern people to calculate in their head and to conceptualize math in general.

Next, rice paddies can show how peasant people in many Asian areas have grown up with a culture that is more exacting, patient, and hard working. Western farming uses tools and machines to increase harvest. It is a matter of size and according to Gladwell, it doesn’t take as much work as a rice paddy. This created a culture where people worked hard to exacting measurements. This most clearly benefits people in understanding something like math. The longer someone is willing to work at a problem, the more likely they are to “get it.” Western students will ask for help or give up long before Asian students will  In fact, there is a correlation between the persistence and accuracy in which a student fills out a questionnaire and the scores on a test connected to the questionnaire.

9.     Marita’s Bargain

This chapter is about the KIPP program of middle schools. KIPP’s success has been documented in several current business books. The main point of the book is that KIPP simply gives kids a chance. Sure, KIPP is hard work and has a good strategy, but the real benefit is that students have the opportunity and encouragement to work hard.

Epilogue: A Jamaican Story

Gladwell closes with a personal story of how his ancestors from

Jamaica

come out of slavery through a series of opportunities that other people didn’t have.

Book Review: Crazy Love by Francis Chan

 Chan, Francis. Crazy Love. Colorado Springs: David C. Cook. 2008

Read: December 2008 

ISBN #978-1-4347-6851- 3        186 pp.

Francis Chan is the pastor of Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley and a popular speaker including three years at the Tsunami Student Conference.

There has always been something special about Francis in my mind. He is probably my favorite contemporary communicator. When his book finally came out, I knew it would be a “must read.” Even from the introduction I felt like it would be a book I needed to read and that I would enjoy what he says, need to hear what he says, and that I probably wouldn’t like what I needed to do in response. As my wife says, “it sounds like the perfect book.”

The basic premise is that we just don’t understand the huge nature of God and the immense love He has for us. His love for us is “crazy” and our only proper response is to have crazy love for Him. Francis says, “This book is written for those who want more Jesus.” [21].

Written with young adults particularly in mind, Francis introduces each chapter with a video that can be viewed at www.crazylovebook.com.

1.     Stop Praying

By stop praying, Francis really means “stop talking.” He directs the reader to www.crazylovebook.com to view an additional video called “Awe Factor” where he uses computer graphics to show the size of the known universe. He used the same video at Tsunami in 2006. He moves from the huge size of the universe to the small details of this world to show how God is in the big and the small things.

Francis knows that most Christians (and most intelligent people) know these things, but we forget. He calls it spiritual amnesia. He says it manifests itself when we love God because we are supposed to rather than loving Him just because of who He is. We need to be reminded of His beauty, power, and love. He reminds the reader that God is holy, eternal, all-knowing, all-powerful, and fair and just.

Francis closes the chapter with an overview of the glimpses of God in Revelation 4 and Isaiah 6.

2.     You Might Not Finish This Chapter

This chapter actually made me shed a tear. It borders on being morbid. It speaks of life as a vapor (James 4:13-14). Francis lines out some of the many ways a person could die. His point is that we could die at any minute. His real point is that we are just bit players, extras if you will, in the grand movie about God. We need to remember that and we need to live our lives like we remember it.

Francis illustrates the point of living life rightly in the lives of Stan Gerlach and Booke Bronkowski (this is what made me cry). Stan was giving a eulogy and shared the gospel saying that we could die at any moment and then he fell over dead. One of his sons said he was so proud of his dad dying while sharing the gospel.

Brooke was a sold out evangelist who died at 14. About 200 students prayed for salvation at her funeral. At age 12 she wrote

I’ll live my life to the fullest. I’ll be happy. I’ll brighten up. I will be more joyful than I have ever been. I will be kind to others. I will loosen up. I will tell others about Christ. I will go on adventures and change the world. I’ll be one of those people who live to be history makers at a young age. Oh, I’ll have moments, good and bad, but I will wipe away the bad and only remember the good.I have my life before me. I will give others the joy I have and God will give me more joy. I will do everything god tells me to do. I will follow the footsteps of God. I will do my best.

Wow!

3.     Crazy Love

This chapter deals with God as Father and what that image means. In typical transparent fashion, Francis tells of how his relationship with his father was a difficult and unloving one. He related to his father out of obedience based in fear. He understandably tells of how it made it difficult to understand the beauty of God as Father.

As he has grown, Francis has learned to replace fear of God with “reverent intimacy.” I like that. For me, who grew up with a loving Father, this chapter did not present any great revelations, I could appreciate that it showed Francis’ appreciation for the authority and sovereignty of God as well as his crazy love for us.

4.     Profile of the Lukewarm

This is a bold chapter. Francis starts by saying that most American churches are the soil (from the parable of the sower) where the gospel gets choked by all the weeds.  He says, “the American church is a difficult place to fit in if you want to live our New Testament Christianity.” [68].

He proceeds to give a series of statements to help the reader determine if they are lukewarm. Each description has Scripture to back it up. Here is a sample of the first few.

·        Lukewarm people attend church fairly regularly.

·        Lukewarm people give money to charity and to the church…as long as it doesn’t impinge on their standard of living.

·        Lukewarm people tend to choose what is popular over what is right when they are in conflict.

5.     Serving Leftovers to a Holy God

Francis starts the chapter and the video introduction saying this was a hard chapter to write. I’d say it was more of a harsh chapter. I appreciate how Francis can be “in your face” in a non-threatening way, but I couldn’t go along with how he said everything in this chapter.

His main argument is that people who aren’t sold out to God can really be Christians. He uses the parable of the sower as an example saying that he can’t see how the people in the rocky soil without root were really Christian. He also uses the church at Laodicea as an example saying that they didn’t sound like Christians either. To his credit, he said that he went back to a fresh reading of the Bible to come to these conclusions. I do agree that there are a lot of people who seem lukewarm who have no relationship with Jesus, but where does God draw the line. We all have times that we have slid away from God. I wish it weren’t true, but it is. Our relationship with God is pretty much like our other relationships. There are rocky times. The only difference is that with God, we can’t blame the other person. Taking this path to its end, one would come to believe that Christians can lose their salvation or add faith plus works.

Now, what can I agree with? Francis is right that we give leftovers to God and take comfort that we aren’t doing as badly as others or not as bad as we could be doing. This is wrong. We all need to take a fresh look at our love for God regularly. Is it the most important thing in our lives? Are we totally sold out? Would we give up anything and everything for Him? Too often, we wouldn’t, yet He does deserve and require all.

6.        When You’re in Love

This chapter drives home the point about how Christians should act when they are truly in love with God and not acting out of fear or obligation. If we truly loved God, we would have the time or ability to sin.

There is some really good stuff in this chapter. Francis uses a lot of Biblical references. Sadly, I didn’t seem to get as much out of it. Could it be that I am not ready to move to a deeper level of my love relationship with God? I hope not, but I will watch for further signs and get ready for a change.

7.     Your Best Life…Later

The title of this chapter is an obvious reaction to Joel Olsteen’s Your Best Life Now. In it, Francis first assures the reader that anyone can have this crazy love relationship. He points out how so many Biblical saints had problems that from the outside would seem to limit their love relationship with God.

He moves from there to a short discourse on Matthew 25, the sheep and the goats. While this passage seems to be more about social gospel (not in the bad sense), Francis uses it to show how a love of Jesus must flow to others. He moves from what we believe and feel to what we do in response.

The chapter ends with more Biblical references to back up the point.

8.     Profile of the Obsessed

Continuing the theme of how we act when we are in crazy love, this chapter does just what the title implies, defines a person obsessed with loving God. Again, here is a sample of the first few.

·        Lovers – People who are obsessed with Jesus give freely and openly with censure.

·        Risk Takers – People who are obsessed with Jesus aren’t consumed with their personal safety and comfort above all else.

·        Friends of All – People who are obsessed with Jesus live lives that connect them with the poor in some way or another.

In general, Francis has laid out a great challenge. I question whether some of the statement above actually define an obsessed person or if they are simply some ways that obsession with God might play out in ones life.

9.     Who Really Lives that Way?

This chapter simply devotes section after section describing people who live the lifestyle that Francis is promoting. Some are from Francis’ church. Some are people he has met in his ministry. Some are from recent history. A few are from a century ago or more.

In fairness to Francis and his church, Cornerstone Simi really does seem to exemplify what the book is about. They donate over 50% of their undesignated gifts to other organizations and they chose not to build a new building and are trying to build a cheaper, outdoor amphitheater so that they could save $20 million for other work in God’s Kingdom.

10.         The Crux of the Matter

What does this book mean to me (the reader)? That’s the purpose of the final chapter. Francis admits that not everyone needs to take the same steps he has taken or his illustrative people have taken. But he won’t back down from the position that everyone needs to do something in response.

A friend of mine once said that Christians are like manure: spread them out and they help everything grow better, but keep them in one big pile and they stink horribly. [168]

His closing thoughts

“Now, close this book. Get on your knees before our holy, loving God. And then live the life with your friends, your family, parents, spouse, children, neighbors, enemies, and strangers that He has created and empowered you though the Holy Spirit to live. [175]

Book Review: Raising the Bar

Reid, Alvin. Raising the Bar.Grand Rapids: Kregel. 2004

BV4447.R42 2004       ISBN #-0-8254-3632-x

195 pages

 

Alvin Reid is the Bailey Smith Chair of Evangelism professor at Southeaster Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forrest, 

NC

This book was recommended to me a couple of years ago by Alan Jackson, a youth ministry professor at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary (not the county music artist).

 

Admittedly, I read the book a full four years after it was published, so I might be a little harsh when I say that much of the book is already a little outdated or at least not new. Reid says little that hasn't been said several times already.

His general premise is that current youth ministry is too much fun and games and not concerned enough with the spiritual maturity of teens. I wholeheartedly agree. I am associated with about 2,000 churches in California and work directly is about two dozen youth ministries each year. I more often see ministries that set the bar too low.

 

Reid also makes a strong case for the formal education of youth ministers. He rightly says that many youth ministers learned youth ministry from other youth ministers who learned it from their youth ministers. In other words, youth ministers who don’t have formal training will tend to duplicate the youth ministry they grew up with. I would add that youth ministers who have a senior pastor who mentors them also get mentoring based on an older, outdated form of youth ministry that their senior pastor used when he was a youth minister in his early years.

 

Beyond these points, Reid tends to write all across the board. He shows a comprehensive understanding of the history of contemporary music and the youth movement in the contemporary church, but his discussion of it seems to be more of an exhibition of his diverse knowledge rather than a help to his major premise. Indeed, many of his chapters come across like talks he has given to parents, youth leaders, youth, Sunday School teachers, or the whole congregation during a DiscipleNow Weekend.

 

Indeed, Reid is quick to point out that he has spoken at many churches and youth camps. He actually comes across as a little enamored with Student Life and InQuest Ministries.

 

One other comment of note, when Reid touches on theology or social issues, his language clearly reflects the Southern Baptist party line. If he doesn’t travel in the same circles with the “movers and shakers” of the Southern Baptist main players, then he at least knows who influences his paycheck at the seminary.

 

So, do I recommend the book? Yes, especially if one is looking for help in encouraging an youth ministry to move from fun and games to spiritual formation. But, if one has much background in formal student ministry or has done much reading on the subject, it might be a waste of time. The book is a great secondary source for an introduction to student ministry class.

Book Review: Vibrant Church

Rainer, Thom and Daniel Akin. Vibrant Church. Nashville:LifeWay Press. 2008                                                                                    160pp.

When this book first crossed my desk I decided to drop what I was currently reading and take on this book. It seemed to deal with where my church is right now and as a church consultant, I use several books and resources by Thom Rainer and LifeWay (where he is the president).

The book is really a group study guide. It is about 1/4 learning activities and includes the teachers guide at the back of each chapter. I know this saves money, but it really seems to damage some of the "mystique" of a group session when all the participants can see how much of the group study lesson plan the leader uses.

As for content, I think the book could have some great usefulness to my church as we are facing some changes, but it doesn't appear to be the kind of study that will we widely used among churches.

The writers' agendas are more obvious than in most books. While they demonstrate a good bit of scholarship at certain points (historical documents and word derivations, for example) the discussions fall short at many points. They don't deal with the vast differences in many Southern Baptist churches to whom this is really written. This is especially true in the areas of pastor, elders, and women in ministry.

It looks like the book was written with churches in the deep South in mind. These might be churches that have a long history of SBC polity but have lost an understanding of why they do what they do. Perhaps the authors are also thinking of churches that have been swayed by contemporary practices with examining the theological underpinnings. The result is, I wouldn't recommend this to just any church.

As I said before, I may use it in my own church, if the current leadership desires. It can be helpful, but only as a starting point for discussion.

Book Review: The Comeback Congregation

Frazee, Randy. The Comeback Congregation.

Nashville

: Abingdon. 1995

BR560.A78F73  1995                                                                                           131 pages

Randy Frazee is the pastor of Pantego Bible Church in Arlington, TX. and a mentor in the Teaching Church Network,Eden Prairie, MN. 

Those familiar with the work of Aubrey Malphurs (Strategic Planning for Churches) may see many similarities. Malphurs refers to the church many times. The church is connected with Dallas Theological Seminary where Malphurs is a professor and it is a Bible church which is Malphurs original denomination

Frazee was a member of the church which had experience great growth and a recent decline. The founding pastor left and it took the church two years to call Frazee. The book is the story of the turn around the church made.

One of the best aspects of the book is Frazee’s assessment of the kind of person who can be the “change agent” who can help a church make the comeback. It does take someone who is an activator and influencer. Sadly, this means that many current pastors may be unsuited and possible unable to affect a comeback.

Frazee gives a lot detail about the transition. Not enough to guide a church through the process, and too much detail about some elements, but overall, the reader can get a fairly clear understanding. Some of the elements include how the elder board was reorganized, how the staff was hired and reassigned, and how the foundational documents (by laws and mission statements) were re-written. Many of the ideas will not work with churches of different makeup, denominational backgrounds, or polity, but the general ideas are work a look.

How the church determined a disciple making process will be new to many churches and worth the time to digest.  The most unique aspect of Pantego's discipling process (which was later found in Reggie McNeal's book, Present Future) is the idea of helping members develop their own Spiritual Fitness plan.  The appendices have examples of a Spiritual Fitness Plan for both one's self and family and a Spiritual Fitness Resource Card which lists the various resources the church provides for individuals, small groups, and the entire church.  The church also supplies a Spiritual Fitness Coach for any individual or family that desires one. Finally, Appendix C has a staffing chart which shows how the staffing fit the discipling process.

The chapter on volunteers is also helpful. The church developed a useful taxonomy for volunteer positions based on four letters and a level number.

1 – Leadership ability: C = Contributor, M = Manager, I = Influencer

2 – Work style: S = Self (likes to work alone), T = Team (likes to work on a team)

3 – Closure style: O = Open (likes open ended projects), C = Closed (likes projects with quick completion) [Meyes-Briggs J/P?]

4 - – Relationship style: T = (likes to work with) Things, P (likes to work with) People [Meyers-Briggs E/I?]

Levels 1 – 3 refer to the level of spiritual maturity and church commitment (membership) needed. This must be totally subjective.

Frazee devoted one chapter to the children’s ministry. While this may have been a significant change, it also shows signs of “taking the easy road. They were dissatisfied with the traditional approach because it used too many volunteers: 200 volunteers for 450 children. This seems to be ridiculously high. They also believed that most of the recruits did not have the gifts or skills to teach children. Frazee also makes the audacious statement “Children’s curriculum is almost totally useless.” How absurd when he has already admitted that their recruitment process resulted in many unqualified teachers. In their defense, one can only point out that they did also try to involve parents in the teaching process more.

Aside from the criticism above, the book can provide a older (mid 90s), but still relevant profile of a church in the process of renewing rather than dying, ignoring, or planting, which are the most common responses to a church in decline.