Journal: Reformation and Revival
Volume: RAR 13:1 (Winter 2004)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous

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RAR 13:1 (Winter 2004) p. 195

Book Reviews

Twelve Dynamic Shifts For Transforming Your Church E. Stanley Ott Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans (2002) 113 pages, paper, $13.00

Stan Ott, as a Presbyterian pastor and president of the Vital S Churches Institute, has given us many good books about Church revitalization. This is another study that encourages the local congregation to think constructively about how to move beyond a “traditional” church that focuses on pastor and programs to a “transformational” one that focuses on spiritual vitality and growth. In transitioning to transformational congregations, the key theme throughout the book is to bless what a church has done well and add what a church needs to be better. This is not only wise but effective advice for bringing about change in the Church.

Ott’s starting point is that the crisis in the mainline Church today is due to loss of personal spirituality and congregational vitality. For this reason, he leads us through a series of twelve shifts that need to happen in visioning, ministry, congregational programs, and practice of leadership to address these shortfalls. He also provides very practical exercises for implementing these shifts. His goal is the transformational Church which he defines as a church that shares pastoral leadership, employs a variety of worship styles, is communal and missional in emphasis, is high-commitment, embraces ministry as a lifestyle and whose governance is permission-giving and leads by ministry teams. These churches (of any size) allow congregations to grow spiritually and to see themselves as “sent, in all humility, by God to pursue the work of Jesus Christ in the world” (7). This, he claims, with prayerful and expectant trust in the work of the Holy Spirit,

RAR 13:1 (Winter 2004) p. 196

will renew and restore a local congregation to active and vital discipleship and ministry within the Church and the community. I cannot agree more! If the call to making faithful disciples to carry on God’s mission in the world is still the raison d’etre of the Church, then Ott’s recommendations for becoming a transformational church could not be more helpful and timely.

Bonnie Sue Lewis
Associate Professor of Mission and Native America Christianity University of Dubuque Theological Seminary (PCUSA) Dubuque, Iowa

Sacked Thirst: Meeting God In The Desert Of Our Longings
M. Craig Barnes Grand Rapids: Zondervan (2001) 224 pages, cloth, $16.99

At the time I was reading Craig Barnes’ Sacred Thirst, country and western star Willie Nelson came to town and performed in concert. The “thirst” of the sell-out crowd was obvious. They came to the stage as if it were a ...

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