An Unstoppable Force: Daring to Become the Church God Had in Mind (Hardcover)

by Erwin Raphael McManus (Author) "Atrophy (n) 1. a wasting away of the body or of an organ or part, as from defective nutrition or nerve damage;..." (more)
Key Phrases: radical minimum standard, apostolic ethos, tremendous friction, Jesus Christ, Los Angeles, Holy Spirit (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
I love this book because Erwin loves the church. Growing churches require growing leaders. This book will help. -- Rick Warren, Saddleback Church

If I could only recommend one book for every religious leader, this would be the one. -- Leonard Sweet, Drew University

Unstoppable Force contains insights and principles that I believe can help churches grow and reach their full potential in Christ. -- Bill McCartney, Promise Keepers

Product Description
An Unstoppable Force will excite and inspire readers about being part of the Church that God had in mind! A "force" created to change the world. A Church that is engaged with its community, daring to cut itself free from atrophied practices and programs to flourish in creative and compelling worship. A Church that risks reaching out to our jaded culture with "outside the box" expressions of faith and love.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Group Publishing(CO) (June 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764423061
• ISBN-13: 978-0764423062
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #24,178 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #44 in

  Books > Religion & Spirituality > Christianity > Theology > Ecclesiology

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book!, October 4, 2001

By	Eric J. Swanson "Eric Swanson--Co-author of T... (Boulder, CO USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Just when you think you understand what the church should be and the place church has in society you meet Erwin McManus-an original, who follows no one's mold but is certainly charting a new path that others will want to follow. He has profound insight into the big picture of the patterns of church and culture and how we can best influence the world around us. His church is comprised of people from 50 nations in the heart of East Los Angeles. He believes that "institutions preserve culture, while movements create culture.... There is a radical difference between leading one person to faith and leading a people to faith. The former produces a follower of Jesus Christ; the latter produces a movement of Jesus Christ. A genuine movement is a leadership culture." "It is more important to change what people care about than to change what they believe! You can believe without caring, but you can't care without believing." "If you're not willing to create problems, you're not willing to lead. Leaders create problems by changing expectations."

Erwin's church, Mosaic, has creatively expressed their purposes through the use of five elemental metaphors: Evangelism is the Mission represented by Wind; Fellowship is Water; Service is Wood, Worship is Fire and Discipleship is Earth. Talk about "branding" concepts...every time we feel the wind we think of our mission! Every time we work in the yard we think of the four soils!

Just as anything must be built from three basic shapes (circles, rectangles and triangles) and with three basic colors (yellow, blue and red) so everything in the church can be built from the basic spiritual elements of faith, hope and love. All they do is through the creative expression of the blending of these elements.

Erwin does not believe in a "step by step" growth process but truly believes that even the youngest believers can be involved in ministering to others. He uses arts, music, drama etc to communicate his message in a variety of church settings, from traditional to a nightclub setting. This is a definite "must read" if you want to get a glimpse of what the church may look like in this century.

35 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Revolutionary, September 24, 2001

By	Joseph Valentine Dworak "JVD" (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As soon as I knew that Erwin's first book was available I ordered it. Erwin McManus leads a church in Los Angeles that is unlike any church I have ever encountered. This book goes through much of the foundational patterns of the church, Mosaic, and Erwin's personal vision for church in the 21st Century. The work begins with some of the things that have gone wrong with church in the modern era. The author mentions that church is treated as an organization instead of a living organism. He argues that church must be treated as a living organism to awaken an apostolic ethos, which unleashed the movement of God. I can say with great certainty that not too many churches are thinking this way. Every church that I involved myself with, whether as a volunteer, or paid ministry professional, treated church as a business for God. Business systems are fine for the business world, but what the author argues for is that church be treated as a living organism, a species, that must adapt and change to remain culturally relevant. He argues that when church is a living organism, its members will reproduce new believers, small groups will reproduce communities of faith, and the church will unleash the apostolic movement of God.
The author next moves us towards how the church has become stagnant. He rails us to not be stuck in a safe theology, rather for us to move towards engaging what Christ envisioned as a dangerous faith. One of the more interesting pieces of this work is when the author notes that the only storm that can sink a church is the storm that rages from within. From my own experience, joining a church after it had split over a small issue, this rings completely true and close to home. How many times have churches split over issues ranging from what color the carpet will be to what to do with the missions' budget for the following year. It seems to me that God is looking down upon us and grabbing his hair in frustration.
This book became even more important to me personally in wake of the recent tragedies in New York City and Washington, D.C. The author informs us that Globalization and a mass urbanization is taking place all around us whether we like it or not, and churches need to do something to handle this new change, risk extinction. Time and time again I see churches near the city whose neighborhoods have changed, and they have done nothing about it. The so-called transitional communities, change, and become ethnically diverse, and the original church members move to the newer suburbs, and there is no shift in what the church looks like. The new people in the neighborhood have no place to attend worship; they simply are not going to attend a church where they are not represented in leadership. The author commands us to change, to be a living organism as a church, to move past being purpose driven, and being alive. Many church models over the past two decades focus on get the new people in, train them up, and send them out. This model was fine in a more ethnically stagnant climate which we dwelt in during the modern era. What the author commands us to do is to move back to the past, so we can see the future.
Other authors, such as Robert Webber, and Leonard Sweet echo what Erwin calls us to do, have a radical new vision for church in the postmodern era. To emulate the apostles and how 12 men and their followers changed the face of the world. The author challenges us to find, or to ourselves be catalytic leaders who are not afraid to move fast and move others quickly with us. While not everyone will be a catalytic movement leader, when the church or body of believers finds a catalytic movement leader, let us not snuff them out. To many times churches that refuse to change, whose feet are stuck in spiritual cement, refuse to identify, and then develop leaders who will awaken the church from the slumber of decline. This needs to change. While this author's work definitely does not provide a ten step plan to improve your church, he does more. Erwin McManus calls us to reexamine everything about how we do church. If we hope to survive and thrive in an era where Islam in the fastest growing religion in the United States, we all should take heed to what Erwin is saying to us in the important work.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A light in the darkness, June 30, 2006

By	DJ (Grand Junction, CO United States) - See all my reviews

It seems, from time to time, God raises up visionaries to nudge the church toward His divine directives. The book of Revelations carries letters to the churches reminding them, correcting them, and showing them that even at that early age the church had the potential to stray a bit from the path we are to follow. And throughout our history, there have been others to bring this message to His bride.
Erwin Mcmanus is one of those messengers. He speaks with clarity on the issues that many of us have been wrestling with for some time. To quote the great theologian Morpheus, "you know something is wrong, like a splinter in your mind". (paraphrased)
As I read this book, I cried aloud many times, "Yes!" when I would read another statement laying bare the topic of the generally handicapped state many of our churches is in. Not in the pointless fashion of criticism but with direct counterpoints to many of the tired and stale positions the church has taken on the topics relating to, in all reality, the foundational reasons the church exists. My wife must have thought me crazy during these outbursts.

If you have forgotten your first love-READ THIS BOOK

If you are walking the "narrow path" and would like a trail map-READ THIS BOOK

If you feel your walk is becoming more of a trudge-READ THIS BOOK

If you are involved in ministry in any way. Pastor, teacher, prophet, elder, greeter, parking lot attendant. I beseech you, PLEASE READ THIS BOOK.

This is not a "here's how to fill up those empty seats in your church" book. What this is, is a picture of the heart of the church, laid bare.
I rarely recommend books to folks because I believe all truth is available in the Holy Bible, and we are pushed constantly to spend our money on an endless train of Christiana. Or to send our money to others so that they can do God's work for us. I have no issue whatsoever with any ministry doing valid Christian work. My point is we are ALL called to do the stuff. As the late John Wimber said, "everybody get's to play".
With that said, I do recommend this book wholeheartedly for anyone desiring to pursue a closer walk with Thee.