Customer Reviews

The Second Reformation: Reshaping the Church for the 21st Century

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Nearly thirty years ago, as an elder and home fellowship leader in an emerging megachurch, I became deeply convinced that small group fellowships were the "wave of the future." Then, several years later, when I read Howard Snyder's "The Problem of Wineskins," my convictions were solidified.

Now, as a senior pastor, after many years of stuggling to keep our home fellowships vital, and trying to balance small groups with all the other activities of the church, I and our leadership are moving into a cell church model. The key factor in pushing us "over the edge" has been Beckham's book.

Some of the cell group books available tend to present the cell model as another new technology guaranteed to produce evangelism and church growth. In some of the literature there seems to be a tinge of dogmatism and naive promotionalism (sincere but perhaps simplistic). Beckham, on the other hand, gives a persuasive historical and theological rationale for the cell group model.

His chapters on how to implement the cell model in the local church are worth the price of the book. And his explication of the "Instant Cell Church Syndrome (ICC)" is loaded with wit and wisdom. From my perspective, this book is a "must read" for all church leaders interested in the cell church model. Once Beckham's book has been absorbed, the other books with a more functional orientation can be appreciated and valued for their good points.

This is a must read for all in the ministry who are eager to learn from the NT church. Beckham carefully takes us through church history to show how our present "One winged" church was a result of Constantine's Edict of 312AD. He shows us how the "Two winged church" is a more biblical model. I was especially blessed by his presentation of how the "two winged church" demonstrates God's Holy transcendant nature which is experienced in corporate worship and how God's Immanence is experienced in the small group setting.

While it is nice to see that there are those in the instutionalized churches that see the need for reformation, I see a greater need in restoration. The modern Americanized church has become so filled with business ethics and principles that we have missed the clear New Testament teaching on servant leadership, authority, and the eternal purpose of the Church.

This book will offer you great insights into the cell movement. I would highly recommend this book if you are curious about how cell churches operate. If you are apart of a cell church and are still struggling with the clergy/laity system of most American churches (including cell groups) than I would encourage you to check out Frank Viola's book "Rethinking The Wineskins" (...).

The message in this book is clear, the church needs to change the world instead of the world changing the church. We must seek to return to a biblical model and pattern for the Church.

William Beckham shows the three year process Jesus took in developing the structure and mission of his fledgling church. The author then applies the same steps to the 21st century church. The steps are logical and easy to understand and follow. My church leaders loved the book and are already implementing the model in our church. In the area of small groups this is a must read.

I received this book as part of the materials for a conference led by the author in 1997. As soon as I started reading, I realized the tremendous advantage the New Testament-shaped church has over today's institutional local church that encourages people to come but is largely unwilling to go into the middle of people's daily life to make disciples as Jesus commanded. Perhaps the best quote I read was about the Sunday School and how if all the billions of dollars spent on programming, building construction and literature were sufficient to reach the world, surely it would already have happened. Today I know the New Testament model Beckham advocates as the "organic" church. The traditional, 1-day-a-week church in North America today is on the skids, and Beckham shows the biblical alternative very clearly.

After receiving the vision of cell-based ministry in 1993, "The Second Reformation" was one of the first of several books God lead me to in my research that served to confirm God's calling and purpose for my life.

If you wish to explore the "big church-little church" discussion, this book is the place to begin. The Second Reformation offers a solid theo-philosophical foundation for exploring the concepts of "cell church." Mr. Beckham does an excellent job of integrating our understandings of "large church" and "small church" while postulating a balanced church with "two wings." In, The Second Reformation, Beckham provides a sober treatment of New Testament, or "Early Church," ecclesiology without the hyperbolic language of the "cell church movement" or the defensive posturing of the "traditional church."

An essential part of every church leader's library.

On a personal note, I have loaned out my copy and now am anxious for it to be returned so I can read it again!

A very good book giving an overview of cell church ideas, and nice to find something not written by Ralph Neighbour, although he's worth reading too. Buy it!

If you are looking for a truly Biblical approach to the way the Scriptures view the Church, you will not find it in this book. Sadly, this book encourages its readers to undermine the Lord's Day (contrary to the fact that the New Testament clearly sets it aside as the day most important to the church). In its so-called "endeavour" to bring the Church back to the Scriptures, it fails to back up its arguments from the Scriptures. Instead, pragmatic examples are used thus rendering the Scriptural institution of the local church as irrelevant for our time. The few times (and I mean few) that the Scriptures are referred to, they are taken out of context, and used as a springboard to launch once again into a pragmatic approach to how God views His Church. This book belittles the true doctrine of the church, and thus does more damage than it does good. What professing Christians need is not a "paradigm shift" as the book suggests....instead they need to stop seeking for innovative ways of doing things and truly seek to follow the regulatory principles found in the authoritative Word of God.