IMPACT! Book Review – "Journeys: Transitioning Churches to Relevance" tagged: , , , , , ,

IMPACT! Book Review – "Journeys: Transitioning Churches to Relevance"

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Journeys: Transitioning Churches to Relevance is an exciting new book by Marty Duren and Todd Wright, and published by Missional Press. I have to admit that when I first read the title, I thought, “OK … another step-by-step, ‘how to’ guide for pastors who want to move their churches out of the 1950′s.” I’ve already read several of those, back in the days when I was a youth minister struggling under a stifling yoke of traditionalism in a VERY conventional, large, county-seat Southern Baptist church.

Boy … was I surprised.

Instead, I discovered that Journeys was a powerful, heartfelt, painfully transparent autobiographical account of the struggles of two pastors who desperately wanted to move their churches from being content to being missional in their communities and contexts. Duren recounts his personal challenges involved in transitioning a traditional country church that became absorbed into the suburbs of metro Atlanta. Wright shares some siminar, yet unique, struggles in his efforts to transition his “typical” small town church. Their stories were similar, yet strikingly different.

I found that I identified with so many of the events and emotions that each author described. I sometimes laughed out loud when one of the described a deacon that they contended with or a “complaint” lodged by a church member who wanted things to “be like they used to be.” As I read their testimonies, familiar faces and events from my own ministry experience flooded my mind. I caught myself saying, “Hey! I know those people!”

These struggles are universal. The resistance to change by the average church member is, in a word, genetic. The efforts to enact change are often heartbreaking and sometimes ministry-ending.

In churches all over North America today there are passionate, God-called, Spirit-filled pastors who desperately want their churches to truly “be the church,” and have an impact in their communities, yet they are hamstrung and corralled by generations of traditions, rules, regulations, and complacency. They think they are alone in their suffering, yet this volume by Duren and Wright literally screams, “You are not alone!” There are thousands upon thousands of pastors in the same ministry “boat.”

I heartily recommend this book to any and all pastors and lay-leaders who are dealing with or considering transitioning their churches toward becoming more missional. Indeed, all of us most likely know four or five pastors who are in the throes of the struggle right now. They need this book … right now.

So click this link right now and order your copies (including several to give away) today. A discounted price is available from the publisher. And be sure to tell them that sbc IMPACT! sent you.

This is our first book review here at sbc IMPACT! I’m looking forward to more in the future.

Here are a few quotes to whet your literary appetite:

“I gained understanding of being a ‘sent people’ from a ‘sending God’ and that mission was a part of the nature of God just as surely as righteousness and holiness are. This DNA is replicated in the people of God, yet has been suppressed by materialism or separated out as an optional activity.” – Duren

“When I realized that the reason that most people do not want to go to church is because they have already been, my vision was a church that would change those expectations.” – Duren

“I felt like the church was pedaling as fast as possible toward certain death, but most church goers seemed to be content and enjoying the ride, not realizing what lay ahead. I knew I could continue to keep things the way they had always been, or I could help bring about change that would also involve lots of personal pain during the journey; but at least there was the hope of life.” - Wright