Ed Stetzer recommends this book for those looking to do mroe mentoring and coaching.  I certainly have a couple of uses for such a book, and I do feel I have some deficiency in my skill as a mentor.  If anyone who reads this feels like passing on an early Christmas gift, this would be a great one!

I was reading another few pages from Planting Missional Churches by Ed Stetzer this morning, and in the early going he rides the importance of cultural exegesis hard.  I was already familiar with the concept as I just took a course this spring on “Christianity and Culture” from Bruce Guenther over at ACTS (awesome course by the way).  One of the most important texts in the course was called Everyday Theology - a compilation by Kevin Vanhoozer.  This book was awesome for giving a framework to analyze cultural trends in light of Jesus.  It’s given me a very different angle on looking at my culture ever since.

So the two of these sources collided with me while I was driving to work this morning.  Two songs on my iPod came on - “It’s Probably Me” by Eric Clapton and Sting, and “Your Life is Now” by John Mellencamp.  It occured to me that both of these songs have very Christian overtones, though I somehow doubt the writers thought of that.  (Actually, in retrospect, from what I know of Eric Clapton’s spiritual journey, maybe that one wasn’t unintentional.)  I was picturing actually opening a sermon by having everyone come in with that song playing, or the worship team playing (given the mad skillz of Eric Clapton, maybe I had better play the CD).

I was even thinking of doing some kind of youtube, or powerpoint set to coincide with the lyrics to illustrate some profound points to ponder as the music washes over you.

Just some crazy ideas for the future, I guess.  Two of my favorite things are music and movies.  I will be spending more time thinking about how to exegete them and teach with them as illustrations or foci for points.

I’ve been reading Ed Stetzer’s Planting New Churches in a Postmodern Age lately.  It is beastly-long as compared to the quick read that Launch was.

I was trying to catch some rays and darken the skin a little before we head to Florida at the end of the month for a little iGo action and a round of Disney.  I made the mistake of leaving the book on my lawn chair.  The boys got out the sprinkler and turned it on full-blast, drenching my lawn chair and my book, borrowed from TWU.  Because of its saturation, I think I’ll be buying the library a new copy, so I’d better enjoy this one!

In that light, I’ll say this: the chapters do go by quickly, and Stetzer does a good job of listing references on each chapter so you can do further reading.  In a lot of ways, since I am 3/4 of the way through the book, I have been disappointed thus far.

I actually started to comment on this book before.  I initially like some of his insights, early on, but as the book moves along, it gets more ordinary.  Not a lot is new in fact.  It is more a synthesis-type book than a new approach.  I find myself in later chapters reading his words which openly rehash material from a variety of other resources.  Not plaigarism - he cites his sources clearly - but just disappointing.  Like if I had read something else I’d get more.

The most recent couple of chapters I read were on building launch teams and on small groups.  The small groups chapter was actually weak.  He only discussed small groups of one model type - and I am not even sure I agree that it’s a good type.  It’s a jack-of-all-trades small group - one that is designed to provide fellowship and community, but also worship, Bible study, and evangelism.  I have become convinced in my time in different small groups that it is impossible to do all these things well when you try to do them in a small group.  Stetzer himself points out all the pitfalls of bringing non-Christians into a group full of Christians - the Christianese that gets flung around, the discomfort of being the “new guy”, the culture shock are all not good things for someone you are trying to introduce to the Gospel.  Not only that, but it also hurts the relationships of the people already there.  To “go deep” and really open up your heart in the safety of Christians is hard enough.  What chance does your group have of real authentic community when strangers keep appearing and disappearing, who could do anything with your deep secrets and fears?

The chapter on building a core did hold some useful discussion, but I was at a loss as to understand how his description of various means of teambuilding reflected unique approaches specifically for the postmodern crowds.  Maybe it’s because I see a much more intensive variety of postmodern people in Canada - specifically in my workplace at a technology company, and also in my studies of Whistler’s church planting challenges.  These people are not just people who don’t believe in existential truth, but live according to that reality.  These are people who have not heard a single positive message about authority, church, or traditional structures like marriage in 30 years - which is the lifespan of the majority I work with.  These are hard-core people.  It’s almost easier to reach new immigrants with a completely foreign paradigm and religion, because at least they believe there is truth out there, and have a greater connection and understanding of family and structure.

For all of its weight, this book feels light.  Too light to be very useful but I will finish it out before passing final judgement.

Another thought by someone else:

• Matt Jones’s glowing review.  I’d actually agree there are lots of good points.  How many are original to Ed?  I don’t know.  Maybe I am being spoilt by how much reading on the internets and such on missional ideas and church planting methods.  Since I had already read these ideas, I wasn’t as blown away by Stetzer’s presentation.

In addition to the huge workload I have this summer just for the church, I have this paper to write.  I am completing a graduation essay to attain my Master’s of Arts in Christian Studies from ACTS Seminaries at Trinity Western University.  My chosen area of study is church planting in resort communities.  I am actually at a bit of a disadvantage because my program does actually have a church planting specialty, but because I have a whole pile of credit from when I was pursuing a church history master’s, I didn’t have room to take those courses from the Seminary.  However, I don’t know how many people who take that course area actually involved in the leadership of a brand new church plant either, so maybe that balances it out.

Anyway, I have a ton of reading to do to research this paper.  I am probably reading slower than I should.  Normally when I write a paper, I find resources and skim them until I hit upon the areas that I need to include for my paper’s subject.  Instead, I am actually reading the whole book as I know that ultimately, it will serve me better as we think about planting our own church one day.

So, currently I am chewing through the 360 page Ed Stetzer tome, “Planting New Churches in a Postmodern Age”.  Although the resort community seems to be a microcosm or an ultradense monoculture of postmodernism, there is no question that the overall societal trend is towards this philosophy or worldview.  It is good stuff.  I am just looking at the “generation” question right now and he made a very good point - with postmodern cultures it is almost irrelevant to speak of ages as having anything to do with their worldview anymore.  A postmodern could be of any age and they will have more in common in that case than with anyone just close in age to them.  Limiting oneself to a “generation” will not serve the cause of Christ when it comes to these people.

I’d write more but a) I have to actually work on the paper, and b) I have to ride my bike over to get the van out of the shop.  Bye for now.