Mark Moore's Blog

Total Church - US Book Release

It has been one year since I posted on Total Church, written by Tim Chester & Steve Timmis. To this day, I still receive requests from people wanting to know if I have any copies of the book. The good news is that you can now pre-order the book from Amazon in the US. The book is scheduled for release on September 30, 2008.

There is not a single book on church that I would more highly recommend. The content of this book is lived out every day in The Crowded House and in the lives of the two men who have authored the book.

Order a copy for yourself.

Order copies for your leaders.

Force the book to sell out and have to be printed again. If that were the case, perhaps the church would become total again.

Technorati Tags: steve timmis, tim chester, Total Church Conference

Relaxation of Vacation

I just returned from a great vacation with my family. It was a very relaxing trip, although we were on the go quite a bit. I think what made it so relaxing was that I was "unplugged". I was not online -- no internet, no email, no cell phone or text messaging with the outside world -- just me and my family. It is amazing how the world continues on without you. The same terrible stories are on the news when you get home; the same problems exist; the same work awaits you as always; the same King still reigns. I think often times we don't "unplug" out of fear that something will happen without our knowing (thinking in the back of the mind that it is necessary for us to know what happens as if we have an impact on the world greater than the reality of our finiteness).

On my trip I read a couple of good books. Having just read The Kite Runner, I was eager to read Khaled Hosseini's second book, A Thousand Splendid Suns. It proved in its own way to be just as good as his previous book, this time telling the amazing story of the lives of two women in Afghanistan over several decades. Like The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns left me with much to think about regarding the condition of the world and the suffering of people in places that most of us give no thought to whatsoever. I highly recommend it!

The other book I read was an interesting story, a true story, about a group of men crossing the Pacific Ocean on a balsa raft. Thor Heyerdahl tells the amazing story of his journey on the open seas in his book Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific in a Raft. This book was given to me by a good friend who said, "This will serve as good beach reading." That it was. I read the book on a couple of trips to the beach and needless to say I was glad that the Pacific Ocean merely served as the backdrop to my kids building sandcastles rather than my being on it in a tiny raft for months on end. If you are interested in men with wild theories who set out to prove the impossible by doing the stupid, you will enjoy Heyerdahl's account.

There's no mistaking now that I'm back home as it is nearly one hundred degrees outside and I'm once again plugged in to a world of problems and a number of people and things demanding my attention. One thing that doesn't change, whether at home or on vacation, is the same King still reigns.

Technorati Tags: A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini, Kon-Tiki, The Kite Runner, Thor Heyerdahl

The Kite Runner

This year I have read more fiction than normal (when I completed my first fiction book this year it was one more than I read last year). At the beginning of this year I decided that I was going to begin reading a lot of fiction. That it was going to become part of my normal diet of reading. I read an enormous amount, but my diet of reading is more comparable to a fad diet where you completely cut out major food groups (i.e. the Atkins diet--no carbs, my reading diet--no fiction). Several things made me start to think about the deficiencies in my reading diet. First, I realized that my interaction with authors is typically very black and white, logical, and to most people boring. The books I read contain mainly propositions, but not stories. I "understand" concepts, but sometimes don't "feel" them. I'll get to this later. Second, I realized that stories are an important part of our world. Stories shape our world and have the power to make it beautiful or ugly. Poor stories have been the real power behind the awful and powerful armies throughout history. Good stories have led to hope, redemption, and freedom. My fiction-deficient diet leads me to sometimes be a story-deficient preacher. Finally, as I was buying some books on Amazon one day I realized that the books I typically buy and read are listed way, way, way, down the line in Amazon sales rankings (typically ranging from #9,000 to 60,000+). In other words, I'm typically reading and thinking about stuff that no one else is reading and thinking about, with the exception of other theologically-driven pastors and church planters like myself. These reasons, and a few more, led me to decide I would add fiction into my reading diet.

In step with my personality, not one to wade into the water, I jumped head first into a thousand page novel called The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet. It was an excellent read and just what I needed to capture my attention and help me plunge into my new commitment to reading good stories. Since that time, I've read several other books that were good in their own sense, but none of them were like Khaled Hosseini's bestselling book The Kite Runner. It stands alone.

I read the first couple of chapters a month or two ago. I was very busy at the time and couldn't see myself getting into it and so I put it down until two days ago. Starting over from the beginning I found myself free from distraction and desirous to find out why everyone made such a big deal about this book. Once I started I could not stop reading. Once I finished I could not stop crying.

My tears were tears for humanity. My tears were tears for a broken world. As I cried, I prayed, "Lord, how long will you be? How long before you will restore your creation and make all things new?" Above I said that the books I read typically help me to "understand" concepts, but often times I don't "feel" them. The Kite Runner left me feeling. I just finished preaching a series in my church in which we looked at many different themes related to new creation. For several weeks I thought about whether or not I really long for new creation, whether I really long for the return of Jesus. You see it is very easy as an American to not spend too much time thinking about new creation. After all, compared to the rest of the world we live in what seems a garden paradise. Sitting in our air conditioned homes with our cold water, hot coffee, reclining chairs, ceiling fans, dead bolts, dvd players, soft beds, clean clothes, refrigerators, microwaves, etc., etc., we have little left to desire. For most of us, daily suffering is not a reality. The thought of a new creation is typically a nice thought for me, but it does not burn deep inside of me as it should. It does not call out tears and prayers before the One who will restore.

I hate, HATE, knowing what happens in a movie or in a book. I will therefore not spoil it for you. But to give you a little background, Amazon says:

The Kite Runner follows the story of Amir, the privileged son of a wealthy businessman in Kabul, and Hassan, the son of Amir's father's servant. As children in the relatively stable Afghanistan of the early 1970s, the boys are inseparable. They spend idyllic days running kites and telling stories of mystical places and powerful warriors until an unspeakable event changes the nature of their relationship forever, and eventually cements their bond in ways neither boy could have ever predicted. Even after Amir and his father flee to America, Amir remains haunted by his cowardly actions and disloyalty. In part, it is these demons and the sometimes impossible quest for forgiveness that bring him back to his war-torn native land after it comes under Taliban rule. ("...I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded, not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night.")

This book not only made me think about, but also feel, forgiveness, shame, grace, deceit, truth, guilt, redemption, love, hope, peace, violence, abuse, desire, joy, kindness, unconditional, courage, cowardice, loyalty, sadness, honesty, frailty, power, powerlessness; I guess to summarize, it made me feel human. Not American, not even Christian, just human. In my own life, I have never even remotely experienced anything like the characters of this book, however I share the experience of humanity. I am a long way removed from the lives of those who live in Afghanistan. Even further removed from the fictitious characters of this book. I am not, however, far removed from humanity. I, like those living in Kabul, am one who has been created in the image of God. I share with them, and the rest of humanity, the capacity to love, hope, and forgive. Furthermore, as a Christian I am commanded to love, hope, and forgive. I often times fail miserably at these commands. But I am comforted in the fact that there is one who succeeded where I fail. Jesus' life and death is the story that makes sense of the other stories.

If it were not for the story of Jesus, I would have finished reading The Kite Runner and then sat in my living room weeping over the despair of the world and the sad condition of man. I would have looked at my children and felt so helpless, so hopeless. I would have grieved that I had been born into this world in which there is so much pain and suffering. I'm sure that many people finished reading this book and did just that. Because of Jesus, I wept differently. I wept in prayer. I wept as I prayed for the despair of the world and the sad condition of man. I wept as I prayed for my children...with such hope. I am not grieved that I was born into this world of pain and suffering. I grieve over the pain and suffering, but I know there is one who was more grieved than me. One whose grief led him to sweat drops of blood. One whose grief led him to take the pain and suffering of the world upon himself. One who's once occupied, but now empty tomb declares that pain and suffering do not get the last word. Death is swallowed up in life. Evil is overcome by good. Because of him, because of Jesus, I prayed as I wept.

There is hope for a broken world. Not in tanks and bombs, but in love and forgiveness. There is hope in a story. A story that is called good news.

As I finished reading one magnificent story I wept. As I considered another breathtaking story I prayed. I recommend them both.

Technorati Tags: Khaled Hosseini, new creation, The Kite Runner

Economic Darwinism

"The irony is that those American churches that protest most vocally against the teaching of Darwinism in their schools are often, in their public policies, supporting a kind of economic Darwinism, the survival of the fittest in world markets and military power."

-- N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope

Surprised by Hope

I've been reading N.T. Wright's new book Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church. I have thoroughly enjoyed the book and highly recommend it. Early in the book he comments on the historicity of the resurrection and I thought his comments were excellent and worth posting (perhaps to entice you to read the book).

I am convinced that the climate of skepticism, which for the last two hundred years has made it unfashionable and even embarrassing to suggest that Jesus's resurrection really happened, was never and is not now itself a neutral thing, sociologically or politically. The intellectual coup d'etat by which the Enlightenment convinced so many that "we now know that dead people don't rise," as though this was a modern discovery rather than simply the reaffirmation of what Homer and Aeschylus had taken for granted, goes hand in hand with the Enlightenment's other proposals, not least that we have now come of age, that God can be kicked upstairs, that we can get on with running the world however we want to, carving it up to our advantage without outside interference. To that extent, the totalitarianisms of the last century were simply among the varied manifestations of a larger totalitarianism of thought and culture against which postmodernity has now, and rightly in my view, rebelled. Who, after all, was it who didn't want the dead to be raised? Not simply the intellectually timid or the rationalists. It was, and is, those in power, the social and intellectual tyrants and bullies; the Caesars who would be threatened by a Lord of the world who had defeated the tyrant's last weapon, death itself; the Herods who would be horrified at the postmortem validation of the true King of the Jews. And this is the point where believing in the resurrection of Jesus suddenly ceases to be a matter of inquiring about an odd event in the first century and becomes a matter of rediscovering hope in the twenty-first century. Hope is what you get when you suddenly realize that a different worldview is possible, a worldview in which the rich, the powerful, and the unscrupulous do not after all have the last word. The same worldview shift that is demanded by the resurrection of Jesus is the shift that will enable us to transform the world.

Technorati Tags: n.t. wright, resurrection

Piper's New Book for $5

I'm a huge fan of John Piper. I'm also a huge fan of N.T. Wright. I have gained a tremendous amount of insight into the Scriptures from both of these men. I do not agree with everything that either of them say (I'll leave it to you to figure out what that stuff may be). One place where these guys are at odds is on the subject of justification (this would include the subject of imputation). John Piper has written a new book entitled The Future of Justification: A Response to N. T. Wright, which is set to be released this month.

N.T. Wright, a world-renowned New Testament scholar and bishop of Durham in the Church of England, has spent years studying the apostle Paul’s writings and has offered a “fresh perspective” on Paul’s theology. Among his conclusions are that “the discussions of justification in much of the history of the church—certainly since Augustine—got off on the wrong foot, at least in terms of understanding Paul—and they have stayed there ever since.”
Wright’s confidence that the church has gotten it wrong for 1,500 years, given his enormous influence, has set off warning bells for Christian leaders such as John Piper. If Wright’s framework for interpreting the New Testament text and his understanding of justification find a home in the church, not only could the doctrine of justification be distorted for generations to come, but the New Testament writers’ original intent could be silenced. So Piper is sounding a crucial warning in this book, reminding all Christians to exercise great caution regarding “fresh” interpretations of the Bible and to hold fast to the biblical view of justification.

I've been looking forward to this book for quite some time and was elated when I read this announcement on the Desiring God Blog today:

The Future of Justification: A Response to N. T. Wright is now available for pre-order and will be on sale for $5 through the end of October.

The list price is $14.99. The Amazon price is $10.19. The DG regular price will be $9.75. Five bucks! Wow! This price is only good if you order before October 31st, so don't wait. Click here to order.

Technorati Tags: john piper, n.t. wright, new perspective on paul

Review of McLaren's New Book

Tim Challies has written a review of Brian McLaren's new book Everything Must Change.

He concludes his review by stating:

The Emerging Church excels at asking good and difficult questions but has been widely critiqued because the answers are too often wildly inconsistent with Scripture. Everything Must Change is no exception. With this book McLaren further draws a line in the sand. He declares, increasingly unequivocally, that this Emerging Church bears little resemblance to the church as we know it from the Bible. The doctrine of the Emerging Church is moving farther and farther away from the doctrine of the Bible, at least as it has been understood from the Scriptures since the days of the early church. It will stop at nothing and will call into question and trample under foot even the most fundamental doctrines. McLaren will bring thousands of sincere people with him in his quest to see how Jesus addresses the world's most serious problems. I hope these people count the cost. I hope they know what they must reject in order to be a new kind of Christian; they must reject the very heart of the gospel. After reading this book it is my hope and prayer that this marks the time when the Emerging Church realizes that if it is to maintain anything even remotely resembling biblical orthodoxy, it must stop now and it must abandon Brian McLaren. They must say "enough is enough" and turn back.

It seems increasingly clear that the new kind of Christian McLaren seeks is no kind of Christian at all. The church on the other side of his reinvention is a church devoid of the glorious gospel of Christ's atoning death. It is a church utterly stripped of its power because it is a church stripped of the gospel message. McLaren's new gospel is a social gospel, a liberal gospel and, in fact, no gospel at all. This Emerging Church has managed to do something remarkable--it has emerged into something the church has already seen, has already wrestled with, and has already defeated. The Emerging Church has gone suicidal.

Read the full review.

Technorati Tags: brian mclaren, emerging church, tim challies

What do our buildings witness to?

I've recently been reading a book that was originally published in 1975 under the title The Problem of Wineskins, written by Howard A. Snyder. The book was rereleased in 1996, revised and updated, under the title "Radical Renewal: The Problem of Wineskins Today" (Howard A. Snyder). The book challenges current church structures in light of the gospel and today's culture. I found it very fascinating, insightful, and pointed.

One chapter, entitled 'Are Church Buildings Superfluous?', listed five things that our church buildings witness to. I thought it would be helpful if I listed these five things and then allowed you to either think through them on your own or go buy a copy of the book so that you can read what he says about each of these five things. In doing so, let me include a quote that will help set the context.

Christians did not begin to build church buildings until about 200 A.D. This fact suggests, whatever else church buildings are good for, they are not essential either for numerical growth or spiritual depth. The early church possessed both these qualities, and the church's greatest period of vitality and growth until recent times was during the first two centuries A.D. In other words, the church grew fastest when it did not have the help--or hinderance-- of church buildings.

But if it is true that church buildings are not essential either for growth or vitality, why are church today so indebted (literally and figuratively) to them? Does the church really suffer an "edifice complex"?

Church buildings are a kind of witness. They tell five things about the church today.

So, here they are. I hope they cause you to think a bit and maybe some of you will be intrigued enough to buy the book and read it.

1. Church buildings are a witness to our immobility.

2. Church buildings are a witness to our inflexibility.

3. Church buildings are a witness to our lack of fellowship.

4. Church buildings are a witness to our pride.

5. Church buildings are a witness to our divisions of class.

In summary, "Our church buildings, then, witness to the immobility, inflexibility, lack of fellowship, pride and class divisions in today's church."

Technorati Tags: church, missional church, howard a. snyder

Confusing the Gospel

I think this is an excellent distinction between the gospel and the things that go hand in hand with it, from Graeme Goldsworthy's book "Gospel-Centered Hermeneutics: Foundations and Principles of Evangelical Biblical Interpretation".

The gospel is what we must believe in order to be saved. To believe the gospel is to put one's trust and confidence in the person and work of Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord. To preach the gospel is faithfully to proclaim that historical event, along with the God-given interpretation of that event. It cannot be stressed too much that to confuse the gospel with certain important things that go hand in hand with it is to invite theological, hermeneutical and spiritual confusion. Such ingredients of preaching and teaching that we might want to link with the gospel would include the need for the gospel (sin and judgment), the means of receiving the benefits of the gospel (faith and repentance), the results or fruits of the gospel (regeneration, conversion, sanctification, glorification) and the results of rejecting it (wrath, judgment, hell). These, however we define and proclaim them, are not in themselves the gospel. If something is not what God did in and through the historical Jesus two thousand years ago, it is not the gospel. Thus Christians cannot 'live the gospel', as they are often exhorted to do. They can only believe it, proclaim it and seek to live consistently with it. Only Jesus lived (and died) the gospel. It is a once-for-all finished and perfected event done for us by another.

Technorati Tags: gospel, graeme goldsworthy

Total Church

I want to tell you about my favorite new book. Let me begin by confessing my bias. I personally know and love the men who wrote this book. Steve Timmis has become a very good friend of mine who I speak with on a daily basis. He is someone that I have the deepest admiration and respect for. Tim Chester I do not know as well, but still had the privilege of spending a week with him in Sheffield and my heart warmed to him very quickly. I enjoyed hours of great conversation with Tim and find him to be one of the most intelligent and humble men that I have met. It is a joy and privilege for me to partner with them in ministry and life. What follows is my attempt to convince you to buy and distribute many copies of this book.

Total Church is one of those books that you hold in your hand and think two things after you've read it. First, Wow! This book says it all. Second, Wow! This book says it all. The first "wow" is the one you say while cheering and applauding that someone has said things that you have desperately wanted to hear. Each page drips with gospel understanding and real life love for the church. The second "wow" is the one you say while realizing that you pretty much have nothing new to offer the world at this point other than a copy of this book. The things you had been thinking about that seemed so "radical" and "refreshing" are now nothing more than restatement of what's been said.

The back of the book reads:

How does your church measure up?

Total Church pleads for two key principles for church and mission. First, the gospel as content: being word-centred (for the gospel is truth) and being mission-centred (for the gospel is truth to be proclaimed). Secondly, the community as context: sharing our lives as Christians and offering a place of belonging to unbelievers.

The authors apply these principles to church planting, evangelism, apologetics, social involvement, leadership, discipleship, pastoral care, world mission, and notions of success. They critique current trends within the church: emerging church movements are strong on community but weak on truth, while conservative evangelicalism is strong on truth but weak on community. Their call is for the best of both.

The book divides nicely into two parts. First, gospel and community in principle. This part does a nice job of explaining both the nature of the gospel and the nature of community. The second part, gospel and community in practice, explores the way such principles play out in a local church setting. In my opinion, this is where the book separates itself from other books in its category. We live in a time in which the academy and the church seem far apart from one another. Those who appear to understand the principles of gospel and community often have nothing more than a band of seminary students following closely behind saying "amen" to their every word. Having never seen the principles in practice, the students spend the rest of their lives, like their professors, talking about the principles and yet never practicing them. On the other hand, the other extreme is often the case. Many churches operate purely out of pragmatism without ever thinking through the theological basis (if there is one) for what they are doing. The result is often program driven churches that have practices handed down from one practitioner to another via conferences or "how to" manuals. The results of these two camps--theoreticians and practitioners--are easy to spot. One boasts in depth (quality) while the other in width (quantity).

Rarely does one find a book written by men who not only understand the principles and explain the practices, but also have a church that reflects the book. This book is created in the image of The Crowded House. Throughout its pages are stories of real life people who have been affected by the principles of this book and are therefore living the practices of this book. I have had the privilege of spending time in The Crowded House and seeing the work that gives testimony to the convictions of this book. The principles and practices of gospel community are something that you find in every aspect of The Crowded House and spending any amount of time with the Tim and Steve explain why. These principles and practices define these men and what is contained on the pages of this book is merely overflow of their lives.

That said, this book promises to cause you to think. The authors argue that Christian practice must be 1) gospel-centered in the sense of being word-centered; 2) gospel-centered in the sense of being mission-centered; and 3) community-centered. As they unpack this, most will find themselves agreeing with much of what they are saying. The gospel-centrality of these men is extremely refreshing. For some, their ecclesiology may be a bit radical and sit uncomfortably. There are moments that will rattle you--especially if you are a pastor. For example:

"I am pastored by my congregation. My struggles are often out in the open for everyone to see. I can be honest about my failures...The real tragedy of leadership-as-performance is that it devalues the work of Christ. Our identity is not rooted in grace, but in the success of our ministry." These are not things that sit well with the typical pastor who is enamored by his position. Another quote from the book reads, "It is important that leaders see themselves and are seen by others as part of the church. Professionalism is always the enemy of authentic gospel leadership...It is both reassuring and challenging to discover that the shepherds of God's flock are first and foremost sheep!"

Not only is the identity of pastors looked at with scrutiny, but so is the role of formal theological training.

"We are not against theological colleges, but we need a big switch of focus from the isolation of residential theological colleges to apprenticeships in the context of ministry....In residential colleges the academy sets the agenda. With on-the-job training, ministry and mission set the agenda. Colleges also suit a certain type of person and this then shapes a view of what it means to be a church leader. Most church leaders today are middle-class graduates who were trained in a college whose qualification for ministry is a degree...One of the reasons that we have middle-class churches that are failing to reach working-class people is that we have middle-class leaders...And we have middle-class leaders because our expectations of what constitutes leadership and our training methods are middle-class."

It is statements like these that I assume will cause indigestion to some readers. However, this is the reason that I recommend not reading this book in the same fashion that you eat a Big Mac. This is a meal that is meant to be chewed slowly. It is not hard to read, it actually reads pretty fast, but it is not meant to be read in that fashion. It is meant to cause you to evaluate your life, your ministry, and your church. I personally believe that this is a book that bridges the gap between the conservative view of the gospel and the emerging view of community in a way that I have not yet seen. Imagine a church that really understood the gospel and really understood community--it would be a Total Church.

As a side note, the book is published in the UK by IVP and is therefore not currently available in the US until later this year when it is published on this side of the Atlantic. However, I just happened to have acquired a large quantity that I am happy to make available to those who are interested. If you would like to purchase a copy, don't hesitate to contact me.

Technorati Tags: missional church, steve timmis, the crowded house, tim chester