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The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community
Written for those who are trying to nurture authentic faith communities and for those who have struggled to retain their faith, The Tangible Kingdom offers theological answers and real-life stories that demonstrate how the best ancient church practices can re-emerge in today's culture, through any church of any size. In this remarkable book, Hugh Halter and Matt Smay "two missional leaders and church planters" outline an innovative model for creating thriving grass-roots faith communities.
224 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2008
114 people are currently reading
733 people want to read
About the author
Hugh Halter
19 books42 followersHugh Halter is a pastor and popular author of numerous books including Flesh, The Tangible Kingdom, And, Sacrilege, and Primer. Hugh and Cheryl are presently enjoying the spoils of empty nest living but love to use their ranch as a haven of celebration, hospitality, and friendship to the lost and least on the south side of Denver.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 121 reviews
February 22, 2011
Halter and Smay’s book was an interesting read. While I appreciated their warmth for evangelism and authenticity, I have a major point of contention with one of their opening statements. In their opening chapter they say, “I believe in the church. I believe God loves his church, and that he’s quite ticked that his bride looks like ‘Fiona the ogre’ instead of Cameron Diaz.” It seems to me that the rest of the book and the quest of the authors are to create a church that looks like Cameron Diaz. When reading this book I was continually reminded of a quote by St. Augustine. Augustine in talking about the church once said, “The church is a whore, but this whore is also my mother.” In thinking about Augustine’s quote I believe that he portrays the church in a healthy manner. The very church itself is composed of sinners that will always fail to meet up to the glorious standards of God. The church is not immune from sin nor a perfect utopia here on earth. The Christian church will always fail to meet the mark, and always fails in being free from hypocrisy. However, it is this very broken, whorish, and unfaithful vessel that God in His grace has called and commissioned to bring forth the Gospel (Ephesians 3:20). Through its unfaithfulness, brokenness and hypocrisy God has used the church, the body of believers, as an instrument to proclaim the life changing message of the Gospel. Through the lips of sinners God ministers His Word that penetrates hearts, grants faith and imputes assurance. Through imperfect people and an imperfect institution God’s perfected Gospel has been preserved, ministered and spoken forth to the ends of the earth.
If anything, Augustine’s quote testifies more about the faithfulness of God and the power of His Gospel working in the midst of broken man rather than commenting on the church itself. If anything, Augustine’s quote exposes my sin of putting trust into an unfaithful church rather than the unchanging and faithful message of the Gospel. If anything, Augustine’s quote is yet another example of God’s grace and intense love towards sinful mankind.
While I commend Halter and Smay in their missionary zeal I do not believe the answer to missions is to become like Cameron Diaz, for I believe the natural state of the church is Fiona the orge. Furthermore, I do not believe the Kingdom of God is found in the tangible events of the church body but is found in the King, Jesus Christ. Where the King is, there is the kingdom. What makes the church unique and the Gospel so sweet is that Christ would pursue, die and love Fiona!
If anything, Augustine’s quote testifies more about the faithfulness of God and the power of His Gospel working in the midst of broken man rather than commenting on the church itself. If anything, Augustine’s quote exposes my sin of putting trust into an unfaithful church rather than the unchanging and faithful message of the Gospel. If anything, Augustine’s quote is yet another example of God’s grace and intense love towards sinful mankind.
While I commend Halter and Smay in their missionary zeal I do not believe the answer to missions is to become like Cameron Diaz, for I believe the natural state of the church is Fiona the orge. Furthermore, I do not believe the Kingdom of God is found in the tangible events of the church body but is found in the King, Jesus Christ. Where the King is, there is the kingdom. What makes the church unique and the Gospel so sweet is that Christ would pursue, die and love Fiona!
February 17, 2014
Reading entirely through The Tangible Kingdom is like eating toast smothered in strawberry-habanero jam. It’s sweet enough to hold your interest to the last bite, yet hot enough to make people regret it the next morning. The Tangible Kingdom claims to be a book about re-creating the mission of Jesus, his apostles, and the early Christian churches, when, in fact, it’s really about creating an intuitively dreamy fad for those who have been disappointed with organized Christian religion in America. This is not to say it doesn’t make many valid points about, or provide any helpful insights for, reforming ugly habits of American evangelicalism. What I am saying is that the “incarnational presence” portrayed throughout this book is more anecdotal than ancient in its presentation.
This book can be divided roughly into four sections. The first section (chs. 1-5) is about identifying the church’s negative impact in society, and it begins with the author’s own life experiences, focusing especially upon God’s call for him to lead potential God-seekers into something new, but not something entirely new:
“This type of new is about a returning. Returning to something ancient, something tried, something true and trustworthy. Something that has rerouted the legacies of families, nations, kings, and peasants. ….What we’re returning to has always been and must still be revolutionary. What we need to dig up, recover, and find again is the life of the Kingdom of Jesus’ community… the church.” (p. 10)
The claim is made that there is a culture war brewing between two camps of Christians, and this book is admittedly bias toward one side (p. 20). In order to recover the life of churches today, Christians need to start doing things which the Church has not been doing, and stop doing things they have been doing (p. 12). For example, churches need to stop being like “Jerusalem Christians” (p. 19) who view Jesus “through their traditions and the literal interpretation of doctrine.” These types rely too much on sermons that focus on behavior (e.g. sin) and programs to transform people (e.g. Billy Graham crusades, Promise Keepers, Alpha, etc.). Instead of holding “doctrine so tightly that …the life of Jesus gets obscured” (p. 19), they need to be more like the “Galilean Christians” who engaged the world and “interpret[ed] the Bible through the life of Jesus,” focusing especially on the atonement, justice, mercy, love, benevolence, and advocacy for the poor, oppressed, and sinners. This, allegedly, will keep people from becoming “idolaters of the Bible” who “prioritize head knowledge over heart life” (p. 20). Church, doctrine, “Bible,” and keeping hostile people out of the Church must not be the goal of the gospel anymore. Instead the goal of the gospel should be to “start identifying ourselves with [hostiles], and allow Christ’s redemption to flow over all.” (p. 31).
The second section (chs. 6-12) is about removing traditional obstacles that get in the way of this healthy “reemergence” of ancient faith (p. 38), especially the problematic “postures” which offend the status quo of potential god-seekers in the world. Instead of focusing on “communicating a message of truth to the world” (p. 41), the “most important thing” is whether or not unbelievers are attracted to embodied truth first, so they can become more willing to receive the truth later. (p. 41). Christians need to go back to the “fringe movement” of the “pre-institutional church” (i.e. before Constantine; p. 50) which followed the ways of Jesus and practiced the “art” of not feeling any compulsion to feed people spiritually while still being willing to look after their spiritual formation (pp. 53-55). “Church” needs to become what it allegedly once was: a people you belonged with instead of a place you went to (p. 55), a place that “was unique, intriguing, and attractive primarily because it called for inclusion of all people” (p. 70), advocating “love of all people regardless of past mistakes, sexual orientation, or political bias.” (p. 88). Instead of arguing philosophy or debating alternative religious viewpoints, Christians should simply “live a different story” and invite people to observe (p. 76) so “sojourners” can feel or see aspects of the gospel lived out (p. 95-96). The truly “missional” way is to look like a church on the outside, yet be a place that “anyone can come to and not feel any pressure at any level.” (p. 116)
The third section (chs. 13-17) is about implementing “incarnational habits” to live by once the basic obstacles to “incarnational mission” have been removed. The authors offer four neatly alliterated points: leaving, listening, living among, and loving without strings. Leaving involves replacing Christian activities with time spent building relationships with the surrounding secular culture. Listening means regarding no one from a worldly point of view and showing sincere regard toward an individual’s experience, background, heritage, through which they process faith and belief. Living among means integrating one’s self and family into the fabric of society while “participating in the natural activities of the culture around you, with whimsical holiness.” (p. 136). Loving without strings means blessing others without any coercion, and helping the unlovable feel loved without any catch.
The fourth section (chs. 18-21) describes what “incarnational community” looks like so it can be duplicated successfully throughout future generations. It covers the “primary spheres of Incarnational Community” (Communion, Community, and Mission; p. 148) and some general barriers (like mandating a “tithe” or encouraging weekly corporate worship, p. 168) that hinder these spheres from working properly together.
I think the “sweet” aspects of the book expose Church-life as having a genuine crisis on its hands. Secularism does not take the Church seriously, and a significant reason for this is because Christians are often not compassionate and forgiving “friends of sinners” like Jesus or his apostles. Much of their “friendship” is programmatic at best. Even worse, many are obnoxious for God, lording their doctrine over others because in their minds the truth is obnoxious and sinners need their nose stuck in it to remember it well. Their benevolence often has strings attached too. Christians are often not invested in their own neighbor’s welfare, or integrated into the fabric of their own local community, and therefore are not salt and light within it. More care is given to believing what is right than doing what is good, which I believe is a soul-damning dichotomy; this book exposes that.
However, I’m not convinced that the program espoused in this book truly represents an “ancient” tradition, which is what really “burns” the next morning. With a mere 42 passing references from Scripture, more than half of which are anecdotal or attached to some sloganized eisegesis (the most notable one being from John 8; pp. 44-45), the biblical arguments actually seem subversive of some ancient foundation stones, possibly without even knowing it. Most subversive, in my mind, was the extremely casual approach toward corporate institutional worship, as though it’s really less important to God than sipping a signature coffee blend while listening to a porn-addicted “sojourner” talk about the good old days of high school football. Although it is true that Christians ought to embody a deep and sincere sacrificial love for their porn-addicted neighbor—especially on the Lord’s Day—they must not forget that corporate institutional worship is a public expression that they are His Body and Bride, and they cheapen His Supper if they exchange it for a pumpkin spice latte and cranberry scone. It is wishful thinking to believe, as the book claims, that without ever encouraging “sojourners” to obey truth, you will usually get them to obey truth (p. 67).
This book can be divided roughly into four sections. The first section (chs. 1-5) is about identifying the church’s negative impact in society, and it begins with the author’s own life experiences, focusing especially upon God’s call for him to lead potential God-seekers into something new, but not something entirely new:
“This type of new is about a returning. Returning to something ancient, something tried, something true and trustworthy. Something that has rerouted the legacies of families, nations, kings, and peasants. ….What we’re returning to has always been and must still be revolutionary. What we need to dig up, recover, and find again is the life of the Kingdom of Jesus’ community… the church.” (p. 10)
The claim is made that there is a culture war brewing between two camps of Christians, and this book is admittedly bias toward one side (p. 20). In order to recover the life of churches today, Christians need to start doing things which the Church has not been doing, and stop doing things they have been doing (p. 12). For example, churches need to stop being like “Jerusalem Christians” (p. 19) who view Jesus “through their traditions and the literal interpretation of doctrine.” These types rely too much on sermons that focus on behavior (e.g. sin) and programs to transform people (e.g. Billy Graham crusades, Promise Keepers, Alpha, etc.). Instead of holding “doctrine so tightly that …the life of Jesus gets obscured” (p. 19), they need to be more like the “Galilean Christians” who engaged the world and “interpret[ed] the Bible through the life of Jesus,” focusing especially on the atonement, justice, mercy, love, benevolence, and advocacy for the poor, oppressed, and sinners. This, allegedly, will keep people from becoming “idolaters of the Bible” who “prioritize head knowledge over heart life” (p. 20). Church, doctrine, “Bible,” and keeping hostile people out of the Church must not be the goal of the gospel anymore. Instead the goal of the gospel should be to “start identifying ourselves with [hostiles], and allow Christ’s redemption to flow over all.” (p. 31).
The second section (chs. 6-12) is about removing traditional obstacles that get in the way of this healthy “reemergence” of ancient faith (p. 38), especially the problematic “postures” which offend the status quo of potential god-seekers in the world. Instead of focusing on “communicating a message of truth to the world” (p. 41), the “most important thing” is whether or not unbelievers are attracted to embodied truth first, so they can become more willing to receive the truth later. (p. 41). Christians need to go back to the “fringe movement” of the “pre-institutional church” (i.e. before Constantine; p. 50) which followed the ways of Jesus and practiced the “art” of not feeling any compulsion to feed people spiritually while still being willing to look after their spiritual formation (pp. 53-55). “Church” needs to become what it allegedly once was: a people you belonged with instead of a place you went to (p. 55), a place that “was unique, intriguing, and attractive primarily because it called for inclusion of all people” (p. 70), advocating “love of all people regardless of past mistakes, sexual orientation, or political bias.” (p. 88). Instead of arguing philosophy or debating alternative religious viewpoints, Christians should simply “live a different story” and invite people to observe (p. 76) so “sojourners” can feel or see aspects of the gospel lived out (p. 95-96). The truly “missional” way is to look like a church on the outside, yet be a place that “anyone can come to and not feel any pressure at any level.” (p. 116)
The third section (chs. 13-17) is about implementing “incarnational habits” to live by once the basic obstacles to “incarnational mission” have been removed. The authors offer four neatly alliterated points: leaving, listening, living among, and loving without strings. Leaving involves replacing Christian activities with time spent building relationships with the surrounding secular culture. Listening means regarding no one from a worldly point of view and showing sincere regard toward an individual’s experience, background, heritage, through which they process faith and belief. Living among means integrating one’s self and family into the fabric of society while “participating in the natural activities of the culture around you, with whimsical holiness.” (p. 136). Loving without strings means blessing others without any coercion, and helping the unlovable feel loved without any catch.
The fourth section (chs. 18-21) describes what “incarnational community” looks like so it can be duplicated successfully throughout future generations. It covers the “primary spheres of Incarnational Community” (Communion, Community, and Mission; p. 148) and some general barriers (like mandating a “tithe” or encouraging weekly corporate worship, p. 168) that hinder these spheres from working properly together.
I think the “sweet” aspects of the book expose Church-life as having a genuine crisis on its hands. Secularism does not take the Church seriously, and a significant reason for this is because Christians are often not compassionate and forgiving “friends of sinners” like Jesus or his apostles. Much of their “friendship” is programmatic at best. Even worse, many are obnoxious for God, lording their doctrine over others because in their minds the truth is obnoxious and sinners need their nose stuck in it to remember it well. Their benevolence often has strings attached too. Christians are often not invested in their own neighbor’s welfare, or integrated into the fabric of their own local community, and therefore are not salt and light within it. More care is given to believing what is right than doing what is good, which I believe is a soul-damning dichotomy; this book exposes that.
However, I’m not convinced that the program espoused in this book truly represents an “ancient” tradition, which is what really “burns” the next morning. With a mere 42 passing references from Scripture, more than half of which are anecdotal or attached to some sloganized eisegesis (the most notable one being from John 8; pp. 44-45), the biblical arguments actually seem subversive of some ancient foundation stones, possibly without even knowing it. Most subversive, in my mind, was the extremely casual approach toward corporate institutional worship, as though it’s really less important to God than sipping a signature coffee blend while listening to a porn-addicted “sojourner” talk about the good old days of high school football. Although it is true that Christians ought to embody a deep and sincere sacrificial love for their porn-addicted neighbor—especially on the Lord’s Day—they must not forget that corporate institutional worship is a public expression that they are His Body and Bride, and they cheapen His Supper if they exchange it for a pumpkin spice latte and cranberry scone. It is wishful thinking to believe, as the book claims, that without ever encouraging “sojourners” to obey truth, you will usually get them to obey truth (p. 67).
March 30, 2012
Halter and Smay are church planters who have formed a very different kind of church in Denver, called Adullam. What they have wrestled with are the attractional models of church that often rest on the assumption that people need to believe before they belong. Instead, they tell a story of a porous community that includes Sojourners who become relationally connected to the community and see the life of the kingdom incarnated in this community. How do these relationships happen? Mostly it is because people are actively engaged with others in the world, joining community groups rather than having time tied up in church programs, hanging out at "third places" like bars and coffee shops instead of huddling in church buildings. And what is interesting is that they not so much "evangelize" as simply live curious lives of pursuing the kingdom that arouses the interest of those around them, who want to check out what this community is about in its' "villages" and "Gatherings".
Throughout the book, they refer to "villages" but never really elaborate on what these are. As best as I can tell, these are neighborhood or house groups, but it would have been helpful to have more elaboration--I couldn't even find the term in the index despite repeated references.
A very readable narrative of some really good thinking about what the church ought to look like. Thanks for lending it, Matt--let's talk about it soon!
Throughout the book, they refer to "villages" but never really elaborate on what these are. As best as I can tell, these are neighborhood or house groups, but it would have been helpful to have more elaboration--I couldn't even find the term in the index despite repeated references.
A very readable narrative of some really good thinking about what the church ought to look like. Thanks for lending it, Matt--let's talk about it soon!
October 26, 2019
Real rating: 4.3 stars. One of my good friends recommended this to me when I asked about the ministry he was leading. I wanted to know how they had built something that everyone wanted to be apart of. He suggested this book, and he wasn’t wrong.
The Tangible Kingdom (TK) is one of the voices of a growing population of people that have had enough of church in the traditional way and mega-church way and are looking for something more organic.
The simplest way to put it is that a large portion of churches are built to be attractional. That is, it is designed to make people want to come to you because it is a superior organization — it’s a church you want to attend. TK offers up a different approach, to be incarnational. That is, it’s a model you want to become and want to bring to people.
Attractional churches work when people are looking for churches to join, but then tend to become a Christian place for Christian people and not useful to non-Christians. Incarnational/Missional churches work slower but are meant to be Jesus “dwell[ing] among you” (John 1.14) and become more real for people uninterested in traditional church.
If you’re going to read this book, make sure you read the whole thing. The first few chapters are the authors discussing their issues and problems with their experiences. There is little scripture but it is real and raw. The reason I took off .7 stars is because while there is scripture and it is often used correctly, there is a lot of anecdotal support for the points throughout the book. And at times the scriptures are massaged to make the point of the author. None of it is twisted but massaged.
The rest of the book is in three parts. 1. Cultural forces and tendencies that hurt the church 2. The Biblical model/explanation of an Incarnational/Missional Community. 3. Specific Practices of an Incarnational/Missional Community.
If you are looking for a book that will give you ideas on how to tweak your ministry or make your group 10% more connected, this book is not for you.
If you are looking for a book that will challenge the way you view the mission and practices of the modern day church, if you are looking for something that will help you in an increasingly post-Christian world you’ve found it.
The Tangible Kingdom (TK) is one of the voices of a growing population of people that have had enough of church in the traditional way and mega-church way and are looking for something more organic.
The simplest way to put it is that a large portion of churches are built to be attractional. That is, it is designed to make people want to come to you because it is a superior organization — it’s a church you want to attend. TK offers up a different approach, to be incarnational. That is, it’s a model you want to become and want to bring to people.
Attractional churches work when people are looking for churches to join, but then tend to become a Christian place for Christian people and not useful to non-Christians. Incarnational/Missional churches work slower but are meant to be Jesus “dwell[ing] among you” (John 1.14) and become more real for people uninterested in traditional church.
If you’re going to read this book, make sure you read the whole thing. The first few chapters are the authors discussing their issues and problems with their experiences. There is little scripture but it is real and raw. The reason I took off .7 stars is because while there is scripture and it is often used correctly, there is a lot of anecdotal support for the points throughout the book. And at times the scriptures are massaged to make the point of the author. None of it is twisted but massaged.
The rest of the book is in three parts. 1. Cultural forces and tendencies that hurt the church 2. The Biblical model/explanation of an Incarnational/Missional Community. 3. Specific Practices of an Incarnational/Missional Community.
If you are looking for a book that will give you ideas on how to tweak your ministry or make your group 10% more connected, this book is not for you.
If you are looking for a book that will challenge the way you view the mission and practices of the modern day church, if you are looking for something that will help you in an increasingly post-Christian world you’ve found it.
March 25, 2023
Overall, I really loved this book. There are some anecdotes and claims that might be too radical even for me. As a whole, I am humbled and inspired by the authors' genuine desire to find ways to create incarnational communities here and now. There are many helpful ideas and examples for those of us desperately seeking guidance to be part of the tangible Kingdom.
Some of my favorite quotes:
"If Christians simply focused on doing the most basic aspects of Christianity, like 'loving' each other, it would say more to the watching world than all the systematic theology we could throw at them."
"Christianity is now almost impossible to explain, not because the concepts aren't intelligible, but because the living, moving, speaking examples of our faith don't line up with the message. "
"We need to be honest about our lame, half-baked message and our even lamer attempts to dress it up and make it look sexier than it is. My sense is that we'd do better to admit we haven't fully discovered the depths of this story and simply invite people to start digging for it with us again."
"The incarnational way culminates in this primary difference: Belonging enables believing."
"...we specifically ask people not to try to be 'evangelistic.' We suggest to them that if people aren't asking about their lives, then we haven't postured our faith well enough or long enough."
"Because I want myself and our people to have time to be incarnational in the world, we don't take up their time working on the church service."
"Church can be a huge consumer trap. We provide large, comfortable worship centers, encourage pastoral staff to give us everything we need spiritually, and, at the end of the day, we don't have any money or time left to extend blessing and resources toward mission."
"Obviously, there are restraints on who can 'lead' your community in worship, teaching, and so on, but we see Jesus sending out the Twelve, two by two, into the city to do ministry, even before they had come to full faith in the entire gospel message."
"But the essence of all these rhythms is participating in what God calls 'pure' religion in James 1:27. It's taking care of orphans, widows, and the practical needs of a hurting world."
Some of my favorite quotes:
"If Christians simply focused on doing the most basic aspects of Christianity, like 'loving' each other, it would say more to the watching world than all the systematic theology we could throw at them."
"Christianity is now almost impossible to explain, not because the concepts aren't intelligible, but because the living, moving, speaking examples of our faith don't line up with the message. "
"We need to be honest about our lame, half-baked message and our even lamer attempts to dress it up and make it look sexier than it is. My sense is that we'd do better to admit we haven't fully discovered the depths of this story and simply invite people to start digging for it with us again."
"The incarnational way culminates in this primary difference: Belonging enables believing."
"...we specifically ask people not to try to be 'evangelistic.' We suggest to them that if people aren't asking about their lives, then we haven't postured our faith well enough or long enough."
"Because I want myself and our people to have time to be incarnational in the world, we don't take up their time working on the church service."
"Church can be a huge consumer trap. We provide large, comfortable worship centers, encourage pastoral staff to give us everything we need spiritually, and, at the end of the day, we don't have any money or time left to extend blessing and resources toward mission."
"Obviously, there are restraints on who can 'lead' your community in worship, teaching, and so on, but we see Jesus sending out the Twelve, two by two, into the city to do ministry, even before they had come to full faith in the entire gospel message."
"But the essence of all these rhythms is participating in what God calls 'pure' religion in James 1:27. It's taking care of orphans, widows, and the practical needs of a hurting world."
September 2, 2017
Our church rarely has special speakers, and so I checked out Hugh Halter on the internet when I heard he would be in our church. I was disappointed that I would miss hearing him as his focus appears to be engaging with culture relationally rather than staying within the church walls, and since that resonates with me, I decided I should just read one of his books.
I'm not sure who his primary audience is for this book. I think he is writing to church planters or pastors primarily, encouraging them to re-think church, church growth practices, and discipleship. I have read those types of books before, and this is very different.
* He tells stories about his own experiences, what worked well and what did not work so well.
* He talks a lot about parties, meeting people, sharing life, laughing, eating, and drinking as a means of developing community.
* Each chapter closes with reflective questions for readers to consider relative to their own experiences in church and their hopes for their churches.
* He lays out some essential purposes of a church community. He describes sort of a Venn diagram with community, communion, and mission as equal circles, not separate but interconnected. This actually was one of the most interesting concepts to me. Some churches privilege community, some privilege communion, and those are normally intertwined, but the idea of mission is often overlooked or put off on its own.
Halter has given me a lot to think about. He has inspired me to have more people over to my house.
I'm not sure who his primary audience is for this book. I think he is writing to church planters or pastors primarily, encouraging them to re-think church, church growth practices, and discipleship. I have read those types of books before, and this is very different.
* He tells stories about his own experiences, what worked well and what did not work so well.
* He talks a lot about parties, meeting people, sharing life, laughing, eating, and drinking as a means of developing community.
* Each chapter closes with reflective questions for readers to consider relative to their own experiences in church and their hopes for their churches.
* He lays out some essential purposes of a church community. He describes sort of a Venn diagram with community, communion, and mission as equal circles, not separate but interconnected. This actually was one of the most interesting concepts to me. Some churches privilege community, some privilege communion, and those are normally intertwined, but the idea of mission is often overlooked or put off on its own.
Halter has given me a lot to think about. He has inspired me to have more people over to my house.
September 7, 2012
I think all my friends should read The Tangible Kingdom. I haven't been this inspired by a Christian book someone still alive in a long time. Someone codified many things that we've been doing a Circle of Hope for over a decade and had enough subtle differences to challenge me.
This would be good for people trying to lead, trying to have a fresh season walking in the Jesus Way, think that Jesus is cool but churches suck, or are aligned with ideas of community transformation then you will find a lot of great stuff here.
This would be good for people trying to lead, trying to have a fresh season walking in the Jesus Way, think that Jesus is cool but churches suck, or are aligned with ideas of community transformation then you will find a lot of great stuff here.
March 25, 2024
Read this with my book club over the last few months. I really appreciated a different perspective on how churches should be run, and even our role within the church. Left me with more questions than I thought I had. I agreed with the majority of the concepts, but found some of them challenging to apply.
March 26, 2021
Must read to know how to apply Jesus' mission to every context as kingdom minded Christians.
September 10, 2012
Halter and Smay���s book was an interesting read. While I appreciated their warmth for evangelism and authenticity, I have a major point of contention with one of their opening statements. In their opening chapter they say, ���I believe in the church. I believe God loves his church, and that he���s quite ticked that his bride looks like ���Fiona the ogre��� instead of Cameron Diaz.��� It seems to me that the rest of the book and the quest of the authors are to create a church that looks like Cameron Diaz. When reading this book I was continually reminded of a quote by St. Augustine. Augustine in talking about the church once said, ���The church is a whore, but this whore is also my mother.��� In thinking about Augustine���s quote I believe that he portrays the church in a healthy manner. The very church itself is composed of sinners that will always fail to meet up to the glorious standards of God. The church is not immune from sin nor a perfect utopia here on earth. The Christian church will always fail to meet the mark, and always fails in being free from hypocrisy. However, it is this very broken, whorish, and unfaithful vessel that God in His grace has called and commissioned to bring forth the Gospel (Ephesians 3:20). Through its unfaithfulness, brokenness and hypocrisy God has used the church, the body of believers, as an instrument to proclaim the life changing message of the Gospel. Through the lips of sinners God ministers His Word that penetrates hearts, grants faith and imputes assurance. Through imperfect people and an imperfect institution God���s perfected Gospel has been preserved, ministered and spoken forth to the ends of the earth.
If anything, Augustine���s quote testifies more about the faithfulness of God and the power of His Gospel working in the midst of broken man rather than commenting on the church itself. If anything, Augustine���s quote exposes my sin of putting trust into an unfaithful church rather than the unchanging and faithful message of the Gospel. If anything, Augustine���s quote is yet another example of God���s grace and intense love towards sinful mankind.
While I commend Halter and Smay in their missionary zeal I do not believe the answer to missions is to become like Cameron Diaz, for I believe the natural state of the church is Fiona the orge. Furthermore, I do not believe the Kingdom of God is found in the tangible events of the church body but is found in the King, Jesus Christ. Where the King is, there is the kingdom. What makes the church unique and the Gospel so sweet is that Christ would pursue, die and love Fiona!
If anything, Augustine���s quote testifies more about the faithfulness of God and the power of His Gospel working in the midst of broken man rather than commenting on the church itself. If anything, Augustine���s quote exposes my sin of putting trust into an unfaithful church rather than the unchanging and faithful message of the Gospel. If anything, Augustine���s quote is yet another example of God���s grace and intense love towards sinful mankind.
While I commend Halter and Smay in their missionary zeal I do not believe the answer to missions is to become like Cameron Diaz, for I believe the natural state of the church is Fiona the orge. Furthermore, I do not believe the Kingdom of God is found in the tangible events of the church body but is found in the King, Jesus Christ. Where the King is, there is the kingdom. What makes the church unique and the Gospel so sweet is that Christ would pursue, die and love Fiona!
September 23, 2010
A MUST READ BOOK!!!!!!!!!!
Even though I don't agree with Halter and Smay at times (I think they go to far in trying to connect with our rebellious and anti-Christian culture), their project is worth serious study and consideration. They argue (and their own ministry has proven) that every church should be "missional." It is the difference between being and inward-looking and an outward-looking church. We should not just try and attract people to our churches--we need to go out into our communities and bring in the harvest!
Most of my disagreements lie in the area of culture. Halter and Smay show that we need to engage the culture in order. I would argue, further, that we need to create a Christian counter-culture. We don't just want to meet people where they are (though that is necessary). We need to create an alternative to a culture which is increasingly hostile to God. And I don't mean a cheezy Christian culture which simply imitates everything in pop culture, but then slaps a Bible verse on it. We need to redeem every area of culture. For instance, Halter brews beer in his basement. That's the sort of thing we should do more of! More Christian breweries, and fewer sappy Christian bookstores :-)
Even though I don't agree with Halter and Smay at times (I think they go to far in trying to connect with our rebellious and anti-Christian culture), their project is worth serious study and consideration. They argue (and their own ministry has proven) that every church should be "missional." It is the difference between being and inward-looking and an outward-looking church. We should not just try and attract people to our churches--we need to go out into our communities and bring in the harvest!
Most of my disagreements lie in the area of culture. Halter and Smay show that we need to engage the culture in order. I would argue, further, that we need to create a Christian counter-culture. We don't just want to meet people where they are (though that is necessary). We need to create an alternative to a culture which is increasingly hostile to God. And I don't mean a cheezy Christian culture which simply imitates everything in pop culture, but then slaps a Bible verse on it. We need to redeem every area of culture. For instance, Halter brews beer in his basement. That's the sort of thing we should do more of! More Christian breweries, and fewer sappy Christian bookstores :-)
July 4, 2018
Halter defines the Gospel of the Kingdom of Christ well ... "it's the tangible life of God flowing into every nook and cranny of our everyday life. ... Heavenly ways are available in some way here on Earth!"
He draws a comparison between the "attractional" church and the "incarnational" church. His point is that instead of focusing on a place where people and go hear the message of the gospel, we should focus on creating a people to which others can belong so that they see, feel, experience the gospel being lived out.
Halter's thoughts both affirm and challenge my thinking about how to do church!
He draws a comparison between the "attractional" church and the "incarnational" church. His point is that instead of focusing on a place where people and go hear the message of the gospel, we should focus on creating a people to which others can belong so that they see, feel, experience the gospel being lived out.
Halter's thoughts both affirm and challenge my thinking about how to do church!
July 1, 2019
What do I say about this book? He's blunt. He's straightforward. Their are times you just want to disagree with him because of how he says it. He makes me put on my filtered glasses as I read his work. Which in turn made me love this book. It made me think, brainstorm, and go on wild theological and philosophical debates in my own head. That's what I want out of a book.
I didn't agree with everything he said, but I really appreciated his thoughts and beliefs on the Church. He should've backed up his arguments better, but I still had a lot of great takeaways.
I didn't agree with everything he said, but I really appreciated his thoughts and beliefs on the Church. He should've backed up his arguments better, but I still had a lot of great takeaways.
August 20, 2012
Short review. The Tangible Kingdom adds to the literature that is trying to help the church reach those that have no church background. I think that the presented model of church is the way that church needs to be done to reach non-Christians. There are weaknesses to the book. The sociological description in the front is weak. But overall the book is good.
Full review on my blog at http://bookwi.se/the-tangible-kingdom...
Full review on my blog at http://bookwi.se/the-tangible-kingdom...
January 14, 2018
Inspiring, in parts.
Halter calls for a new kind of church gathering and experience. But I don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Many of his practical suggestions for making God's kingdom tangible are just as feasible in a modern, Western church, and that's where I intend to apply them.
Halter calls for a new kind of church gathering and experience. But I don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Many of his practical suggestions for making God's kingdom tangible are just as feasible in a modern, Western church, and that's where I intend to apply them.
Read
October 31, 2008I would love to be part of a community like the author describes.
January 26, 2017
From the introduction:
Xviii
If you're like the authors of this book, you've gone down with a ship or two, trying to make the Kingdom story tangible. You may have tried a few different churches, methods, programs, leaders, teachers, styles, and sizes only to find yourself stuck on a ship that seems to be attracting no one and can barely hold your interest.
p. 9
Change must be about new, which to us means "fresh, bright, something that intuitively feels right, that causes us not only to dream but to move on our dreams."
p. 13
Have you considered that when the unchurched baby boomers reach retirement age, they'll represent one of our most unreached people groups?...Therefore, if we're committed to reaching one of the fastest growing segments, "emerging church" may be based in retirement centers and have as its primary cultural engagement reruns of Happy Days, Leave it to Beaver, and free denture giveaways.
p. 16
Yet we continue to lose the people we have while failing to reach the ones we don't have.
[There is a great letter from a sincere, hard-working pastor to Hugh on pgs. 16-17]
Pgs. 15-22 address the five tensions felt by pastors who will try to make these changes:
1. a broken heart-desire to reach the lost and help hurting people
2. frustration of energy and resources wasted-"we've worked so hard for so little"
3. fear-job-security, paying bills,
Tensions also comes when you know you can't go back to present forms of church, but you don't know what going forward will look like or what it will cost us in life, focus, family or finances.
...Looking back over the past ten years, I can say I've spent as much time reevangelizing these people as I have with people outside the Christian faith. It is actually a bit harder to try to reconvince those in the know than those who don't know anything. For them, the discussion isn't about proving Jesus. It's about giving them hope that Jesus can or will still work in the church.
4. tension arises when you see the structure of the church falling, and you realize that everything the church stood on may go down too.
5. we have a massive tension related to identity:
I was riding in the car with my daughter Alli a few months ago, and out of the blue she said, "I just want you to know that I'm not a Christian anymore." I figured this was one of those statements that meant something more, so I put on my Jedi wisdom cap and said, "Cool. Me either." It was obvious I caught her off guard as she replied, "Dad, you have to be a Christian. You're a pastor!" As I asked her more questions, she told me why she wanted to trade in her badge. It was because some Christian kids at her middle school were making fun of a young girl who was a lesbian. Alli knew this girl and was her friend. Alli hasn't lived long enough to experience too many situations like this, but one is enough or her to question where her loyalties lie.
Identity represents who we are, and it is important in determining how we act. When you're proud of your team, your company, your family, you'll act proud, and you'll get off your fanny and work hard to increase the prominence of your group. But if you're ashamed or unimpressed with your team, you'll often not engage at all, simply because you don't want to be lumped in with something or someone that doesn't represent who you really want to be or what you value or believe in.
p. 24
Oftentimes, if you decide to embrace the tension and move forward, this is your first battle. To move forward, we can't keep everything we've always had. We have to pick what to take, what is absolutely necessary, and leave behind some things that have been important to us. What used to provide comfort may now only take up space or be a hindrance to getting where we need to go.
p. 25
[God packs light] He would like to trim off anything that would slow us down, hinder us, or make the journey more difficult. Sometimes that includes people, just like when he thinned out Gideon's army. Sometimes that includes assets, possessions and material concerns, as when Jesus told his disciples to head out without tunic or purse. Sometimes that includes his work in us personally to strip us of those things that have brought us internal security, acceptance and pride.
p. 26
Quite often we see leaders who get so disheartened that they react emotionally and deconstruct their church, people, and programs so fast that they have nothing to reconstruct with later.
p. 27
{Referring to his cats, Milo and Mitten, who made his moving very difficult]
Some people will be like Milo. They don't want to go and make it very clear. Let them "not go." Some will be like Mitten, who seem to want to go but really don't. They are the ones who pay your bills if you're a pastor, give you nice strokes after your sermon, and who generally make life peaceful for you as long as you keep it peaceful for them. They calmly nod and smile when you're preaching what they want to hear, and for a while they even sound like they know where you're going to take them...but as soon as you suggest that this new journey will include some genuinely "lost" people from the world in your church; or that they may have to open their homes once a week to create small communities; or that you may change the service time to accommodate searching souls; or change a little music; or let "nonbelievers" be involved in church ministries and activities...or dive deeply into the life and activities of the culture around them, you'll see their claws come out.
p. 27
For church planters and pastors who wish to move their congregations deeper into mission, this is quite difficult. We used to be told that the number one indicator of a new church's success is how many people they have when they start. Now we say, the number one problem you'll have will be based on bringing to many people with you. Why? Because a good majority of the Christian world is unconsciously a Milo or a Mitten. They have good hearts, but they hate change, they've gotten used to being provided for, and many will take too much of your time and energy to try to keep on mission with you.
p. 28
What this means is that understanding is easy, but change is brutal. It means that everything is affected, and therefore there's not going to be an easy way through the tension. No seminar or training will give you the answers. It means you can't necessarily plan for the future because the future is changing. Ultimately, the only solace is that everyone is feeling it.
p. 30
As I once heard, "Doing church differently is like rearranging chairs on the Titanic." We must realize that slight tweaks, new music , creative lighting, wearing hula shirts, shorts, and flip-flops won't make doing church more attractive. Church must not be the goal of the gospel anymore. Church should not be the focus of our efforts or the banner we hold up to explain what we're about. Church should be what ends up happening as a natural response to people wanting to follow us, be with us, and be like us as we follow the way of Christ.
p. 31
Christians struggle with the exact same issues, vices, and sins as those outside our ranks. We had better stop trying to keep the hostiles out and start identifying ourselves with them and allow Christ’s redemption to flow over all.
Influence doesn’t happen by extracting ourselves from the world for the sake of our values, but by bringing our values into the culture.
p. 34
Within every congregation there are people at every level of willingness, strength and maturity. I liken these Christians to bricks in the understructure of a bridge that reaches out to the other side of the river. They aren't going to make it across the bridge. They may not fill churches with new Christ followers, they may not even be people you want your non-Christian friends to meet, but they can help support the old and new structures that will allow others to go out.
p. 35
I want to point out that some Christians and Christian leaders want to cross the bridge, but their forms, rules, and paradigms for ministry don't allow them to get to the other side. To us, that is not an indictment, but a simple reality that so many of our present church leaders find themselves having to face.
p. 40
As a Christian man, I know firsthand that "lost" is the last thing I want to be called, even if I am, well, lost. Or what is the term is unreached, or target group, or unbeliever? Try any of these out on the streets with real people, and see if you can avoid a fight.
Brian McLaren, in his book, More Ready Than You Realize, deals beautifully with the meaning of the word lost in ancient times. Lost connoted something to be treasured, worth looking for, but just missing. Very different from our modern-day meaning of being clueless, spiritually stupid, or arrogantly anti-God.
p. 41
Christianity is now almost impossible to explain, not because the concepts aren't intelligible, but because the living, moving, speaking examples of our faith don't line up with the message. Our poor posture overshadows the most beautiful story and reality the world has ever known.
p. 42
In our [church] we specifically ask people not to try to be "evangelistic". We suggest to them that if people aren't asking about their lives, then we haven't postured our faith well enough or long enough.
p. 47
How are you willing to advocate for people while they live lives that are in opposition to the way of Christ?
p. 53
Historically, in attractional churches (those that still try to get people to come to them), we have confronted from the pulpit. We’ve given general admonishments to a sanctuary of faces with whom we have little or no relationship. Because incarnational practices are relational, confrontation is much more direct and affective.
p. 57
Although frustrated by the consumer approach of their adherents, the modern-day paid pastors don’t feel they can lead the way their hearts tell them to for fear of losing a tithing attender. Often, the pressure is so strong, they find themselves frantically trying to update their presentation, increase programs to attract people, or lighten up the message of the gospel.
p. 60
Paradigms can either propel us into action or they can shut us down and limit what we do and what we think is possible.
The problem is that our present evangelical “Come to us” paradigm of church has not been an appropriate missiological response to the paradigms that exist in our world.
p. 64 [Comparing the paradigms of Western, Eastern, Postmodern and Gospel: Discovery]
The Discovery Zone is a sphere in which truth can be seen before it is spoken, where a new authority figure becomes trusted, and where people are able to weigh Christ’s values over their own.
p. 67
Remember, there’s one thing that is just as important as truth, and maybe even more important. That is whether or not someone is willing to receive truth. An environment of discovery is the only way we’re going to help people experience an alternative opportunity. Helping them make a personal “preference” for Christ and his life will always be more powerful than bashing their values. This doesn’t mean we don’t get to speak and teach truth. It just means we’re better missionaries if we let them experience it before we start debating it.
p. 69
The ancient Christians believed that God didn’t want us to be in control of our relationships or autonomous in our approach to him or others. He wanted everything done in the context of his communal people and as a witness to the world.
p. 70
For the ancients, Christian community was unique, intriguing, and attractive primarily because it called for inclusion of all people. The Christian movement was the only place where women, children, and people of non-Jewish origin could all be together.
The ancient church was not afraid of other faiths or people of no faith. They figured spiritual fervor in the wrong direction is still better than spiritual apathy in the right direction.
p. 71
What causes exclusive community is fear. What creates inclusive community is love. In 1 John 4:18, there’s a challenge to this exclusive posture: “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear….” So, what are we afraid of? Weird theology, and occasional swear word, or the appearance of our friends condoning a sinful life? It might be good to remind ourselves that even within a group of typical institutional Christians, trained seminary students, and pastors, there can be some wacky theology and shady morals. Why then do we on the “inside” try to control the behavior and views of Sojourners? This tension is the story of the early faith communities, and if we’re praying for God to move in our world like he did two thousand years ago, we’re going to have to open our doors and create places that may seem messy or dangerous and will challenge our exclusive ways.
p. 72
When the values of church and culture are similar, it’s much easier to create a common space for saints and Sojourners to be together. This is why the traditional “Come to us” attraction model of church was successful in the past. People outside the church appreciated our values.
p. 74
It’s a common presumption to think that people today are overly selfish, consumer oriented, and unwilling to make a sacrifice or commitment, but actually the opposite is true. God created people to care, to want to find their place in the world, but the church has often missed the opportunity to draw people into an eternal perspective, one big enough to grasp anyone’s attention. The typical message has been to be good, stop sinning, go to church, and wait for God to come back. Yuck. It’s too simple. You can go about your normal life and still do those things without much effort.
p. 76
I never tell people I’m a pastor anymore, and I rarely even acknowledge I’m a Christian unless they give me time to explain. I don’t believe I have any power or prestige from my position. In fact, I think it puts me a few yard behind the line of scrimmage…I simply put pressure on myself to live in such a way that people want to be with me, and then hope others will follow in our way. If no one is following, then I assume it’s because of me.
p. 77
I’m not an inspiring person, I may not even influence my own family, let alone people outside the church.
p. 86
There will always be people who are, at a heart level, completely resistant to Christ. But this book isn’t about them. This book is about the millions of people who are openhearted and curious about life and God but who are honestly not finding goodness in the good news that we talk about and that, at times, has been forced down their collective throats.
p. 87
In their book, Lost in America Tom Clegg and Warren Bird said that people on Earth have three fundamental needs. They are transcendence (the need to connect with the Creator), significance (the need to have purpose in life and do something meaningful), and community (the need to connect with others through deeply satisfying relationships).
p. 93
When we say “attractional approach,” we’re talking about the attempt to draw to church, people with whom we have no relationship. Through program, presentation or preaching, we hope that people will choose to “come to us.”
p. 95
Although the attractional approach will continue to be influential with people who have some context for church, we must accept that the growing post-everything culture must be wooed through a more incarnational process. In other words, the greater the cultural distance from organized religion a person is, the greater the need for an incarnational presence of a gospel community.
p. 108
The pyramid structure was an appropriate from when a large portion of the culture valued and looked for a good church to go to-when the leaders were respected by the culture and when people assumed you go to church to find God. The form fit the function. But when the culture is no longer looking for a church to go to, isn’t that interested in church music, sermons, or programs, or when they don’t innately value or trust church leaders, the functions of church must be adjusted. And thus the form must adjust in kind.
p. 113
…people who want to call themselves Christ followers without tangibly following him into mission. They’re “pew sitters,” people who know a lot of Bible verses, who like to be plugged in and go to classes. They have bucketloads of ministry ideas and love to lead from the top and share their ideas from the top, but they really don’t want to live the life of a missional person, sacrificing in order to provide an inclusive community for others. In other words, they are people who only want to experience community if it benefits them.
p. 124
Living out is the natural and intentional process of making habit of four practices: leaving, living among, listening to, and loving with no strings attached. These four habits, if lived out by a given community of missional people, will help you have the right posture and be in correct position to gain the hearts of God-seeking Sojourners around you.
p. 125
In order for us to change the correct assumptions that people have about God and his followers (their programmed responses), we’ve got to get to the point where they consider us one of them (the parameter change). To do this is not a matter of “evangelism” or “outreach” or “missions.” It’s a matter of living out like Jesus did.
p. 127
Since the word missional theologically means “to be sent,” leaving is where living like a missionary really begins. Leaving isn’t just about going overseas. It’s about replacing personal or Christian activities with time spent building relationships with people in the surrounding culture.
p. 128
I’m not sure how we got where we are, but it’s amazing that we think our most powerful times, our most intimate spiritual experiences, are supposed to happen within the comfortable confines of our church services. The biblical evidence is overwhelming and is crystal clear that God’s power is most naturally meant to happen “out there”!
p. 132
The second essential incarnational habit we hope to cultivate simply listening. Listening is watching and sensitively responding to the unspoken and spoken needs of Sojourners in ways that demonstrate sincere interest.
p. 136
For whatever reason, the church at large has theologized the idea of personal holiness to exclude normal interaction with the world. Many churches we work with have an alarming theology of “extraction” that creates a Christian peer pressure to move away from the world in all its forms. To these people, the world is dirty, dark, intimidating, and evil.
p. 137
Incarnational life requires that we contextualize all the “warnings” found in the epistles with the larger context of the life of Jesus as recorded in the Gospels. In other words, we’re going to have to learn all the things we can do instead of limiting ourselves based on a few things we’re warned to avoid.
p. 138
Based on the things Jesus asked us to do and to avoid, I believe that we’d be well served to offer a new perspective on holiness, one that takes into account both sides of the equation. Try this out: What if whimsical holiness is simply “being like Jesus…with those Jesus would have been with”? How might this definition of holiness change the way we view people and live our lives? [I must admit this concept of “whimsical holiness” immediately gave me pause so I have included a few quotes below as he explains].
There are more quotes that this does not allow space for
*See Word file >Documents>Book Quotes
Xviii
If you're like the authors of this book, you've gone down with a ship or two, trying to make the Kingdom story tangible. You may have tried a few different churches, methods, programs, leaders, teachers, styles, and sizes only to find yourself stuck on a ship that seems to be attracting no one and can barely hold your interest.
p. 9
Change must be about new, which to us means "fresh, bright, something that intuitively feels right, that causes us not only to dream but to move on our dreams."
p. 13
Have you considered that when the unchurched baby boomers reach retirement age, they'll represent one of our most unreached people groups?...Therefore, if we're committed to reaching one of the fastest growing segments, "emerging church" may be based in retirement centers and have as its primary cultural engagement reruns of Happy Days, Leave it to Beaver, and free denture giveaways.
p. 16
Yet we continue to lose the people we have while failing to reach the ones we don't have.
[There is a great letter from a sincere, hard-working pastor to Hugh on pgs. 16-17]
Pgs. 15-22 address the five tensions felt by pastors who will try to make these changes:
1. a broken heart-desire to reach the lost and help hurting people
2. frustration of energy and resources wasted-"we've worked so hard for so little"
3. fear-job-security, paying bills,
Tensions also comes when you know you can't go back to present forms of church, but you don't know what going forward will look like or what it will cost us in life, focus, family or finances.
...Looking back over the past ten years, I can say I've spent as much time reevangelizing these people as I have with people outside the Christian faith. It is actually a bit harder to try to reconvince those in the know than those who don't know anything. For them, the discussion isn't about proving Jesus. It's about giving them hope that Jesus can or will still work in the church.
4. tension arises when you see the structure of the church falling, and you realize that everything the church stood on may go down too.
5. we have a massive tension related to identity:
I was riding in the car with my daughter Alli a few months ago, and out of the blue she said, "I just want you to know that I'm not a Christian anymore." I figured this was one of those statements that meant something more, so I put on my Jedi wisdom cap and said, "Cool. Me either." It was obvious I caught her off guard as she replied, "Dad, you have to be a Christian. You're a pastor!" As I asked her more questions, she told me why she wanted to trade in her badge. It was because some Christian kids at her middle school were making fun of a young girl who was a lesbian. Alli knew this girl and was her friend. Alli hasn't lived long enough to experience too many situations like this, but one is enough or her to question where her loyalties lie.
Identity represents who we are, and it is important in determining how we act. When you're proud of your team, your company, your family, you'll act proud, and you'll get off your fanny and work hard to increase the prominence of your group. But if you're ashamed or unimpressed with your team, you'll often not engage at all, simply because you don't want to be lumped in with something or someone that doesn't represent who you really want to be or what you value or believe in.
p. 24
Oftentimes, if you decide to embrace the tension and move forward, this is your first battle. To move forward, we can't keep everything we've always had. We have to pick what to take, what is absolutely necessary, and leave behind some things that have been important to us. What used to provide comfort may now only take up space or be a hindrance to getting where we need to go.
p. 25
[God packs light] He would like to trim off anything that would slow us down, hinder us, or make the journey more difficult. Sometimes that includes people, just like when he thinned out Gideon's army. Sometimes that includes assets, possessions and material concerns, as when Jesus told his disciples to head out without tunic or purse. Sometimes that includes his work in us personally to strip us of those things that have brought us internal security, acceptance and pride.
p. 26
Quite often we see leaders who get so disheartened that they react emotionally and deconstruct their church, people, and programs so fast that they have nothing to reconstruct with later.
p. 27
{Referring to his cats, Milo and Mitten, who made his moving very difficult]
Some people will be like Milo. They don't want to go and make it very clear. Let them "not go." Some will be like Mitten, who seem to want to go but really don't. They are the ones who pay your bills if you're a pastor, give you nice strokes after your sermon, and who generally make life peaceful for you as long as you keep it peaceful for them. They calmly nod and smile when you're preaching what they want to hear, and for a while they even sound like they know where you're going to take them...but as soon as you suggest that this new journey will include some genuinely "lost" people from the world in your church; or that they may have to open their homes once a week to create small communities; or that you may change the service time to accommodate searching souls; or change a little music; or let "nonbelievers" be involved in church ministries and activities...or dive deeply into the life and activities of the culture around them, you'll see their claws come out.
p. 27
For church planters and pastors who wish to move their congregations deeper into mission, this is quite difficult. We used to be told that the number one indicator of a new church's success is how many people they have when they start. Now we say, the number one problem you'll have will be based on bringing to many people with you. Why? Because a good majority of the Christian world is unconsciously a Milo or a Mitten. They have good hearts, but they hate change, they've gotten used to being provided for, and many will take too much of your time and energy to try to keep on mission with you.
p. 28
What this means is that understanding is easy, but change is brutal. It means that everything is affected, and therefore there's not going to be an easy way through the tension. No seminar or training will give you the answers. It means you can't necessarily plan for the future because the future is changing. Ultimately, the only solace is that everyone is feeling it.
p. 30
As I once heard, "Doing church differently is like rearranging chairs on the Titanic." We must realize that slight tweaks, new music , creative lighting, wearing hula shirts, shorts, and flip-flops won't make doing church more attractive. Church must not be the goal of the gospel anymore. Church should not be the focus of our efforts or the banner we hold up to explain what we're about. Church should be what ends up happening as a natural response to people wanting to follow us, be with us, and be like us as we follow the way of Christ.
p. 31
Christians struggle with the exact same issues, vices, and sins as those outside our ranks. We had better stop trying to keep the hostiles out and start identifying ourselves with them and allow Christ’s redemption to flow over all.
Influence doesn’t happen by extracting ourselves from the world for the sake of our values, but by bringing our values into the culture.
p. 34
Within every congregation there are people at every level of willingness, strength and maturity. I liken these Christians to bricks in the understructure of a bridge that reaches out to the other side of the river. They aren't going to make it across the bridge. They may not fill churches with new Christ followers, they may not even be people you want your non-Christian friends to meet, but they can help support the old and new structures that will allow others to go out.
p. 35
I want to point out that some Christians and Christian leaders want to cross the bridge, but their forms, rules, and paradigms for ministry don't allow them to get to the other side. To us, that is not an indictment, but a simple reality that so many of our present church leaders find themselves having to face.
p. 40
As a Christian man, I know firsthand that "lost" is the last thing I want to be called, even if I am, well, lost. Or what is the term is unreached, or target group, or unbeliever? Try any of these out on the streets with real people, and see if you can avoid a fight.
Brian McLaren, in his book, More Ready Than You Realize, deals beautifully with the meaning of the word lost in ancient times. Lost connoted something to be treasured, worth looking for, but just missing. Very different from our modern-day meaning of being clueless, spiritually stupid, or arrogantly anti-God.
p. 41
Christianity is now almost impossible to explain, not because the concepts aren't intelligible, but because the living, moving, speaking examples of our faith don't line up with the message. Our poor posture overshadows the most beautiful story and reality the world has ever known.
p. 42
In our [church] we specifically ask people not to try to be "evangelistic". We suggest to them that if people aren't asking about their lives, then we haven't postured our faith well enough or long enough.
p. 47
How are you willing to advocate for people while they live lives that are in opposition to the way of Christ?
p. 53
Historically, in attractional churches (those that still try to get people to come to them), we have confronted from the pulpit. We’ve given general admonishments to a sanctuary of faces with whom we have little or no relationship. Because incarnational practices are relational, confrontation is much more direct and affective.
p. 57
Although frustrated by the consumer approach of their adherents, the modern-day paid pastors don’t feel they can lead the way their hearts tell them to for fear of losing a tithing attender. Often, the pressure is so strong, they find themselves frantically trying to update their presentation, increase programs to attract people, or lighten up the message of the gospel.
p. 60
Paradigms can either propel us into action or they can shut us down and limit what we do and what we think is possible.
The problem is that our present evangelical “Come to us” paradigm of church has not been an appropriate missiological response to the paradigms that exist in our world.
p. 64 [Comparing the paradigms of Western, Eastern, Postmodern and Gospel: Discovery]
The Discovery Zone is a sphere in which truth can be seen before it is spoken, where a new authority figure becomes trusted, and where people are able to weigh Christ’s values over their own.
p. 67
Remember, there’s one thing that is just as important as truth, and maybe even more important. That is whether or not someone is willing to receive truth. An environment of discovery is the only way we’re going to help people experience an alternative opportunity. Helping them make a personal “preference” for Christ and his life will always be more powerful than bashing their values. This doesn’t mean we don’t get to speak and teach truth. It just means we’re better missionaries if we let them experience it before we start debating it.
p. 69
The ancient Christians believed that God didn’t want us to be in control of our relationships or autonomous in our approach to him or others. He wanted everything done in the context of his communal people and as a witness to the world.
p. 70
For the ancients, Christian community was unique, intriguing, and attractive primarily because it called for inclusion of all people. The Christian movement was the only place where women, children, and people of non-Jewish origin could all be together.
The ancient church was not afraid of other faiths or people of no faith. They figured spiritual fervor in the wrong direction is still better than spiritual apathy in the right direction.
p. 71
What causes exclusive community is fear. What creates inclusive community is love. In 1 John 4:18, there’s a challenge to this exclusive posture: “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear….” So, what are we afraid of? Weird theology, and occasional swear word, or the appearance of our friends condoning a sinful life? It might be good to remind ourselves that even within a group of typical institutional Christians, trained seminary students, and pastors, there can be some wacky theology and shady morals. Why then do we on the “inside” try to control the behavior and views of Sojourners? This tension is the story of the early faith communities, and if we’re praying for God to move in our world like he did two thousand years ago, we’re going to have to open our doors and create places that may seem messy or dangerous and will challenge our exclusive ways.
p. 72
When the values of church and culture are similar, it’s much easier to create a common space for saints and Sojourners to be together. This is why the traditional “Come to us” attraction model of church was successful in the past. People outside the church appreciated our values.
p. 74
It’s a common presumption to think that people today are overly selfish, consumer oriented, and unwilling to make a sacrifice or commitment, but actually the opposite is true. God created people to care, to want to find their place in the world, but the church has often missed the opportunity to draw people into an eternal perspective, one big enough to grasp anyone’s attention. The typical message has been to be good, stop sinning, go to church, and wait for God to come back. Yuck. It’s too simple. You can go about your normal life and still do those things without much effort.
p. 76
I never tell people I’m a pastor anymore, and I rarely even acknowledge I’m a Christian unless they give me time to explain. I don’t believe I have any power or prestige from my position. In fact, I think it puts me a few yard behind the line of scrimmage…I simply put pressure on myself to live in such a way that people want to be with me, and then hope others will follow in our way. If no one is following, then I assume it’s because of me.
p. 77
I’m not an inspiring person, I may not even influence my own family, let alone people outside the church.
p. 86
There will always be people who are, at a heart level, completely resistant to Christ. But this book isn’t about them. This book is about the millions of people who are openhearted and curious about life and God but who are honestly not finding goodness in the good news that we talk about and that, at times, has been forced down their collective throats.
p. 87
In their book, Lost in America Tom Clegg and Warren Bird said that people on Earth have three fundamental needs. They are transcendence (the need to connect with the Creator), significance (the need to have purpose in life and do something meaningful), and community (the need to connect with others through deeply satisfying relationships).
p. 93
When we say “attractional approach,” we’re talking about the attempt to draw to church, people with whom we have no relationship. Through program, presentation or preaching, we hope that people will choose to “come to us.”
p. 95
Although the attractional approach will continue to be influential with people who have some context for church, we must accept that the growing post-everything culture must be wooed through a more incarnational process. In other words, the greater the cultural distance from organized religion a person is, the greater the need for an incarnational presence of a gospel community.
p. 108
The pyramid structure was an appropriate from when a large portion of the culture valued and looked for a good church to go to-when the leaders were respected by the culture and when people assumed you go to church to find God. The form fit the function. But when the culture is no longer looking for a church to go to, isn’t that interested in church music, sermons, or programs, or when they don’t innately value or trust church leaders, the functions of church must be adjusted. And thus the form must adjust in kind.
p. 113
…people who want to call themselves Christ followers without tangibly following him into mission. They’re “pew sitters,” people who know a lot of Bible verses, who like to be plugged in and go to classes. They have bucketloads of ministry ideas and love to lead from the top and share their ideas from the top, but they really don’t want to live the life of a missional person, sacrificing in order to provide an inclusive community for others. In other words, they are people who only want to experience community if it benefits them.
p. 124
Living out is the natural and intentional process of making habit of four practices: leaving, living among, listening to, and loving with no strings attached. These four habits, if lived out by a given community of missional people, will help you have the right posture and be in correct position to gain the hearts of God-seeking Sojourners around you.
p. 125
In order for us to change the correct assumptions that people have about God and his followers (their programmed responses), we’ve got to get to the point where they consider us one of them (the parameter change). To do this is not a matter of “evangelism” or “outreach” or “missions.” It’s a matter of living out like Jesus did.
p. 127
Since the word missional theologically means “to be sent,” leaving is where living like a missionary really begins. Leaving isn’t just about going overseas. It’s about replacing personal or Christian activities with time spent building relationships with people in the surrounding culture.
p. 128
I’m not sure how we got where we are, but it’s amazing that we think our most powerful times, our most intimate spiritual experiences, are supposed to happen within the comfortable confines of our church services. The biblical evidence is overwhelming and is crystal clear that God’s power is most naturally meant to happen “out there”!
p. 132
The second essential incarnational habit we hope to cultivate simply listening. Listening is watching and sensitively responding to the unspoken and spoken needs of Sojourners in ways that demonstrate sincere interest.
p. 136
For whatever reason, the church at large has theologized the idea of personal holiness to exclude normal interaction with the world. Many churches we work with have an alarming theology of “extraction” that creates a Christian peer pressure to move away from the world in all its forms. To these people, the world is dirty, dark, intimidating, and evil.
p. 137
Incarnational life requires that we contextualize all the “warnings” found in the epistles with the larger context of the life of Jesus as recorded in the Gospels. In other words, we’re going to have to learn all the things we can do instead of limiting ourselves based on a few things we’re warned to avoid.
p. 138
Based on the things Jesus asked us to do and to avoid, I believe that we’d be well served to offer a new perspective on holiness, one that takes into account both sides of the equation. Try this out: What if whimsical holiness is simply “being like Jesus…with those Jesus would have been with”? How might this definition of holiness change the way we view people and live our lives? [I must admit this concept of “whimsical holiness” immediately gave me pause so I have included a few quotes below as he explains].
There are more quotes that this does not allow space for
*See Word file >Documents>Book Quotes
May 4, 2020
I really love the ideas these guys put out in this book! My heart sings as I consider this as a really authentic way to live out the Christian life.
But then, 2/3 of the way through the book something happened that tainted my continued reading. I was very inspired to see what their church had become by living this way. So I began to research the church, and to my disappointment, their church closed. Seemingly, the results of living the way they advocate in this book are a closed church. This made the rest hard to read when they are advocating this is the way churches should function throughout.
I still think there is value in reading the book and practicing in your real life the things they advocate. But if you’re looking for a way to lead a church, I think there’s something missing in the secret sauce.
But then, 2/3 of the way through the book something happened that tainted my continued reading. I was very inspired to see what their church had become by living this way. So I began to research the church, and to my disappointment, their church closed. Seemingly, the results of living the way they advocate in this book are a closed church. This made the rest hard to read when they are advocating this is the way churches should function throughout.
I still think there is value in reading the book and practicing in your real life the things they advocate. But if you’re looking for a way to lead a church, I think there’s something missing in the secret sauce.
June 13, 2015
Tangible Kingdom addresses the assumptions, fears, experiences and prejudice views of believers and non-believers and the lack of understanding that causes miscommunication within the two different communities. Planter churches are showing a new way of spreading the word by missioning to non-believers in a changed environment in everyday society. Many Christians are scared of taking this action because of change, said change would mean leaving the secure and familiar environment.
Summary
Tangible Kingdom explains how believers need to gain an understanding of those non-believers (Sojourners) that are spiritually lost. Non-believers seemed to feel shutout of churches or scared of what type of experience might come from a 90 minute service, whether they have had a bad experience themselves or heard a disturbing story of a bad day at church from elsewhere. The author shows how by Christ followers missioning, in a new environment can have a great impact on people one at a time. Entering in a communal environment, leaving the comfortable zone, and listening to the interests and needs of sojourners assists in gaining a hearing with others which can attract behavioral changes.
Interactive Analysis
The unknown is challenge for believers and non-believers alike. The unknown can provoke fears that makes change seem impossible. The prejudice assumptions that believers have against non-believers hinder believers from doing God's work and evangelize. The first chapter shares the heart of an evangelist who sees opportunity every where. Someone who would enjoy sharing “an accurate message about the Kingdom.”(Smay, pg. 2) This joyful heart goes through tremendous turmoil during an unsuccessful church merger only to find the heart to evangelize has not left as much as it has deepened. I have survived a few of those seasons as well. I understand what it feels like to love God so much and want to share it with others who have been hurt by church goers. I have also been hurt by church goes enough to leave a church and consequently stayed out of fellowship for a year. Church doctrine and the study of theology can hold great information but if people are not walking in the understanding of the call to community and the less fortunate, theology and doctrine will not help. As believers we all “know, people who have a hard time finding coherence between their faith in God and their experience in the church; people who are sick of that same old song, same lingo, same methods, same discouraging results, and same spiritual emptiness.”(Smay, p. 4) Some many have replaced to true essence of the gospel, the present kingdom of God, with the theatrics that go on in during the church service. Many have become depended on the pastor or lay staff to grow and mature each constituent meanwhile feed, clothe and pray for the community. Many people think that the best thing to do when you meet a non-believer is to invite him/her to church.
“Church must not be the goal of the gospel anymore. Church should not be the focus of our efforts or the banner we hold up to explain what we' re about. Church should be what ends up happening as a natural response to people wanting to follow us, be with us, and be like us as we are following the way of Christ.” (p. 30).
As followers of Christ, humility should be our posture as we enter in the community of non-believers. All too often believers approach non-believer as if the believers know something that a non-believer does not know, which may be true but is not the way of gaining a hearing with a non-believer. No one likes to be judged or looking down upon. The best way to gain a hearing with a non-believer is to get to know him/her. Be genuinely interested in his/her assumptions, experiences, worldviews, and emotions. The author is very right is writing, “When we start there, (genuine interest) everything changes: our posture with people, our livelihood, what we do with our spare time, who we spend our time with, how we structure the fabric of our lives.”(Smay, p. 38) Being missional, by definition of page 38, meaning to be sent, is a posture that required direction from God. The book goes on to share that in a normal Christian church the opposite behavior is far more common. Christian wait for non-believers to wake up and want to fellowship. We, Christians, want them to come into a church where they many or many not know anyone, sit down, even though they do not know where and play church like the rest of the congregation does every Sunday. We want them to stand up and announce themselves as first time visitors before they can even get comfortable. We have lost sight of Jesus' original direction “Matthew 28:19, which reads, “Go and make disciples of all nations. . . .”(Smay, p. 38).
This book is a healthy reminder that non-believers are watching our “Christian” behavior inside and outside of our church settings. Jesus is the way, the truth and light. When we walk in a way that represents Christ in our everyday lives, non-believers see it and are drawn to it. As a friend Klarc put it, many things are caught rather than taught. In the story about the mission trip we see that Sean was interested in participating in the behavior that represents, the mission.
“In the sphere of mission, we ask people to share benevolent action, spontaneous blessing, sacrificial giving, and the sending out of leaders. But the essence of all these rhythms is participating in what God calls “pure” religion in James 1:27.”(Smay, p. 172)
May 16, 2020
Good, accessible, encouraging read for church leaders and Christians sensing God's invitation to participate in His mission in their everyday lives.
My only critique (which they even address in the book) is that this seems like a lot of work and a lot of extra things to add to our lives, unless we are paid ministry people. Especially as someone who is an extreme introvert with a dose of social anxiety, many things they talked about left me with a tight stomach as I thought about it happening in my life.
My only critique (which they even address in the book) is that this seems like a lot of work and a lot of extra things to add to our lives, unless we are paid ministry people. Especially as someone who is an extreme introvert with a dose of social anxiety, many things they talked about left me with a tight stomach as I thought about it happening in my life.
June 20, 2020
I read this for an online course with Hugh Halter. This was my second time through the book and I appreciated some of the ideas even more this time and some of the ideas seem a bit more far-fetched than when I read this ten or so years ago. I deeply appreciate Halter's call to live the mission among the people God loves (the whole world). It is still worth reading if you haven't got around to it. If you have read it, thumb through it. Reread some of the important ideas about incarnation and mission. Learn, again, to let Jesus' love shine through you.
Read
June 5, 2025This was a fine book. An easy read, since I read about 80% of it on a bench by the water. The authors posit that people should be allowed to belong in a group of Christians with their questions, imperfections, etc. before they believe (as opposed to believing in order to belong). This is about evangelism in cities and small communities that are tight-knit and reach people who wouldn't be attracted to a "traditional" church model exclusively. There were good questions and conversation starters. Not quite a groundbreaking book, but an easy and decent read overall.
August 7, 2020
Fantastic book! I’ve been talking about so many of the concepts in this book for almost a decade and this book helped to validate and give new language to. If you’ve ever felt like there was a different way to do church, a way that builds deeper and more meaningful relationships (with all people) focused on Jesus and mission and in a way that makes living in the Kingdom tangible, this is your book.
July 18, 2021
Hugh and Matt provide a thoroughly biblical and helpful framework for why and how the western church must reshape biblical community through the lens of Christ’s incarnation.
Though I disagreed with a few points of application, and generally believe this book would have benefited from reordering its chapters, I’d encourage ministry leaders to give this book a read. While it was written in 2008, I’m confident this book will serve many well as we emerge into a post-pandemic society.
Though I disagreed with a few points of application, and generally believe this book would have benefited from reordering its chapters, I’d encourage ministry leaders to give this book a read. While it was written in 2008, I’m confident this book will serve many well as we emerge into a post-pandemic society.
October 1, 2021
Do I agree with everything the book is about? No! But it's ok. I identified so much with the author. I would call him "out-of-the-box thinker". I like that. We are too churchy. We are very much inside of a bubble & popping the bubble is very key if we want to be relevant. Where everybody thinks the same, nobody thinks. I am not talking about unity, but uniformity. It does not have to be that way.
I will keep the teachings of this book in mind.
I will keep the teachings of this book in mind.
Read
January 27, 2022Our church did a study on this book and how to create a community that will last a lifetime. I picked this up after the fact to check out and read at my own pace.
It was definitely an interesting book with plenty of examples of how the authors over the years have created multiple sustainable communities around the teachings of God. I can’t recommend this book this book to just anyone but I found it very insightful and a fairly quick read.
It was definitely an interesting book with plenty of examples of how the authors over the years have created multiple sustainable communities around the teachings of God. I can’t recommend this book this book to just anyone but I found it very insightful and a fairly quick read.
August 23, 2017
Brought up some interesting points, but not my favorite text approaching missional community. I disagreed with several of the author's stances, some of which were hardly academic, and it seemed like another generic this-is-what-Christians-should-really-be-doing book that everyone smiles and nods at and continues doing what they're doing.
February 23, 2019
A thoughtful and inspiring look at creating communities that draw others to Christ. I'm not sure I would draw all the same conclusions they do, but I agree that we need to figure out better ways to do community in the American church and thought they laid some good starting points. I loved the authors' heart for those outside the church and the stories of God showing up in surprising ways.
January 7, 2024
4.5.
What I appreciate about this read is the challenge to move from "This is how it's done" to a curious "What could it look like?" This has caused me to rethink how to go about fulfilling the "Great Commission" in our current day and cultural climate that utilizes our unique personalities and giftings.
What I appreciate about this read is the challenge to move from "This is how it's done" to a curious "What could it look like?" This has caused me to rethink how to go about fulfilling the "Great Commission" in our current day and cultural climate that utilizes our unique personalities and giftings.
July 26, 2024
This book may have been written almost 2 decades ago, but I believe it is ever more needed now than even then. It isn’t a plug and play model of ministry, but definitely makes you want to sit and rethink 1. The current model we are in, 2. What is the most biblical expression and functionality of church today, and 3. What needs to change?
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