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Book Review - Future Church: Ministry in a Post-Seeker Age
Future Church: Ministry in a Post-Seeker Age by Jim L. Wilson, Nashville: Broadman and Holman Publishers, 2004. ISBN - 0805431349.
Jim Wilson is pastor of Lighthouse Baptist Church in Seaside, California. His background as an extensively published writer is evident in this well-crafted analysis of the emerging church in the post-seeker generation.
The author begins the book by relating his own struggle with doing church in a contemporary format. His doubts as to whether such an approach is still relevant fueled his interest into researching a number of different churches to find some answers. His research was done in conjunction with a commitment to do articles on this subject in several prominent evangelical periodicals. The result of this research became the basis of this book in which he utilizes a case study format to explore numerous churches that are successfully reaching people in today’s environment. He calls these “future churches.”
Wilson organized the book around response to notions of conventional wisdom that are often held in regard to reaching people in today’s environment. The results are seven fulcrum points that he views as being critical. Devoting a chapter to each, he divides each chapter into three parts: portraits of the churches he visited, values of future churches, and issues in regard to how the church can respond to changes in the contemporary culture.
Wilson gave some important characteristics of the church that will be effective in the future which are somewhat different in focus from the seeker church movement. One difference is the movement away from the “how to” type of sermon in favor of an emphasis on a transformational encounter with God. This approach does not oversimplify the answers to problems into a nice neat formula. Instead, people are urged to allow God’s transformational power to work in them as they face various crises and challenges. There is no attempt to “prove God” to a generation skeptical of rational truth, but rather there is a simple telling of the Scripture story and a trust in its inspired power to transform.
Another characteristic of the future church is that it shuns the market driven approach. In contrast, the reality of the true nature of the church is unashamedly presented and the focus is to lead worshippers to encounter God. This is reflected in a move away from a stage driven focus to a much more reflective mood. Along with this emphasis, the future church is uncompromisingly spiritual with a call for a higher commitment to live what is professed. There is a strong confrontational element to exhibit a transformed life. The future church does not condemn the sinner but it does insist on repentance of sin.
The church of the future cannot escape risk. Wilson gave the example of one church that initially thrived but died over a theological controversy. He noted that the value of the future church “is not in its ability to stay in the comfort of safe harbor but to risk going offshore ... even if the rescue mission lasts for a short while because their boat was terminally damaged in heavy seas.”
Future Church is a work that is both disturbing as well as encouraging. It is disturbing to be confronted with the dissonance between the methodology of the traditional and contemporary church models and what is actually relevant to reaching people in the post-seeker culture. The encouragement comes as the author confirms the power of the Gospel through numerous examples of individual and corporate stories of transformation.
Pastors will find a number of inspiring testimonies of individuals that would serve well as sermon illustrations. Church leaders are given specific examples that will stimulate thoughts of how their church can change to accommodate the realities of reaching people in today’s culture. Yet, one will not find a set formula.
Wilson’s church case studies range from churches that have very abbreviated sermon messages with abundant aids from arts and innovative technology to one church where a ninety-minute sermon has no visual aids of any kind. Wilson effectively demonstrated that though methodology may vary among future churches, the commonality of biblical principles is the unifying theme of those who desire to reach the post-seeker generation.
Read a sample chapter of Future Church
Reviewed by Steve Echols, Associate Dean, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.
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