Book review: Communicating for a change (Andy Stanley and Lane Jones)

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My rating: 5/5

Summary: This is the book every preacher should read

Links: Buy at Amazon

 

This book has transformed the way I preach and teach. I wish I had this book when I started preaching, and from now on I will recommend it to anyone exploring a calling to preach. It starts off with a creative story that gets the main learning points into your head easily. Then the second half of the book explains the theory in a bit more detail. This structure really helps to keep the book in your hands.

 

It recommends a basic structure (Me-We-God-You-We) that can be applied to nearly any talk or sermon. It espouses the one-point sermon, which was so refreshing for me. I have grown up on three-point sermons and I was relieved to have someone challenge that idea!

 

“The… problem with preaching points is that it doesn’t reflect the world we live in. We don’t live our lives by points. We live our lives by emotions. We respond to what we see, taste and feel. So there’s no compelling reason to remember points… Even the preacher knows this. That’s why he or she has to refer to their notes. They haven’t even bothered to memorise their own points.”

 

It challenged my style of preaching (basically reading from a script) by explaining the need to “internalise the message”. This has really impacted by preparation, and reminded me of the need for my sermons to first speak to me, and then to my audience.

 

When it comes to Scripture, Stanley take us out of our usual “read Scripture – preach – send them home” approach. I have always tried to make the Scriptures more interesting, but the book takes this to the next level:

 

“Make it so fascinating that they are actually tempted to go home and read it on their own.”

 

It has significantly raised the bar for my preparation. Stanley shares at the end of the book how he is usually prepared 3 weeks in advance. Not bad for a guy that preaches nearly every week!

 

“It’s our preparation and presentation that will keep people engaged”

 

“Communicating for a Change” is the essential guidebook for preachers, whether you are a rookie or an old hat.

 

 

 

Book review: Radical Together (David Platt)

My rating: 4/5

Summary: A deeply challenging book that should be read by all church leaders

Links: Chapter 1 sample (scribd.com) Buy at Amazon

 

“Radical Together” should carry a warning label: “Explicit: sure to challenge the way your church does church!” In his follow up to “Radical”, David Platt sets about challenging church leaders to rethink where their church’s time, money and other resources are focused.

 

“We realise how prone we are to exalt our work over God’s work, our dreams over God’s desires, and our plans over God’s priorities.”

 

It’s an uncomfortable book to read, because it makes us realise how far our church visions have strayed from the Great Commission. We are supposed to be making disciples of all nations, but there are still so many people groups around the world who have never even heard of Jesus.

 

I particularly enjoyed Platt’s balance between our response to poverty and our response to the unreached. He doesn’t place one as more important than the other, but challenges us to consider whether our church budgets are addressing these two issues. He also is careful to not create a sense of a works-based salvation:

 

“It’s not that acts of mercy  are a means to salvation, but they are clear evidence of salvation.” (emphasis mine)

 

But the high point for me was his understanding of what Jesus says in John 14:12 “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” (NIV). Platt suggests the following:

 

“We will do greater things, not because of the quality of the Spirit in select ones among us, but because of the quality of the Spirit spread throughout all of us”

 

Jesus did amazing things, but He put us in charge of taking His work to the ends of the earth. It is time for us to revisit where we as the Church are headed. Platt gives us a blueprint of how to go about this. And best of all, he is putting this theory into practice in his own church. This is a must read for all church leaders.

 

I only have two criticisms of the book. Firstly it looses steam near the end, the first few chapters where punchy and challenging, but the last few were a bit repetitive. And the Kindle version I was given to review was very poorly formatted, though still readable. Hopefully this will be resolved in the final version (I suggest you first check out the sample from Amazon if this is an issue for you).

 

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.