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Becoming a contagious churchWal-Mart gospel?BECOMING A CONTAGIOUS CHURCH Why are washing powder adverts compelling? The computer animation shows all the dirt effortlessly removed when you use the new improved formula. You want cleaner clothes, don’t you? And just look how happy and bright these people look after using it! This book is rather similar. After all, who doesn’t want their church to be more evangelistic? In nine easy-to-read chapters the author lays out the ‘six stage plan’ a church leader can take to unleash an array of new opportunities. Much of what Mittelberg says is entirely true: you need leadership, you need to be organised, you need to have flexibility, you need to engage all members, not just an elite corps, and above all you need to lead by good example. He is also clear that the core message of the gospel must not be compromised (there is a good explanation of substitutionary atonement!) and that prayer is needed at every stage. But his approach is, to my mind, flawed. He says that while we need the ancient message, we now need a modern method. And his organising method is that of modern business. Wal-Mart, Harvard professors and leadership gurus are cited throughout the book. In fact, he boldly suggests that if this method is embraced then churches will double in size every seven years such that all of America might be reached in 30 years! Perhaps that is Wal-Mart’s aim, but does Scripture give us confidence that Jesus Christ will build his church in this way? No mention is made of the way to life being narrow with few finding it, nor the fact that much seed is sown on bad soil. No reference is made to the, humanly speaking, haphazard way the early church grew, nor to the reality of persecution and setbacks. Church history is not mentioned to caution against unbridled optimism. So is it worth reading? Well, certainly some aspects of his plan are useful and commendable. But if you apply the methods in the expectation of his scale of results, I fear it would be a disaster. Unless you only want to remove superficial stains, this powder won’t work. Andrew King,
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