Transformational Church - A Short Review

True life transformation is what is supposed to happen when a person comes to salvation. We ministers say it often, but it bears hearing once again – God doesn’t save a person from the punishment for sin only but also from sin itself. This is the transformation I so desperately want to see in myself and in the Christians around me – an end to sin. I will take it even if it is incredibly slow, as it so often seems. However, what I all too often find is Christians who make no discernable progress, over years. That is a huge problem. Really, it strikes at the heart of the Gospel because, if Christians are no different after years of belonging to Christ, then either we are doing it wrong or there is no real power in the Gospel. This should scare a bunch of us enough to do something drastic about it. And that is what this book is really about.

Stetzer and Rainer have done a ton of research to figure out which churches in America are seeing life transformation (Transformational Churches or TCs) and to study them to determine what they are doing that leads to transformation. What I want to do for the rest of this review is to briefly detail each of the steps (though they aren’t done in an order so much) that mark how a church can promote transformation.

Missionary Mentality – This is so critical. Our churches have become so inward focused, that we don’t even see the needs and opportunities that exist outside our doors. We’ve got to turn out to see the world and to love them.

Vibrant Leadership – As with nearly everything, leadership is key. We can’t stagnate and expect to grow.

Relational Intentionality – We church people think we’re friendly because we greet visitors on Sunday morning, but we only rarely really offer friendship to others. There is a huge difference, and it is true friendship that people need and are looking for, not just a nice welcome.

Prayerful Dependence – The authors mention that this will likely be the starting point for a church wanting to shift into a TC, and I completely agree. Prayer costs nothing out of the budget, but God can change everything through it. There is no church too poor or too small to pray, but there is also no church so rich or large that it can afford to skip prayer. Yet, most of our churches pray only in passing and on the surface. We must pray deeply and along with the Father’s heart.

Worship – Really, what else are we supposed to do well when we gather? I mean, we even call the service a “worship service.” This is so central that it’s almost silly to be here, but we still fail. We treat this act of love toward God like it’s really an opportunity to hear our favorite songs.

Community – I felt like this had some overlap with Relational Intentionality, but that’s OK. I’ve been trying to learn about discipleship on a larger scale, and this is a big part of that. Churches need to find a way to get more and more of their people into small groups.

Mission – Actually sharing Jesus in word and action is what is meant. Interestingly, I feel like most churches I’ve been a part of have a pretty good handle on how to do this, in terms of events/organization. The issue for most churches is not what to do, but all of the other elements in TCs (see above) are missing. As a result, God is largely missing when churches get together, and what are you left with without His Presence? Not much.

In conclusion, I enjoyed the read. It did give me more hope about the future of the church in America. I want to learn more about how this can become a reality in my church. I want to see lives transformed!

The Daybreakers - A Short Review

This book was the first of L’Amour’s Sackett series that felt like a “regular Western,” to me – much like many of his other books. As such, it was a little less interesting to me, though still entertaining. The two brothers, Orrin and Tyrel, remain strong, decisive men, cut from the same cloth as the rest of the Sacketts.

One interesting aspect of this novel was that of race. The Sacketts moved in New Mexico just after it has become part of the United States, and there was considerable question about the way local power would be changed by this new state of affairs. Some white Americans, among whom we find the majority of the book’s villains, thought they could go to Santa Fe and basically rip off the Mexicans/Spaniards of not just their political power but also their economic wealth by stealing their land and cattle. The Sacketts showed themselves to be open to all races. Their judgment of a person has everything to do with how that person behaves and nothing to do with his/her background or race or anything else, really. That is the way I strive to view others, as well.

Ride the River - A Short Review

I think I might have found the toughest Sackett, yet, and it isn’t a guy at all. Echo Sackett is on a journey to retrieve a small fortune left to her by the descendants of one of Barnabas Sackett’s close friends. This journey takes her from backwoods eastern Tennessee to pre-Civil War Philadelphia and back again. Two parties of enemies try to take the money from her, and another group of two men try to help her. In my opinion, she didn’t need any help, at all! She defeated the bad guys without seeming to break a sweat. In fact, the men who were supposed to be helping her were mostly just getting in the way. She had to save them more than they ever saved her.

This novel was a short, quick read. It was fun, but less grand, to my mind, than the other Sackett books I’ve read. Perhaps this is because the entire tale lasted probably less than 10 days, maybe 2 weeks. The other books have spanned years and thousands of miles. The other missing element is work. Echo talks about the work she does regularly to help support her family, but we don’t really see her do any of it. In previous Sackett novels, we see the Sacketts do extensive work, building forts, setting up farms, and other major endeavors. I won’t knock Echo for this, since that wasn’t the point of this story, but it did not call to my heart the way the others have.