AquaChurch: Essential Leadership Arts for Piloting Your Church in Today's Fluid Culture [Hardcover]

Leonard I. Sweet (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1999

In this latest and most accessible work from church historian, futurist, and best-selling author Leonard Sweet, church leaders will discover the leadership arts that are essential in today's ever-changing culture. The author provides thought-provoking yet practical skills that will elevate the scope of ministry from mere survival of daily challenges to thriving in today's culture! He vividly portrays the new paradigms facing churches and illustrates the need to become an "AquaChurch" in order to effectively minister in our fluid, postmodern culture.

The author includes a "personal log"---questions and ideas that help apply personal thoughts as related to the new paradigms. And, each chapter concludes with a "ship's log"---ideas and activities that encourage group discussion and evaluation with church leaders. It provides an excellent platform for pastors and their entire church leadership to improve the effectiveness of their ministry.

This book not only challenges leaders to think in broader terms, but it provides practical strategies for making specific and meaningful changes in how they minister to their communities. They'll discover how to be relevant to an ever-changing culture with the unchanging gospel of Jesus Christ!

Editorial Reviews

Review

"AquaChurch is worth taking the time to read. Len Sweet is someone I greatly respect and appreciate. You will agree when you have navigated through AquaChurch. Thanks, Len." -- Dr. Walt Kallestad, Sr. Pastor, Community Church of Joy

"Len Sweet is a master of the apt metaphor. He discerns today's invisible forces that make leadership more like a voyage than a march. His navigational aids help keep us on course." -- Marshall Shelley, Editor, Leadership magazine

"Len Sweet is an ancient-future leader who navigates by God's North Star. This book is a must read for Jesus leaders who risk navigating uncharted, postmodern seas." -- Mike Slaughter, Pastor, Ginghamsburg Church

"Len Sweet offers us a 'learning' manual on self-navigating the 'watery' world of Postmodernism. Instead of describing a one-size-fits-all type of instruction manual on leadership, he shares with us the 'leadership arts' that can help guide us through the turbulent currents of today." -- Bill Easum, President, 21st Century Strategies, Inc.

From the Inside Flap

"It's time to get the church seaworthy and seagoing again. It's time for the church to rediscover the vocation of voyaging."---Leonard Sweet

Wondering how to guide your congregation in this unstable, unsteady and turbulent postmodern world? In this latest work from church historian, futurist, and best-selling author Leonard Sweet, church leaders will discover leadership arts essential for thriving in today's culture.

In this provocative, yet practical book, Sweet identifies 11 1/3 Leadership Arts including:

Orienting by the North Star: Jesus the Christ Casting the Anchor: Tradition Studying Our Compass: The Scriptures Seeing Through Scopes: Vision Taking Shore Leave: Sabbaticals, and more.

The discussion of each Leadership Art is followed by these practical applications... Captain's Logbook---ideas to stimulate you to become a better leader in today's culture, Ship's Log---activities to help your church leadership examine and apply the chapter's principles.

You'll discover how churches like Community Church of Joy, Flamingo Road Church, Saddleback Valley Community Church and nine others are thriving while applying these leadership arts. Find out how to energize tradition...communicate effectively...to see what's really happening in your church. Plus more!

AquaChurch is essential reading for every church leader wanting to impact their congregation, and respond to its changing needs.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 269 pages
• Publisher: Group Pub Inc (June 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764421514
• ISBN-13: 978-0764421518
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #703,559 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Len Sweet was born of a mixed marriage: his mother was a fiery Pilgrim Holiness-ordained preacher from the mountains of West Virginia and his quiet father a Free Methodist lay leader from the Adirondack mountains of upstate New York. After a deconversion at 17, when Len set about less sowing wild oats than planting prairies, he became an atheist intellectual and scholar dedicated to exposing the nincompoopery and poppycockery, if not tomfoolery and skullduggery of all religions. After this seven-year period of liminality, Len came back to the faith of his ancestors, where he has been ever since, exploring the "insterstices" and "semiotics" of religion, culture and history. He uses two words to describe himself: semiotician and interstitial. In other words, he is obsessed with two questions: "Where have you been?" and "Where are you going?"

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent guide to being part of the post modern church, August 27, 1999

By 

Bryan D. Burton (Seattle, Washington USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: AquaChurch: Essential Leadership Arts for Piloting Your Church in Today's Fluid Culture (Hardcover)

In an excellent follow-up to his guide to post modern Christianity SOULTSUNAMI, Dr. Leonard Sweet from Drew University has provided us with an excellent "navigator's map" to post modern Christianity with the publication of this newest work Aqua Church. Dr. Sweet has again provided a creative approach to those who are seeking to be post modern Christians in a post modern church. It will shake the foundations of those who seek to maintain a "business as usual" approach to the church, but it will also challenge those who seek to be post modern Christians without being part of a post modern church. As with the earlier volume, Sweet provides the convinced, the seeker and the hesitant with a new way of looking at the Christian faith, the church and the future. Enjoy this excellent work as it navigates you, the church and wider culture through the challenging currents of the Christian faith, the Christian church and the world of postmodernism. You will not be disappointed!

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another remarkable book for church leaders everywhere., October 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: AquaChurch: Essential Leadership Arts for Piloting Your Church in Today's Fluid Culture (Hardcover)

The first thing that I did after I read this book was to order another five of them for use in the teams that I lead. This book is in the tradition of SoulTsunami, a must read for church leaders everywhere.

Leading in the postmodern culture is a lot different than the corporate model that a lot of churches have adapted. The 21 Irrefutable Laws don't seem so irrefutable in a culture where there are no absolutes anymore and those who insist that there are, are often looked at with suspicion.

Aqua Church helps answer some of the questions that a new age brings

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lays out the basics for "doing church" in the 21st Century, July 17, 2001

By 

Tom Hinkle (Tulsa, OK USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: AquaChurch: Essential Leadership Arts for Piloting Your Church in Today's Fluid Culture (Hardcover)

Leonard Sweet is definitely the "guru" of post-modern church life. He articulates principles that are essential for guiding the church through the troubled waters of today's society. As much as it is crucial to have a solid foundation of the person of Jesus, the Bible, and tradition, it is also important to value creativity and intuition. Although Sweet gives you the general principles, he stresses that no two churches are alike, and it is futile to attempt to copy even the most successful ones (Willow Creek, for example). A previous reviewer felt that Sweet was excessive in his many examples and illustrations. I don't agree with that assessment, even though, admittedly, I did get a little weary with his constant use of the sailing-ship metaphor (a metaphor which would seem rather anachronistic to a post-modern society). In fact, I'm sure many pastors could find a wealth of sermon illustrations in this book, even though that is not the main purpose.

One interesting point that did occur to me while I was reading "AquaChurch" was the fact that, since this book was written a couple of years ago and emphasized the fast-changing nature of society, that society had changed at such a rapid pace that parts of the book were obsolete by the time I read it! Maybe Sweet will update this volume every few years to keep it in print and relevant. Nonetheless, this is a very useful book for all who are in church leadership.