Mike Warren is one of my absolutely favorite critical thinkers who not only works competently across multiple disciplines but, in my opinion, pulls the right disciplines into a conversation to write books that are intellectually sound but culminate in incredible, even prophetic insight.
It would be inadequate to call this merely a theology book. Its too rigorous to be lumped with practical ministry books, and too concrete to be sidelined as social theory.
People searching for help in their ministry will be seriously challenged intellectually and if the work carefully through this will have a foundation to reconfigure their expectations of ministry, shedding some perennial distractions but raising the bar on real transformative possibilities. However, if you are looking for a formula to revitalize your church, you’ll be disappointed, but you’ll also learn why you should be and why the hard work of love and discernment can never be reduced to steps
This book works inside the social construction of reality to see how people internalize the grammar of the cultural convictions and the suggests ways in which that can be transformed by the story and presence of God.
But after having read this the insights have permeated my art, the way I counsel other is casual conversation and how I choose to spend my time
Its about about how people become who they are and what else is possible. A must read for everyone in any kind of ministry over 10 years.