Thursday, July 27, 2006
Team Ministry
By Dick Iverson
This is a book about the ministry of elders in the local church. I decided I need to read up on this form of church government in preparation for joining
Pastor Iverson explores 5 main forms of church government that we see in today’s modern church. He forms a clear case for the plurality of eldership being the biblical model for overseeing the church. The book is filled with scripture and has established a firm foundation in my mind concerning the office and function of elders in the local church.
The main premise of the book is that a team of elders, each functioning in their own gifting and calling, far exceed the effectiveness of a single pastor running a church. He makes clear how important it is to have different people in leadership within a local church, discussing how different sheep receive better from different shepherds.
I can’t say this was the most exciting book I’ve ever read. It’s not written to convict or convince. But it is a very helpful text in thinking about teamwork and ministry. He systematically laid out the benefits of a team of elders working together to shepherd the flock of God. He also gave some clear direction on how to raise up elders from within your congregation. I really appreciated the balanced doctrine and grace that Pastor Iverson writes with.
The Next Generation Leader
By Andy Stanley
Getting ready to move to
This isn’t a very big book, so it was easy reading. I really liked that it was not a 12 step plan but rather principles by which to develop your own unique vision within the Body of Christ. The book is divided into 5 principles that while simple are gems of wisdom that we need to be reminded of over and over again.
Andy’s transparency about his own experiences makes you feel like you know him somehow even though you have never met him. I came away from the book feeling as though I had just had coffee with a person that I truly respected and received his most important life lessons of wisdom about ministry. It is refreshing to finish a book and feel as though that author is human rather than some fictional hero in a story book.
If you are an analogy person, as I am, this book is a gold mine. I loved Andy’s use of stories and analogies to drive home his points and have already filed most of them away for personal use in the future.
This book goes on the list of those that needs to be reread on a consistent basis for me, perhaps every other year. The principles are true for every stage of leadership and life. The lessons that I take away from the book are simple but those are usually the ones that make or break you in decision making. While most of the experiences are drawn from the ministry it is as much for the marketplace leader as it is for the person heading in to full time ministry. If you haven’t had the chance to read this book, I highly recommend it. Grab a good cup of coffee and sit down to glean from the wisdom of the generation ahead of us in the Body of Christ.
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Red Moon Rising
By Pete Greig & Dave Roberts
I really enjoyed this book. It's not a teaching book on prayer as I had suspected. It's really the story of Pete Greig's life over the last decade or so and how God has used him in launching a movement called 24-7 prayer. Since the book is in story form, it's really easy to read and seems to fly by.
Pete has clearly given his life to reaching an up and coming generation of youth across Europe and around the world. He planted several youth churches in England and God led him to a model of prayer the goes 24-7. They establish a prayer room that is heavily focused on art and creativity. People sign up for hour time slots and cover all 168 hours in a week. It's a pretty basic model but the testimonies of what God did in their lives as they prayed more and more is inspiring.
Eventually groups from all around the world started using their 24-7 model and they found themselves coordinating a network of prayer groups that was praying 24-7-365. As they journeyed into intense seasons of prayer and intimacy with the Lord, they found it fueled a passion for mission and justice. On any given week, there are around 20 groups from around the world praying 24 hours a day for the whole week. They've established houses of prayer that pray 24-7-365 which they call "boiler rooms". The boiler rooms serve as mission centers for the cities they're located in, serving the poor and reaching the lost.
Check out the 24-7 website at www.24-7prayer.com
This book impacted me in three ways...
1. The prayer model itself
It was really exciting to read about young people getting so passionate about relating with the Lord in prayer. They give the youth in their city a room to create and the students seem to really take ownership and encounter God. I'm really considering starting something like this in Boise. It stretched the way I thought about prayer and explored other ways of praying that I haven't had much experience with.
2. The outreach the prayer rooms produced.
This was the most challenging section of the book for me. The prayer rooms go beyond just 24-7 prayer. They turn into a mission center that reaches out to the city their located in. Pete told stories of their teams being in bars and clubs and getting to pray for the sick and preaching the gospel. There were repeated accounts of unbelievers coming into their rooms to pray and find God. Many of them got saved. He introduced this concept of attend the Holy Spirit's meetings. He said that for ever we've simply invited the Holy Spirit to our meetings, instead of attending His. Pete believes that the Holy Spirit meetings are out with the lost and that if we listen, we'll here Him calling us to powerful encounters with Him. The concept was simple enough, but his testimonies were really challenging. It was really good to read about the union of prayer and mission. We almost always do one without the other.
3. The wild obedience of the author.
It was clear from reading Red Moon Rising that Pete Greig lives a yeilded life. He consistently communicates how God is really in control of this ministry. There's a wild, out of control feeling that permeates the book and gives you the feeling that they don't have any idea what God will do next. I've been really stretched to live more and more like this in the last couple years. I tend to be a planner and a goal setter. It's good to read about God doing something really out of the box and without a lot of planning. Pete calls 24-7 an accident. He reminds his readers that the Bible portrays God as wild, like the wind, the fire and the rain. We can't control what He does. It's our job to live in response to His call, not plan out how it's all going to work. I felt stretched to wildly obey whatever He calls us to in life. I've always wanted to live the crazy life - this book just added fuel to the fire.
Bottom line - great book. It's a quick read and worth it if you get the chance.
