061 - Transforming Church in Rural America

Recently I read “Transforming Church in Rural America” by Shannon O’Dell. Considering that I myself was in a transition from a smaller rural church to a larger urban church I found the book really interesting. In fact, it was so good I bought my old Sr. Pastor a copy. I would highly recommend this book for anyone preaching at or attending a rural church. Several of the topics raised were excellent and O’Dell encourages his readers to make rural church relevant and innovative, not boring and traditional. He encourages his readers to find various ways to make their church more effect at reaching the lost. I was also impressed because normally in these kinds of books there’s an assumption that if you’re doing things right you’re going to end up growing into a mega-church which is unlikely for rural churches. The book is real and practical and I would strongly recommend it.

021 - On Church Leadership

On Church Leadership by Mark Driscoll is a great book for those seeking some good theology without all the big words and rambling sentences. This book is part of a series of books on theology entitled, “A Book You’ll Actually Read” series. This book was written to be read within an hour and to be basic enough that anyone could read through it an have a good grasp of the concepts included.

This book in particular was really good. It was based on the idea of helping people look at the Scriptures to see how God would want to church to set up their leadership. Driscoll gives the reasons his church (Mars Hill in Seattle) uses these guidelines. He offers his interpretation of difficult topics like women-pastors, elders, and more. The only problem with this book is that I’m not sure how many churches that are established would be willing to totally restructure their entire model of leadership because an 80 page book told them to. Worth your time, but the price seems pretty high for a book you can read in an hour.

014 - The Shaping of Things to Come

The Shaping of Things to Come by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch is a great read for church leaders seeking to reach out to the upcoming generations. The authors write from a very post-modern viewpoint as to how the church can minister to young post-moderns. They believe that the current model of church is quickly become ineffective and push the reader to begin shifting their paradigm to a more "missional" one. In recent years the church has become more and more rejected by most people in the Western world. Even worse, the church has been experienced and then rejected. The topics of spirituality, meaning, and God have become more readily available but Christianity has been rejected as the answer to these topics.

The author's do an excellent job of showing what needs to change in the church to become effective again. They also build a case against the arguments that many reader may build while reading the book. I would highly recommend this book to be read by anyone in church leadership or anyone interested in the future of the church. Fairly deep and thought provoking, yet also adding practical advice and steps to the theology it teaches. Plenty of quotable portions and plenty of graphs for the visually-minded.