Intelligent Church: A Journey Towards Christ-Centred Community

by Steve Chalke

‘As St. John of the Cross “Mission is putting love where love is not.” This book is full of ideas. It should prompt us all to examine the effectiveness of the way local churches are organized.’ ―The Most Reverend and Right Honourable Dr. John Sentamu, Archbishop of York ‘Everything that Steve Chalke writes is insightful and cutting-edge. Here he argues in favor of a church that thinks and acts in ways that make the Kingdom of God visible and reasonable in a secular society.’ --Tony Campolo, PhD Eastern University, Pennsylvania, USA The task of the Church is “to be the irrefutable demonstration and proof of the fact that God is love,” claims Steve Chalke. An intelligent church intentionally connects the Bible and its twenty-first-century culture, is authentic and, most importantly, has thought through its practice. In other words, the way it does church is a reflection of its understanding of who God is. This foundational issue must be addressed by pastors, church and ministry leaders, small group leaders and others as we continue to grapple with the shape of effective church in the postmodern, post-Christian West. As Chalke unpacks central theological concepts, such as the incarnation, human sinfulness and the Trinity, he points us to the corresponding characteristics of an intelligent church, such as inclusiveness, messiness and diversity. Each thought-provoking chapter concludes with a ‘Yes but How?’ section, which gives practical suggestions for moving your church along this path.

Genres: Christian, Theology, Church

192 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2006

About the author

Steve Chalke is a British Baptist minister, social entrepreneur, author, and speaker widely recognized for his work in promoting social inclusion and justice. He is the founder of the Oasis Charitable Trust, an organization he launched in 1985 with the vision of building inclusive communities where everyone is valued and empowered. Under his leadership, Oasis has become one of the UK's largest charities, operating across a wide spectrum of services including housing, healthcare, education, and youth and community development—both in the UK and internationally.
Chalke's commitment to education is reflected in his founding of Oasis Community Learning, a multi-academy trust responsible for over 40 schools throughout England. The trust seeks to support not just academic achievement, but whole-community transformation through education. He also serves as the founding minister of Oasis Church Waterloo in central London, a place of welcome and inclusion for people of all backgrounds.
In 2006, Chalke launched Stop the Traffik, a global coalition working to end human trafficking through awareness, education, and systemic change. The organization has mobilized tens of thousands of activists in nearly 100 countries. His work in this field led to his appointment as a United Nations Special Adviser on Human Trafficking.
As an author, Chalke has written extensively on theology, faith, and social justice. His notable books include The Lost Message of Jesus, Apprentice: Walking the Way of Christ, and The Lost Message of Paul, among others. He has also written numerous articles and is a frequent speaker on topics related to spirituality, ethics, and public life.
In recognition of his tireless efforts, he was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to social inclusion and has received multiple honorary degrees and fellowships. He also holds the Guinness World Record for the most sponsorship money raised by an individual marathon runner, having raised over £2.3 million during the London Marathon.
Throughout his career, Steve Chalke has consistently challenged societal norms and church traditions in pursuit of compassion, equality, and justice, making him one of the most influential voices in contemporary British Christianity.

Reviews

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Steve Chalke is a great writer. He has already displayed his writing prowess in The Lost Message of Jesus. Here he does it again, and unlike last time, doesn’t get in so much trouble for what he writes.

Steve and his church fall into the emerging church camp without making too much of a big deal about that fact. He simply writes from a heart and a passion that wants to see the church get fired up about the things he believes Jesus was fired up about.

Chalke informs us that an Intelligent church is one that is an: inclusive, messy, honest, purposeful, generous, vulnerable, political, diverse, dependent and transforming church.

Inclusive - open to all who are displaced and marginalized. Will be filled with those who have life sorted and for those who don’t.

Messy - having all sorts of people who are at different points on their journey of faith. They may not all believe the same things, have all the same values or behave consistently.

Honest - allowing people to come and begin with them where they are at, not where we want them to be or think they should be. If church is to be a “home” in one sense, a home is where one shouldn’t have to pretend. A home is one in which we don’t have all or feel a need to always give the right answer.

Purposeful - good to know where we are going and how we are going to get there. *upcoming book review on Organic Community challenges this view somewhat

Generous - generous with grace and kindness rather than judgement. With Jesus we don’t fall from grace, rather we fall into grace. Generous with resources and time

Vunerable - indentifying with pain, sorrow and struggles of our communities. We bear their wounds and fears, and our reputation means less to us than our compassion for them.

Political - “a critical friend that respects but also challenges government.”

Diverse - based off of Trinitarian theology, people have unique gifts and abilities that serve the body and thus need to be able to flourish within the body. Diversity recognizes that not one of us are balanced - we need others, their wisdom, input and insights, gifts and abilities. And yet, diversity does not mean isolation but diversity within community.

Dependent - relying on others to meet needs that we can’t or feel we can’t by ourselves. In this case our dependency on God through, especially, prayer and the belief that our prayers really can be effective.

Transforming - love God and love others and through “that commitment reflect his love to them.”

A couple of quotes:

“A generous church recognises that its tone and emphasis are as important as the core ofits message.”

“Our mission is simply to reach out to others and walk with them as far as they will let us, taking them on a journey with God….It is not our job to convert people. Our job is to be intentional about showing God’s love, grace and acceptance to people.”

“When churches are out of touch with the people who live around them, the problem is not that they are irrelevant - although they are - it is that they are not incarnational.”

Great book to digest, reflect on, re-read and apply. I certainley want to be part of an intelligent church.

[Frederick Colbey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pretty good read. It raised some very worthwhile points and was clearly written with good intentions. However, would I say, "Every Christian NEEDS to read this book!"?
No, I would not say that.

[David Campton · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first time I read this I balked somewhat at the main title, given that the church is called to run counter to what the wider world would describe as intelligent. Targeting the poor, the marginalised and the struggling is not necessarily an intelligent way to run a church... It can be messy, exhausting, and financially demanding among other things... But actually, the chapter headings confound the main title of the book, pointing more towards the sub-title "A Journey Towards a Christ-Centred Community" offering a good digest of some of the characteristics of a such a community - a relational, inclusive, messy, honest, vulnerable, generous, vulnerable, diverse, political (small p) and transformative church. The "Yes but How?" sections, which conclude each chapter, do not answer that question, but instead offer other questions, but for me, that's a good thing... Christ told storys to prompt (not necessarily answer) questions... Chalke, whilst not being a particularly original thinker, tells a good story himself, gleaning ideas and examples from across the theological spectrum... If his stories and the questions at the close of each chapter produce questioning churches, then perhaps they may not be "Intelligent" as the title promises, but they will be further along that journey that the sub-title speaks of, towards being Christ-Centred Communities. For that reason, on my second reading of this book I have boosted my previous rating of it, and would recommend it to anyone seeking to explore what the church needs to look like in a 21st century "post-Christian" (or at least post-Christendom) society.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Intelligent Church’ looks at ways in which the author believes the Christian church should be functioning in the 21st century. Rather than merely following tradition, or taking everything we hear from church leaders as absolute, Steve Chalke recommends that we think for ourselves, and ask questions about how the church can be more effective.

He focuses on different aspects of church as he sees it. He begins by explaining that church must be inclusive - not just people of all ages and nations, but all cultures, and (more controversially) lifestyles. The book continues with chapters on church as a place without strict boundaries; a place where it’s okay to ask questions and be ourselves; a church where people give of their time and material resources.

These chapters, and several others, all end with some practical suggestions and then some questions to be considered by church leaders.

The book is clearly written, each point made with Biblical and practical considerations. There are some anecdotes relating to the author’s own experiences although at times I found the style a little dry. One chapter per day was about as much as I could take in. Still, it made some excellent points, and painted an encouraging picture of how the church could be.

I would recommend this highly to church leaders and home group leaders everywhere.

Four and a half stars would be fairer.

[Phil Whittall · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s subtitled ‘a journey towards Christ-centred Community’ which sounds great. The concept that the church is proof that God is love is a very attractive and compelling idea, although we all know in reality it often falls a long way short. The book is ok, if you’ve never read a book on this subject before it’s a good place to start. If you’ve read this author before or on this subject before then it’s a forgettable meal, I finished reading it a couple of weeks ago and already the memory of what it contained has faded. So use it as a starter but overall I wasn’t too impressed.

[Astrid · Rating 4 out of 5]

Challenging and practical. Steve Chalke explores ways for the Church to deliver the Good News in a more accurate way to our generation. Good for small groups studies.

"It's time to do church differently"