SeanOKelly.us

I just finished Deep and Wide by Andy Stanley, and left feeling happily challenged.  I thought the book was structured great; he broke it into three main sections all that could stand alone if you only wanted to read for certain information.  The idea of doing church for people who don’t go to church is a different mentality than anywhere we’ve been, and while Stanley makes some great arguments for a lot of things, I maybe disagreed in some areas, which is ok.

There were a lot of tweetable nuggets through the entire book that just blew my mind.  I especially liked all the writing done about evaluating the things you do as a church.  I’ve always been a supporter for doing things intentionally, rather than just defaulting to the norm.  He goes through questions their staff would use to evaluate how they do ministry that I thought was very applicable for pastors to replicate (the discussions).  It also sparked in me one thing I’ve greatly missed the past few months which is being part of a church staff.  I love thinking critically, and praying through how to do effective ministry.  It’s what I was made to do, and reading through the book just gave me a lot of great material to process in the context of vision for future youth ministry, and church ministry.

I had one main point of contention from the book.  Near the end, he mentions that in your church services to avoid the “mystical”.  Basically, don’t have anything supernatural.  I’m certainly not an expert on church ministry, and I understand the background from which Stanley writes from, but I totally disagree.  Now, I know the “mystical” can get wacky in churches, and that would be a deterrent to someone considered unchurched, but I believe people are hungry for a real supernatural encounter with God.  Some of the most popular tv shows all deal with the supernatural.  Psychics and mediums are gaining popularity and acceptance.  People are hungry for an encounter with a God that is supernatural.

It made me think back to the service I was in when God healed a sports injury I had.  I couldn’t imagine stuffing the fact that God heals onto a storage shelf to collect dust when people are in need of a physical touch from Heaven.  I couldn’t imagine staying silent about a person’s future when God gives a prophetic word about their destiny.  I understand there is a time and a place, and specifically even the marketplace, but removing the “mystical” from churches to be attractive to the unchurched was an idea that I’d really have to wrestle with more.

Overall, amazing book, with great leadership insight, and lots of challenging and thought provoking questions.  I’d certainly recommend it to church leaders and staff members just as a way to spark discussion and evaluation of ministry.

I’m excited to move on to my next book, Jesus Is ________ by Judah Smith.  I’ll be reviewing that as soon as I’m finished with it!