The Relevant Church: A New Vision for Communities of Faith [Paperback]

Mike Bickle (Author), Mike Howerton (Author), Jennifer Ashley (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2004

Studies show twentysomethings are the least likely to attend church. So where do God-hungry twentysomethings go to worship? New communities of faith are popping up around the country and are challenging the traditional church model. The Relevant Church shares individual ideas and stories of churches that are engaging a new generation with passionate worship and a life-changing message, all while they impact their communities and change their world.

Product Details

• Paperback: 171 pages
• Publisher: Relevant Books (August 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 097469424X
• ISBN-13: 978-0974694245
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,369,702 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good thoughts, August 17, 2006

By 

Joshua D. Jones (Nottingham, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Relevant Church: A New Vision for Communities of Faith (Paperback)

a mixture of essays which sometimes compliment, sometimes contradict and sometimes agree. I have no idea what the other reviewer was smoking when he bashed Driscoll. I read the book and there were some critcisms in there, but it was not to be found in Driscoll's essay. I actually appreciated his humble honesty on the journey of his CHurch. Pretty funny too.
All in all the book is good, especially to read with someone and then discuss if you are in church leadership.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A radical and unsuspecting take on what church is, August 18, 2004

By 

JLA "socalbooklvr" (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Relevant Church: A New Vision for Communities of Faith (Paperback)

The Relevant Church is compilation of readable essays and first-hand stories of young pastors, many of whom grew weary with the churchy, compartmentalized version of church in which they were leaders. The writing is funny, even irreverent at times, and will open your eyes to how the church is changing and forming at the forefront of culture. It will definitely challenge you to rethink the confines of church like no other book has.

20 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A mixed bag, October 7, 2004

By 

Bob Hyatt (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Relevant Church: A New Vision for Communities of Faith (Paperback)

There's some very valuable stuff in this book, as well as some not-so-valuable essays. In that this book represents a description of what some in the emerging church movement are doing to do/and be church in a way that makes sense to the people they are living their lives with, loving with all their hearts and trying to reach, it's great. Karen Ward's essay in particular stands out. Also in that some of these essays contain good thoughts about building churches around the right type of missional thinking, it's great.

In that some of these essays were written with the mindset of correcting the emerging church movement, it falls down a bit. Every movement needs some course corrections now and again. However, the suggestions offered here might have been better made 5 years ago... in particular, the criticism of "cool" churches.

What's interesting to me is knowing some of the back story here and reading between the lines of some of this. In our ever-advancing line of "what's chic"... it's now the ultimate in cool to deride coolness in churches. Which is funny. I am deeply invested in the emerging church movement, and have been watching the growing tide of criticism with interest. Especially when it comes from former pioneers, like Mark Driscoll.

I'll give it to Bill Hybels (founder of mega-church Willow Creek). He got criticized but knew where he was going, let the criticism roll off and just did what he felt like God wanted him to do. That's kind of what I feel like right now in regards to the emerging church. These guys like Driscoll (who wrote one of the essays in this book) can criticize us for critiqueing the institutional church (thus creating this nice merry-go-round of criticism and doing exactly what they are telling me not to do)... but I am convinced this is an absolutely necessary discussion which will be valuable to the church in its doctrine of church, of Scripture, salvation, and its preaching and other methodologies.

It's the ultimate in indie-cool hypocrisy to set oneself apart as being "not cool" and point fingers at "those" guys for "trying too hard."

Yes- I have met people doing church who are trying a little too hard to be cool. But to be honest, very few of them are emerging church planters. Most people I have met who have actually reached the stage of stepping out and planting a church have moved past just wanting to do something cool... way past it, in fact- to the point that what I hear more of is "This is the only thing I can do- it no longer makes sense to me or the people I'm trying to reach to be church any other way. If I don't do this, I'm not sure I'll even be a Christian in 5 years." This is about way more than coolness and to not acknowledge that is insulting.

So- apologies to Mark Driscoll... but I hope he reads Karen Ward's chapter and gets back in touch a bit with the way he was actually feeling when he started Mars Hill, not just the way he now talks about that time.

It's a book worth the read, especially if you are either:
a. considering dropping out of church altogether and wondering if there are any church communities anywhere that would make sense to you. There are!
b. Considering taking part in a church plant. There's some good discussion in this book which will help guide you as you deal with issues of values, form/style and community.