Leading Kingdom Movements - Review

Mike Breen strikes gold again.
First, he nails the cultural analysis.  We are in the midst of a cultural earthquake. All of our buildings are shaken and wobbly.  People are wary of institutions because they feel dangerous; the whole thing just might collapse and crush them.  And yet increasingly we know we are broken, and we want healing.
Then, Breen directs our attention to long-term change.

• "Many people doing many small things in many places can change the face of the world."
• "At the center of each movement were leaders who had been completely and utterly broken in such a way that they came to rely completely on the Lord."
• Miracles are the heavy artillery of the Kingdom.  Many of us shy away from the gift because of the packaging.  But what if it wasn't weird?
• "Find the grace.  Organize around where you see the grace operating."  See what God is doing and join him there.
• "Care more about the long-term sustainability and development of your team than the short-term success of your organization."
• The more difficult your assignment, the more you need time playing together.  Times to laugh, enjoy each other, and just be a team apart from any higher purpose you have.
• "If you make disciples, you really do get the rest.  If you make disciples and release them, you will get new people entering the Kingdom.  If you make disciples, you get the missional thing.  If you make disciples, the places where society is torn in two and frayed at the edges start to be mended."
• "Movements are what change the world. ... Most leaders, even young leaders, are trained in how to lead organizations, even institutions - but not movements."
• "The extended family unit (25-70 people who meet together regularly) is the single most significant vehicle of mission that God has ever released into the world.  Ever."
• "If you can do the work of the Kingdom without the Holy Spirit's active involvement (through the miraculous), you aren't really doing the work of the Kingdom."
• "Movemental change will come only if we have something that is sustainable and scalable.  If our methodology requires leaders and events with endless amounts of energy resources and money, we're done.  We just are."
• In discipleship, we are essentially orbiting around a person of larger spiritual mass (as we all orbit around Jesus).  We are putting ourselves within that person's sphere of influence so that some of her Spirit can rub off on us, so that we can gain some of her spiritual mass.
• In discipling relationships, we need predictable rhythms of orbital patterns (spending time close together with certain people in regular intervals - being within the orbit of their influence).  
• Large groups (75+) should function as "red hot centers" - firing us up with the Spirit for when we orbit outward away for our missional time away from the center.

This is my third book by Breen, and I'm convinced that he is a man of deep wisdom.  He has caught on to something in our world and has a profound Spiritual and anthropological insight into how to help the Church become the transforming force of goodness and healing that God always intended.  I want to keep learning.

Multiplying Missional Leaders - Review

You know how things tend to fall apart after the key leader leaves?
I've been there and done that, and ever since I've been trying not to do that again.
This book is about how to change that.

You know how church folks tend to develop this myopic vision of their world?  We lead and serve and play within an increasingly small space, while the wide wide world is left unexplored and unserved.
This book is about how to change that.

You know how discipleship has taken on the meaning of understanding some basic information and becoming moderately faithful in a bare minimum of personal spiritual disciplines?  We still think following Jesus is all about us.  Somehow we have separated discipleship and mission.
This book is about how to change that.

You know how your small group sometimes gets this itch to change the world but doesn't know where to start?  We don't have enough people working together with a common vision to accomplish much of anything together.
This book is about how to change that.

You know how the biggest problem in Christianity is that Christians aren't actually living up to our own ideals?  We have all kinds of information, but not much follow-through.  We are happy for someone to teach us to DO something better, but we chafe at anyone's suggestion that they can help us BE someone better.
This book is about how to change that.

You know how the Church seems to be one more machine in our consumeristic society?  We are all producing what the customers want and consuming what the customers are willing to pay for the religious goods.
This book is about how to change that.

You know how Christian community often seems to stop at the doors of the church?  Maybe you even have a small group with a few prayer requests, but everyone is left longing for a deeper level of community that we just don't know how to get or even how to name.
This book is about how to change that.

You know how our experience of Church so often leaves us disappointed and longing for more?
This book is about how to change that.

Book Review - Building a Discipling Culture - Mike Breen

Best book I've ever read on how to do church.  Hands down.
The writing is not knock your socks off.  The cool factor is fairly low.  The editing is a little lacking.
But the concepts ...  WOW!

Here is a brief rundown.

• If you set out to make disciples, you will inevitably build the Church.  If you set out to build the Church, there is no guarantee that you will make disciples.  This is by far the most simple, most profound and most radical concept in the book.
• Everyone needs to be discipled by someone and actively discipling someone (or at least moving toward it).  This in itself is not radical or new.  People have been talking about this for centuries.  What is unique for our era is an actual plan for how to do this and the expectation that it can, must, and will be done.  We are actually asking people to model after us - so we better get our lives in line with what we see in Jesus!
• Discipleship takes a great deal of time, intentionality, relationship, and personal investment.  If we are genuinely going to disciple someone, we have to invite them deeply into our lives.