This was first published, albeit for a few updates on ViralBoggers.
I have been an avid reader of Leonard Sweet since I discovered his work, and I was eager to read So Beautiful: Divine Design for Life and the Church (2009, David C. Cook) when it arrived. I was even more inspired to read it when I flipped to the dedication to find it was dedicated to one of my friends and man who is a hero of mine, Alan Hirsch.
So, I began So Beautiful: Divine Design for Life and the Church with much expectation and excitement. That’s where I have run into some problems. It was interesting to read a quote one of the other reviewers left on ViralBloggers that I felt resonated with some of what I felt. TGOTK said,
I felt that I was thrown a textbook with little personality, but a series of quotes and anecdotes with little exegesis or personality.
At the point I submitted this review to ViralBloggers I was only half way through the book, but felt that So Beautiful: Divine Design for Life and the Church lacks much of the personality and character of Mr Sweet’s previous books, a point that so far has disappointed me, as well as make So Beautiful: Divine Design for Life and the Church a challenge to read.
That being said, I was excited to read The Jesus Manifesto that Mr Sweet recently co-wrote and released with Frank Viola, where they both place their recent books, So Beautiful: Divine Design for Life and the Church by Mr Sweet and Viola’s From Eternity to Here, as a continuation of the discussion. So Beautiful: Divine Design for Life and the Church is a wonderful exploration of the manifesto, albeit harder to read than his previous books. I asked myself if that was because of different life circumstances or other conditions, but have not come to any conclusion.
So Beautiful: Divine Design for Life and the Church, alongside Viola’s recent books, challenges the church, including legacy churches and simple churches, with the premise that the old inherited approach of Attractional, Propositional & Colonial (and ABC — Attendance, Buildings and Cash) no longer works for our time, and that in fact it is not the original design. Mr Sweet is fond of acronyms to expand ideas and in So Beautiful: Divine Design for Life and the Church, he uses the familiar medical acronym of MRI to explain the ethos of churches as the bride of Christ, and individual followers of Christ as Missional, Relational & Incarnational.
The bulk of So Beautiful: Divine Design for Life and the Church is an exploration of Sweet’s MRI in great detail, and using Mr Sweet’s wonderful use of a multitude of references and sources, something that I particularly love about Mr Sweet’s writing. At a few points I found myself rehashing a few ideas from Hirsch and Frost’s groundbreaking books (hence the dedication?), however, on the whole, while initially difficult to read, So Beautiful: Divine Design for Life and the Church is a wonderful exploration of how beautiful the bride of Christ, the church could be in life.
Read alone, So Beautiful: Divine Design for Life and the Church is a wonderful read but presents only part of the picture. Coupled with Sweet’s other works and Viola’s materials and the ensuing discussion and material from these and other contemporary theologians, makes a wonderful companion and voice, further exploring these issues. Grab a copy, you won’t be disappointed. Look past the style to the substance. It’s beautiful.
A sample from So Beautiful: Divine Design for Life and the Church can be downloaded here.
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