I picked up this small book after running across it on This Blog. The title alone was enough for me to buy it. Curiosity!
I have not finished it yet, but, let me recommend it to you for your reading pleasure. It is well crafted by 3 great writers, not the least of which is considered one of our most quoted christian leaders of our times, George Barna.
Let me quote from George Barna’s website:
“If you put two elephants in a room together and close the door, in 22 months you may get one baby elephant. But two rabbits together for the same amount of time will result in thousands of babies!”
The idea is that something large and with a complex structure is harder to duplicate. However, something small and simple is easily multiplied. What if we applied this principle to Discipleship and Church Planting?
Skye Jethani, managing editor for Leadership Magazine shared these similar thoughts as it related to the church and sharing the Gospel in our times:
“To declare the gospel in a culture where fewer people are likely to step foot in a church means valuing swiftness over bigness, agility over security. This means smaller, missional communities with less baggage may be better equipped to advance the gospel than some larger churches burdened by their programming and overhead.
Does this mean we should abandon all our institutional baggage? Of course not. But like a smart traveler, conditions today require us to be more discerning about what to take on our journey, and what to leave behind.”
You can read more about this in an earlier post entitle Going Missional.
Is He building His Church or are we building Churches? We are in desperate need of a Jesus movement, something Spirit lead and empowered that man cannot take credit for. Are we positioning ourselves in the best way to allow this to happen? Do our modern Church practices enhance or detract from this happening? Is the Cross of Jesus and the Gospel of His Kingdom really the central focus of our Church efforts? Lot’s of questions running through my mind today obviously.
What are your thoughts on what it will take for Jesus to move in this way today?
Oh yea, buy the book.
Thank you for your kind remarks about the general direction of this book. We found collaborating with George Barna to be a real pleasure, and the book is much stronger for it. Tyndale’s openness to publish books along this line is also much appreciated. I hope you enjoy the rest of the book as much as you appear to have enjoyed the Title! You have no idea the discussions that the title evoked between us and Tyndale!! (Probably not fare to say who was on what side of that discussion) Every blessing, Tony Dale