The statistics are sobering. Frustrated church members across Europe and North America are leaving their congregations. Why? Floyd McClung believes that God is realigning the church that he wants to use peoples frustration to motivate them toward change.
The kind of change McClung envisions may surprise you. It involves a valley of dry bones ready for use ready to become an army but only after they are prophesied over. The dry bones are the poor, the rebellious, the marginalized of society, the young, the uneducated. They carry wounds, have been abused, suffer from AIDS, are widows and single parents. They are waiting for someone to believe in them, uphold them in community, and send them out in the service of God.
In this thought-provoking, timely book, McClung presents five principles of leadership, church, and mission sure to challenge all to become a radical community of Jesus followers:
- Simple church
- Courageous leadership
- Focused obedience
- Apostolic passion
- Disciple making
Table of Contents
Foreword by Pete Greig
Five Beliefs that Changed the Way I Do Church
You See
God Grabbed Me
Part 1: Simple Church
Chapter 1: Holy Frustration
Chapter 2: Asking the Right Questions
Part 2: Courageous Leadership
Chapter 3: Courage to Change
Chapter 4: The Next Bono or is it Billy Graham?
Part 3: Focused Obedience
Chapter 5: Watch Out for the Camels
Part 4: Apostolic Passion
Chapter 6: Big Cars with Very Little Engines
Part 5: Making Disciples
Chapter 7: The Heart of Everything
Appendix A: Five Core Practices to Start and Multiply Simple Church Communities
Appendix B: Suggestions for Starting Two and Three Person Discipleship Groups
Appendix C: The Three Core Values of the Kingdom
Appendix D: Recommended Books for Further Reading
Notes
About All Nations
Endorsements
Insightful, practical, easy to read, and full of wisdom, Floyd McClung is once again on the front edge of where God is leading the church on mission. If you want to be in the flow of what God is doing next, you will join him.
Neil Cole, Author
This is a powerful book, a timely books, a necessary book, a book for this generation! In a world where too many churches have too often become more like a prison than a healing community, McClung sees the church as it can be, should be, must be.
Dr. David Garrison, Missionary Author
US film director Woody Allen once said, Ninety percent of life is about showing up. Ninety percent of church planting is about showing up being out and among a lost and hurting world where Jesus already is at home. In this book, Floyd challenges us to rethink all our highly developed strategies and recapture the apostolic heart of God. Without that heart, everything else is a clanging cymbal.
Jim Yost, Missionary and Church Planter, Indonesia
About the Author
Floyd McClung is the international director of All Nations, an international leadership training and church-planting network. All Nations has partnered with local churches to send short-term and long-term church-planting teams to more than thirty countries and provides specialized leadership and discipleship schools.