Rethinking the Church: A Challenge to Creative Redesign in an Age of Transition Book

I picked up this book primarily because I thought it was about church structure - and though there is one chapter about that, the book is not about mainly about structure.

I was excited to see elements of business strategy and organizational development knowledge applied to a church setting. The church is an organization, and though it makes people leery to call it a business ( me too!) there are certainly elements of good business which shouldn't be ignored in the church. At the very least Church should attempt to avoid common pitfulls (like wishywashy mission statements or attempting to corporately be all-things-to-all-people).

In many respects the best thing about the book is it's broad overview of recent church direction (2000s), and an attempt to re-design it - this is a good book for people who didn't grow up in the church and may be confused about the ways long-time church goers understand and implement church. It can certainly help to bridge that gap. The book can also be used as a way for people who have become very attached to "but we've always done it this way" methods to re-think if their methods communicate what they want them too.

Overall a quick read, and a good introductions to the very broad elements of what "Church" is. Will the books and it's examples still be relevant in forty years? I hope there won't still be fights about "contemporary vs. traditional worship" in forty years... but we'll see. The idea that strategy and methods must fit with the zeitgeist of the times, while ultimate mission may not change much is probably timeless.