Leadership Journal

Fresh Encounters
Experiencing transformation through united worship-based prayer
by Daniel Henderson (Navpress, 2004)

I am often disappointed by books on prayer. Despite their helpful information, they rarely fire me up to pray more. Henderson's book, Fresh Encounters, is not a disappointment. The book motivates with stories of life change that resulted from prayer.

One significant emphasis is corporate prayer, and Henderson does an excellent job of biblically defending it. He suggests that our private prayer life will rise and fall on our corporate prayer experience, and he fills the book with many creative ideas for corporate prayer meetings. The appendices include schedules, songs, and Scripture for worship-based meetings that will inspire a congregation to pray.

Invading Secular Space
Strategies for tomorrow's church
Martin Robinson & Dwight Smith (Kregel, 2004)

Conversations about the future of the modern American church often neglect two facts: the church is neither American nor modern. Robinson and Smith avoid this oversight in their book, Invading Secular Space: Strategies for Tomorrow's Church. The book successfully combines history, sociology, theology, and practical strategy. And the authors' European point of view gives a refreshing outsider's perspective of the church in America. They examine the incredible growth of the church throughout the world, and then ask why the Western church currently is failing to experience the same vigor.

They reexamine our assumptions about the church's mission, structure, history, and place in the culture. By looking at the rapid advancement of the gospel in emerging countries and in earlier ages, Robinson and Smith lay out a new strategy for the church in the West. Rather than creating large "vertical" church organizations led by a dominant pastor, they argue for recapturing a "horizontal" church with decentralized structures and multiple leaders.

Invading Secular Space by Martin Robinson & Dwight Smith Kregel, 2004 224 pages, $13.99

Invading Secular Space may prove helpful for ministries wrestling with the pragmatism of the modern church and the values of the emerging church movement. Robinson and Smith tip their hat to both sides by acknowledging the monumental shift occurring in Western culture and the need for structural changes in the church, while offering ideas that resonate with leaders seeking practical suggestions.

Skye Jethani, Wheaton, Illinois

A Resilient Life by Gordon MacDonald Nelson, 2004 224 pages; $19.99

A Resilient Life
You can move ahead no matter what
Gordon MacDonald (Nelson, 2004)

How do we structure our lives so that the first half empowers and enriches the last half? MacDonald gives us a way of thinking about our future so we may condition ourselves for an endurance run. Resilient people, MacDonald says, know the importance of cultivating Christian character.

He embraces the concept of becoming a Christian rather than being a Christian. This requires ongoing study, meditation, and ...