The Present Future

This post is from the defunct blog “Dying Church”

I'm really enjoying The Present Future. Here, briefly, are some of the assumptions that Reggie McNeal challenges:

If you build the perfect church (the way we think about church), they will come. Growing your church will automatically make a difference in the community. Developing better church members will result in greater evangelism. The church needs more members (for church work). Church involvement results in discipleship. Better planning will get you where you want to go (in terms of missional effectiveness).

There are lots of good insights in this book. McNeal also presents six shifts that we need to take that correspond to the above points: shifting from church growth to kingdom growth, from planning to preparation, etc. This is sometimes a challenging book, but well worth the read.