Messy Church: A Multigenerational Mission for God's Family [Kindle Edition]

Ross Parsley (Author)

Book Description

When you look at the church today, what do you see? A corporation with a CEO at the helm? A social organization that does good things for the community? Pastor Ross Parsley believes that neither of those pictures is God’s desire. Instead, God wants His church to function as a family—a group of real people who love each other and care for one another’s needs, no matter how messy.

 

Our culture is dying for the kind of community that only the church can provide—if we are living as God intended: as a family, protecting one another, extending grace, and loving unconditionally. We are not called to be consumers who ask what the church can offer us. We are called to love deeply, fight fairly, and bring hope to a generation of people starving to belong to something greater than themselves. Welcome to the family. You belong here.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Ross Parsley is the founder and lead pastor of ONEchapel, a thriving new church in Austin, Texas. He is also a renowned worship leader who, in 2007, helped guide New Life Church in Colorado Springs through a major transition as interim senior pastor. Ross and his wife, Aimee, have five children.

Product Details

• File Size: 589 KB
• Print Length: 208 pages
• Publisher: David C. Cook; New edition (July 1, 2012)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0087OWGZI
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Not Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #327,068 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Solving generational disconnect in churches June 28, 2012

By John Gibbs TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Paperback

Our picture of who we are as the church is woefully inadequate and tragically short-sighted; we are not learning enough from each other; we are not connecting generationally, and we are not birthing new family members; most tragically, we are not making enough disciples to make a dent in our current culture; we are sneezing into the wind, according to Ross Parsley in this book.

Many would agree with the diagnosis; but not everyone would agree about the appropriate cure. In Ross's view, the church needs to be less like an organised religion or an efficiently structured corporation and more like a big messy extended family. Families, he says, are perfectly designed for discipleship: constant access, consistent modelling, demonstration, teaching and training, conflict management and resolution, failure, follow-up and feedback, all in an atmosphere of love.
Separating the church into different age groups at worship time is like separating the family into different groups at meal time. Instead, we should be aiming for a multi-generational church service model, which is "rooted in history while leaving room for the mystery of the Holy Spirit among us." A model involving creeds, confession, communion, canon and connection is given in Appendix 1 of the book.

It is interesting to read Ross Parsley's book after reading Glenn Packiam's book Secondhand Jesus: Trading Rumors of God for a Firsthand Faith. Both were worship pastors at New Life Church in Colorado Springs at the time of senior pastor Ted Haggard's public fall from grace and at the time of the shooting at the church, and they have had their views of church affected in different ways. Ross became interim senior pastor to lead the church (a "messy family") through the difficult period after Haggard's departure, and the book contains a chapter describing that period. According to Ross, the overseers to whom Haggard was accountable did not have sufficient relational authority to provide guidance because they were too distant.

This is a well-written and passionately argued book. While I agree that inter-generational relationships in a church need to work much better, with mentoring of those who are younger by those who are older being a particular need, I am not fully convinced that intergenerational worship services are the best way of achieving this. Nonetheless I found the book very helpful and I highly recommend it to others.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars This book will change how you think about Church! July 3, 2012

By Charles

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Pastor Ross shares great insight about how God wants His church to be a family and not just an organization full of processes and systems. But a family that cares for each other in the good times and the bad no matter how messy it gets. I love how Ross uses personal illustrations from his life and applies them to this bibical truth. We all could learn from the fact the we don't stop being family just because things get messy!

5.0 out of 5 stars Messy Church January 24, 2013

By funngramma

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

It was interesting to parallel the thoughts of this book when it was written with today's society. I found I was in agreement with the author on many points.