Customer Reviews

The Church of Irresistible Influence

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I am taking a PhD class in organizational communications from the University of South Florida and one of the topics we covered in the class was corporate reputation. My interest in that specific area spilled over into that topic being applied to the church. I have started with the question, "What impacts the reputation of the church?" and the answer points to the presence of the body of faith in service to it's community. It is actually my major project for the semester. This book is being used as a resource for that paper as it solidified that thoughts for me.

This book has put into words much of what I have thought, implemented, taught and preached for the past 5 years. It is as monumental to my thoughts towards ministry as Warren's Purpose Driven Church and George Hunter's Church for the Unchurch. If you can read just one book on church leadership this year, read this one. It will challenge you and may place you outside your comfort zone, but it will help move your church towards impacting and influencing your community in ways that please God and grow His kingdom.

Although I am the first person to review this landmark book, I will not be the last. As one who is a student of what God is doing through churches in our communities, I am greatly impressed about what the faith community of Little Rock is doing to build "incarnational bridges" into their community. I personally believe this will be the next wave for churches. If you are interested in this process I can recommend a couple of books that have a similar story:
The Church that Never Sleeps by Matthew Barnett
Meeting Needs, Sharing Christ by Charles Roesel
City Reaching by Jack Dennison
Urban Churches: Vital Signs by Nile Harper
Recently, 25 pastors in Boulder County, who are committed to its spiritual transformation, received a copy of this book. If we apply the principles in this book, our community will never be the same!

This is an extremely important book, as it tells the story of one church's metamorphosis from a typical 20th century church to a church with truly "Irresistible Influence" in its community.

It tells the story in a very well-written, easy-to-read way, of the Fellowship Bible Church of Little Rock, Arkansas.

A church that is truly striving to "make disciples" in the manner that Jesus intended when He gave His disciples that Commission.

It is a breath of fresh air, and it inspired me to: try to persaude my own church to adopt their approach; or find a church-planting group that is using these principles, and join them.

Inspiring! Five stars!

"The Church of Irresistible Influence" is one of the most compelling books that I've ever read about what the church can and should be. I'm not one to casually embrace huge concepts on a whim, so I'm not yet convinced that every notion from this book is appropriate or even workable in many churches. In fact, Lewis' church has undergone some significant organizational changes since he wrote the book. I would be most intrigued to read a sequel that describes the process of becoming a church of irresistible influence after several more years of experience.

In any case, perfect model or not, Lewis presents many extremely dynamic examples of how his church (and, more specifically, the people within his church) began to impact the Little Rock community in amazing ways. It's great to read those stories of connection, blessing, and service, particularly as so many churches are becoming painfully aware of how useless they really are to their communities.

I would strongly recommend this book to any modern church leader, not because I think that every church should adopt this exact model of church structure, but because it presents some big issues and paradigm-shifting ideas that have the potential to totally redefine the impact of the American church. It just might totally rearrange the way you think about church!!

Lewis' book is a welcome offering, calling the church to "get beyond itself" and instead focus on how to radically bless those around it. Through this process, the church will recover her original mission and ministry and incarnate Christ to those wanting to believe, but distrustful of empty religion.

A thought provoking book full of inspiring stories, it is sure to usher in a welcomed paradigm shift in how and why we "do" church.

A read you won't regret.

"The truth is finally revealed. Anything done in the name of Christ, in the name of love, is ministry. Anything." That's a powerful quote that caught my attention from this book "The Church of Irresistible Influence: Bridge Building Stories to Help Reach Your Community," by Dr. Robert Lewis. The Church of Irresistible Influence is a story-filled book describing the early church's spiritual energy and depth which amazingly transformed the surrounding culture - and encouraging the church to do its best to do nothing less. Lewis shares the story of Fellowship Bible Church in Little Rock, and encourages the use of a bridge metaphor to become a church of " irresistible influence" (or i2). The book has five parts: i) Spanning the great divide - what will it take to reconnect church and culture; ii) Designing the Structure - How-to of incarnational bridge building; iii) Experiencing the Results - true stories of i2 in action; iv) Expanding the i2 effort - through partnering and leadership development; v) Anticipating the Future - the Church in the 21st C.

What would it look like if it were more important that our lives were more attractive, rather than our church buildings? That's a key question that is addressed in detail in the book. The early sections talk a lot about the motivation for reaching out to the community, and the heart and leadership changes that will need to happen for this to come to pass. Towards the end it gets very practical in discussing implementation ideas and structure. "Structure" is about unleashing people with purpose - this structure must allow for hands-on i2 exposures, personal i2 ministry, strategic i2 investments. FBC's small group structure "intentionally processes people toward finding a personal ministry of influence." : They diagram it as: 1) Discovery, 2) Seasons of Life, 3) Common Cause. Discovery is for newcomer orientation, small group training and church membership, lasting 8-10 weeks. The Seasons of Life phase is a 3-year long small group spiritual growth experience emphasizing relationships according to a member's particular life stage. Common Cause is a small group spiritual growth experience emphasizing service to Christ according to a member's gifting and design; the time commitment is year-to-year.

Chapter 10 talks about the how there is no greater investment than in finding and training the leaders of tomorrow. "So, what kind of church leader should we be seeking to influence? Those who possess the following characteristics: keen intellect, high energy, a track record of leadership accomplishments, spiritual passion and a godly lifestyle, an ability to think conceptually, results-oriented, an ability to work in a team environment, a bent toward idealism. Of these, idealism is perhaps the critical trait." Chapter 11 was quite interesting, talking about developing a community strategy. Phase One: Community Research. Phase Two: Focus Group Feedback (panels of 22 community and social service leaders, to interact with the results of the findings from phase one). Phase Three: Survey of Churches.

Overall, The Church of Irresistible Influence is a good read. At times it provides great stories and useful principles, while at other times it feels a little too much like a canned model of things that might work great for them but not for us (I don't think this is their intention!) If you want to have a greater influence in the community, personally or for your church, it's worth checking out.

Church is not just about a service on Sunday - but about becoming prepared to really live God's Word - and then living in the Word in our communities. What an inspiration. And I am not a Pastor ... just one of the congregation!

This book is excellently written! If you envision growing the body of Christ, outside of the Four-walls, please read! I have been enlightened, expanded, and informed...Now, it's TIME to MOVE!

Excellent book for leadership looking to move their church into the future. Provides excellent analogies, true and personal stories of churches and people who have done it and scripturally based reasoning for community outreach.

I was referred to this book from The Intentional Church. The book provides some good examples and approach to how the Little Rock church developed and began reaching the community around them.