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

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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!

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

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.

An intriguing book... and a book that points to the necessity of relationship with the Father-- and intimacy over methodology and pragmatism. Face it-- as the book says, "We want a map." We want to know what to expect, how to move, what to navigate around... We want seven steps now, eight steps before we get there...

Yet, LS reminds us that Christ never gave a map. He was never that pragmatic. Rather, He called us to intimacy, to relationship ("Follow Me."). Using the idea of "true North" as our guidepost, Sweet expounds upon the idea of the Church as a ship... (Another interesting read here, which is somewhat related is Ike Reighard's "Discovering Your North Star".) In this "sink or swim" time for the Church, this message bears our time and careful attention.

The book Aqua Church, by Leonard Sweet, is a book about Christian leadership in a postmodern world. The purpose of this book is to equip church leaders with the leadership skills that are need to guide the church in today's world. Sweets states that with today's world in a constant state of change it is essential for the church to be fluid or adaptable to become the flourishing church that God intended it to be. Leonard has many different simple points, which are the emphasis of his chapters. To accompany each point he uses many different illustrations, which make up the bulk of the material in the book. Aqua Church speaks of the current state of humankind as being under constant change. Many things are changing, including careers, relationships, politics, and technology. If the church is to be any sort of influence it needs to learn to be quite adaptable. Sweet takes many foundational elements of Christianity, such as Jesus and the Bible, and tries to bring the reader back to these foundational elements. Sweet then goes on to talk about some of the traditional ways church has been done in the past and then brings a new edge to them by making them relevant for today. To go along with this Sweet throws in some new ideas about the way church should be done in a way that will be effective in the world today. Sweet did a fair job of accomplishing his purpose. Each of his points was well made and well founded. This was done by using a vast ammount of illustrations. There was a main running illustration throughout the whole book that using many sailing terms to describe the different necessary parts of the church. These illustrations seemed to be at excess and some of them being hard to follow. With these illustrations though each point was fully made. This book holds many truths and ideas that are quite relevant for today's church. To begin with Jesus and the Bible are always relevant no matter what the time period is. Leonard lays these out as the foundation for any church. Everything else he talks about gives different tools for a leader in the church to take in order that he or she might lead their church more effectively. This book would probably best be used by leaders of struggling churches in order to give them an idea of how to change their ways to become more effective in the society they are working in. It would also be a good reference to leaders in churches that are doing quite well, but it would seem that the leaders of these sorts of churches should be more hesitant to change the way they are doing things if they are being effective as they are. As the reader I was not very impressed with the reading. Leonard seemed to have a great gift of gab. He beat each horse (point) to death and then kept on beating it. I found my attention drifting away from the book due to the fact that he had thoroughly made his point but he would just not get off of it and move on. It seems that this book would just as adequately accomplished his purpose is he would have cut about half to seventy-five percent of the illustrations and turned it into a pamphlet. Even though I did not like this book all that well I did think he had some good things to say. Every point he made was a good and relevant point. He had very good things to say about Jesus being the light by which to guide the church and the Bible as the "compass." Some of his other points about doing church are very relevant and applicable for today.

This is the first book I have read by Leonard Sweet and I found it both engaging and troubling. Engaging because Sweet is a masterful communicator. I've rarely encountered such an excellent word-smith. He has a rare gift for illustrating truth through metaphor. The entire book, in fact, is built on the metaphor of the mariner. Jesus is our North Star, the Bible is our Compass, Tradition is our Anchor, Creativity is our Gyroscope, etc. Sweet talks about "the traps of maps" and how people go over-board in wrongly relating to the Bible. He freely quotes poets and actors, preachers and philosophers, newspapers and supermodels in his grasping for ways to communicate. His grasp of postmodern culture is amazing.

Not so, however, his grasp of Scripture and this is what makes the book disturbing. While he acknowledges the authority of Scripture, he fails to demonstrate proper exegesis. He calls himself almost a fundamentalist when it comes to the content of the gospel, but almost a libertine when it comes to the containers in which the gospel is presented, which sounds a lot like "the end justifies the means." When it comes to methods, anything goes. I fear that such looseness with methods cannot help but compromise the message. A dirty container will pollute the content that is placed within it, and too much adaptation to culture will adversely affect our understanding of the gospel. Sweet walks too close to the line, I think.

There is more emphasis on giftedness and innovation in leadership than on character and godliness. In fact, I remember absolutely no discussion on the qualifcations for leadership stipulated in the Pastoral Epistles. Troubling, for a book on church leadership. Creativity is given more weight than fidelity to Scripture. The pulpit is considered a prison, not the primary platform for disseminating truth. These all make the book disturbing to me, and not one that I would quickly recommend to
others.

A few positives, though: his chapter on taking shore leave (Sabbaths) was needed and helpful. Also, his many, many colorful illustrations and quotations. The book is worth periodic revisiting for the illustrations alone. I also see value in Sweet's emphasis on utilizing technology, particularly the Internet, in the church - but not to the neglect of more traditional forms like preaching and teaching.

So, in summary, this book is a mixed bag. In Sweet's attempt to help the ship of the church navigate the seas of postmodern culture, Aquachurch is in danger of getting too much water into the boat.

I thoroughly enjoy the work of Len Sweet. I have gathered helpful insights from every one of his books. His quirky way of saying things has helped me to look at my faith and ministry from new and different perspectives. This is particularly true of Aqua Church. Every chapter helps to define what the Church should be about in the 21st century. Len discussion of tradition is particularly helpful in thinking about and introducing change in the Church. His examples of churches from around the country don't overwhelm the practical thrust of the book.

AquaChurch has recently been updated and I would suggest the newer version. This version is old and antiquated. If you are a fan of Sweet, then you probably understand and love his writing style. If not, then it will be difficult to engage with text.

Leonard Sweet, AquaChurch: Essential Leadership Arts for Piloting Your Church in Today's Fluid Culture (Loveland: Group, 1999)

This is another classic contribution by church historian and futurist Leonard Sweet. Advocating the image of "AquaChurch", Sweet guides the reader on an enjoyable voyage exploring leadership arts for navigating the watery world of postmodernism and leading it to the gospel. Sadly churches all too often are drifting around with maps from the 1950s or 1980s, when we need not just new maps and instruction manuals but fresh tools and learning manuals. So Sweet discusses essentials like Jesus, the Bible, tradition, vision, communication, creativity, risk-taking, teamwork, and sabbaticals. He challenges churches to overcome their imagination deficit, cultivate intuition, be creative and take out of the box risks. The book comes complete with examples and a wealth of practical ideas for leaders and churches.

Originally reviewed for D Cronshaw "The Emerging Church: Pioneering Leadership and Innovation Reading Guide", Zadok Paper (Forthcoming 2010).

I was awed at how useful this book was. It had fantastic ministry ideas and practical ways to implement them. It avoided any of the political issues that were in SoulTsunami, and offers a great guide for navigating the postmodern world. Get this book now.