You See Bones, I See an Army: Changing the Way We Do Church [Paperback]

Floyd McClung (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2008

The statistics are sobering. Frustrated church members across Europe and North America are leaving their congregations. Why? Floyd McClung believes that God is realigning the church and wants to use people's frustration to motivate them toward change.

The kind of change McClung envisions may surprise you. It involves a valley of dry bones ready for use, ready to become an army. The dry bones are the poor, the rebellious, the marginalized of society, the young, the uneducated.

In this thought-provoking, timely book, McClung presents five principles of leadership, church, and mission sure to challenge all to become a radical community of Jesus followers: simple church, courageous leadership, focused obedience, apostolic passion, and disciple making.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Floyd McClung speaks directly to the heart of what God is doing on the earth today. His words will challenge you not only to rethink methodology but also to ask the big question, "Why do I do what I do?" --Tony Fitzgerald

Insightful, practical, easy to read, and full of wisdom. Floyd McClung is once again on the front edge of where God is leading the church on mission. If you want to be in the flow of what God is doing next, you will join him. --Neil Cole, author of Organic Church, Search and Rescue, and Cultivating a Life of God

This is a powerful book, a timely book, a necessary book, a book for this generation! In a world where too many churches have too "often become more like a prison than a healing community," McClung sees the church as it can be, should be, must be. --Dr. David Garrison, missionary author of Church Planting Movements

About the Author

Floyd McClung is the international director of All Nations, an international leadership training and church planting network. All Nations has partnered with local churches to send short-term and long-term church planting teams to more than 30 countries and provides specialized leadership and discipleship schools. Floyd is the author of 12 books, including The Father Heart of God.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: YWAM Publishing (June 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1576584380
• ISBN-13: 978-1576584385
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #725,628 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Life is a Mission, August 13, 2008

By 

Lee Hollingworth - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: You See Bones, I See an Army: Changing the Way We Do Church (Paperback)

Andrew Murray once wrote that, "What a man believes moves and rules his whole being, enters into him and becomes part of his very life." It is very clear from "You see bones - I see an Army" that Floyd McClung's life is an expression of a core belief in the eternal purposes of God for his church. McClung's passion overflows to reach out to anyone who is in search of a God-centric meaning for their life.

Building on a biblical foundation, McClung takes us for a walk "outside the gate" where God continues his work today. Never critical of what God is doing in the mega-church, McClung shows us that reaching the nations is probably not going to work if we adopt this hard to reproduce model for doing church. Rather, building upon the biblical example of a few men and women who are passionate about God's purpose, McClung shows us the way in which God is building his church - simply - and how that church can, and is, organically fulfilling its intended purpose of being a river of life.

I would recommend that you read this book if you are frustrated with "church" or find a lack of meaning in your life. It will challenge you like few other books; it may even be the thing God uses to change your life and set your feet upon a new and exciting path.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars How simple can church be?, December 4, 2009

By 

John Gibbs (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: You See Bones, I See an Army: Changing the Way We Do Church (Paperback)

The way we do conventional church is no longer relevant to the vast majority of unchurched people in the West, according to Floyd McClung. "No-one will die for a cause that is no bigger than Sunday-oriented, building-fixated Christianity." Instead, we need to learn from believers in the rest of the world where the church is an army rather than an institution, and it consists of simple organic communities.

McClung, who leads a multi-cultural church-planting movement in South Africa called All Nations, elaborates on five core beliefs that guide his life: Simple Church, which consists of easily-reproducible small groups of Jesus-followers; Courageous Leadership, which is team-based and focuses on guarding, governing and guiding; Focused Obedience, which avoids distractions from the core mission; Apostolic Passion, involving a high level of commitment; and Making Disciples, which should be the heart of everything.

Although I found considerable resonance with many of the ideas in the book, I found it an uncomfortable experience, and it took quite a bit of effort to read all the way through. The simplicity of the simple church model he advocates seems a bit too extreme for my liking, but I think that this is an important book which offers a perceptive critique of contemporary churches, and it should be on every church leader's reading list.

5.0 out of 5 stars Bones and Armies, December 26, 2010

By 

Edward - See all my reviews

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This review is from: You See Bones, I See an Army: Changing the Way We Do Church (Paperback)

I really found this book to be rewarding reading. It is stirring and gets you thinking about church... both in the spiritual sense and in the conventional sense. I believe God is always in the process of reforming His church in order to adapt to His purposes. Those of us who are passionate for His people find ourselves at times in the midst of this process of change and wonder why. This book helps explain some of the dynamics that are present in the American body of believers. Perhaps it helps us also to relax as we recognize that this movement is the hand of God and not something to curse.

Many thanks to Mr McClung for writing this.