I must admit that when I received Live Sent: You Are A Letter by Jason Dukes (Wheatmark, 2009) I opened to the table of contents and groaned at the seemingly overuse of the mail/letter metaphor that Dukes has based Live Sent around. That lead to a reluctance to start reading spawned by the groan. However, I struggled through, and while this review is late for The Ooze Viral Bloggers, this has been due in part to that reluctance to read, and more in part due to my busyness lately, but better late than never. I do want to share this book with you!

So, little by little I continued reading, and after the first few chapters, 0_an introduction (you are a letter), 1_rethinking your “live” (the bulk mail called humanity) and 2_rethinking church (gathering to send) I did feel the mail metaphor was a little over used but in light of the content and the intended audience which I gathered to be your average church folk, I thought the content quite appropriate. In fact, I would assume that this book is excellent for the folk who love Jesus, are getting frustrated with their pew sitting and want to do more and aren’t interested in the heavier theological texts of Hirsch, Frost, Cole and others.

Overall, I enjoyed Live Sent: You Are A Letter by Jason Dukes (Wheatmark, 2009) and in fact have recommended to a few friends who are getting frustrated with legacy church. But I believe that this book should have a far wider audience — and should be read by leaders, and those aspiring to be leaders in churches. Pastors need to read this before leading a group, and should go further with the various theological texts on offer.

The standout section for me was the chapter on discipling versus discipleship. Dukes writes,

We have made ‘The Great Commission’  given to us from Jesus, into nothing more than a program we can package and sell and pull off in 2 hours or less on a Sunday or Wednesday. This is not ‘discipleship’.

Dukes goes on to show our misuse of the non-biblical word, discipleship. He argues, beautifully, that language is important, and defines our beliefs.

Jesus never divided the concepts we call ‘evangelism’ and ‘discipleship’. In fact, He seemed to speak of the two as parts of the same process. He called that process “discipling’. And He said that ‘AS WE GO’ in everyday life (not just programmatically or scheduled), we should be discipling.

Live Sent: You Are A Letter by Jason Dukes (Wheatmark, 2009) is an excellent resource and an excellent primer for discussing authentic following of Jesus, especially those seeking a missional (sent) life. From what I can tell about Jason from the book and my research online, he has distilled many lessons in life and captured them in a metaphor that is simple and understandable. If you get a chance read this, and if it piques your interest, search deeper!

What others are saying about Live Sent.

The Live Sent Intro:

I recently signed up to review books for Thomas Nelson and selected “Take Your Best Shot — Do Something Bigger Than Yourself” by Austin Gutwein with Todd Hillard as my first book — I guess based on the slick cover and the small description which captured my imagination.

When the book arrived, I placed it in my pile of books to read and left it at that, however my eldest daughter of 11 picked the book up one day and said that she would like to read this when I was finished. So, I thought, I should read it first, just to make sure it was ok. So, placing aside my other books I delved into “Take Your Best Shot”.

Starting the book, I almost put it down after reading a few pages as the language and overall tone of the book seemed to me, too child-like and almost “preachy” in tone. What can this kid teach me, I thought? But, I persisted and continued to read and after reminding myself that this was a youth book (took me a while considering I had been reading Neil Cole the previous night), I started to enjoy the book and even grew to love and appreciate the heart of Austin, the young man who sought to make a difference in the lives of others through Hoops of Hope.

“Take Your Best Shot” tells the story while weaving some devotionals around the issues that Austin was dealign with. I found myself wishing to ignore the devotional material and wanted more and more of the story of Austin shooting the hoops. But, I stopped myself, and explored the devotionals and material alongside the amazing journey that Austin shared.

After finishing “Take Your Best Shot” I was so impressed I looked up the website to see how the movement was faring. The book encouraged me in my own journey hanging with the homeless and marginalised folk in my own community.

I was thrilled to hand it to my daughter and she is about to start the book and the journey. I pray that the story of Austin inspires her in her journey, and that she is inspired by the young man who made a huge difference in the lives of many. Austin has many wise words to share in “Take Your Best Shot” and I will be keeping an eye on his blog to see what this amazing young man does as he gets older.

Matthew Raley’s The Diversity Culture: Creating Conversations of Faith with Buddhist Baristas, Agnostic Students, Aging Hippies, Political Activists, and Everyone in Between (Kregel Publications, 2009) certainly has a captivating title, and I was excited to receive and start reading the latest book from Viralbloggers. I had not heard of Matthew Raley nor The Diversity Culture previously, so it was the title, with all it’s imagery that lead me to read this interesting, but rather overly complicated book.

Sadly, Raley doesn’t specifically cover the folk from the title, rather lumping them altogether as The Diversity Culture. He then elegantly deconstructs the USAmerican Evangelical culture’s bigotry and stereotyping of this Diversity Culture, calling the reader back to a (radical?) Jesus like approach. He does this through exploring Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well.

While The Diversity Culture was an easy read, with some wonderful imagery of the characters at the Cafe Siddhartha, I was left questioning the need to label people and began to appreciate the exploration of the Samaritan woman’s conversation with Jesus, where, whether intentional or not, it became evident that Jesus certainly didn’t need to categorize folk. This is not to say that Raley’s The Diversity Culture, is a poor book! Far from it! It is well constructed and would benefit many in the pews in mainstream legacy church in USAmerica, or for that matter, Australia too!

[avhamazon locale=“US” asin=“082543579X” linktype=“pic-text” picsize=“medium”]Where I am left questioning the need to read such a book, is where my experiences differ from Raley. Where Raley is a USAmerican, I am Australian, where Raley is a Pastor, I am not. But that is not where it started to become evident that this book wasn’t written for me. I  realised after some time that my own experiences and life had already lead my through the cafe and out the otherside, where, with my life and work with the homeless and those suffering on the edges of society here in Australia, conversations with the Samaritan woman occur almost daily.

I would recommend Matthew Raley’s The Diversity Culture: Creating Conversations of Faith with Buddhist Baristas, Agnostic Students, Aging Hippies, Political Activists, and Everyone in Between (Kregel Publications, 2009) to those in the pews of USAmerican evangelical churches, but only if they were terrified about stepping out the doors of the church buildings and their circle of Christian culture and engaging with their neighbours. But, I would I would suggest reading  along the way to greeting their homosexual, mixed relations, Hindu neighbours!

Matthew Raley’s blog

First chapter download

Prime Time America Interview with Raley —  (Raley is interviewed from 20:00 to 28:00. Note: This interview is hosted by Moody Radio, a longtime bastion of the culture wars.)

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.

It is rare that I finish a book about church or theology written in contemporary times and wish that it had just one more chapter or more! But that was just the case when I finished The Rabbit and the Elephant, Why Small is the New Big for Today’s Church (June 2009, Tyndale House Publishers) by Tony & Felicity Dale and George Barna.

In their new book, The Rabbit and the Elephant, Why Small is the New Big for Today’s Church the Dale’s and Barna use the following illustration of the reproductive natures of rabbits and elephants as a metaphor for church today.

If you put two elephants in a room together and close the door, if you’re lucky, in three years you may have one baby elephant. But when you put two rabbits together for the same amount of time, you’ll get thousands of baby rabbits.

They argue that our faith should be like the rabbits — growing through a way of life that is explosive and transformational. With many stories and illustrations from their own lives and adventures as church planters, along with the stories of many others from around the world also planting churches, the book explores the simple church phenomenon and the ideas and experiences behind its concept of “every member ministry.” With ample textured examples and exploration of the ideas, The Rabbit and the Elephant is designed to equip you with incorporating spiritual growth and outreach into every aspect of their lives, while discovering the key to 21st Century Evangelism.

Broken into succinct (and sometimes all-too-brief chapters) such as Drenched in Prayer, A Radical (Church) Life, Marching to the Spirit’s Drumbeat The Rabbit and the Elephant the message of rabbit like multiplication and church planting is told is a conversational and easy to follow way.

I would recommend The Rabbit and the Elephant, Why Small is the New Big for Today’s Church for anyone who has read any Frank Viola, Neil Cole, Alan Hirsch or Mike Frost and is wondering what simple church is. While not pushing house church. This goes along way at showing that church and Christianity is about a radical change in our lives, from our lifestyle to understanding the gospel — and learning to step outside the doors of the (relative safety?) of traditional, or legacy church and reach the world.

The Rabbit and the Elephant, Why Small is the New Big for Today’s Church has been a great companion for the journey I have been on to start an organic church among the homeless and marginalized here in Croydon. I have learnt from their lessons (I hope) and pray that the movement will be as successful here.

Tony and Felicity Dale are well known authors and “micro-church” planters originally from the UK where they trained as physicians. George Barna is also a well known author of several books and papers that research faith and life in USAmerica. Together they have crafted a simple yet elegant book, that belies the size of it’s pages.

The first chapter as a PDF can be downloaded here.

Here’s Wolfgang Simson talking about Rabbits and Elephants.