Recommended reading from the horizon watchers.
Soul Tsunami: Sink or Swim in the New Millennium Culture Leonard Sweet (Zondervan, 1999) The wave of change is rising, and Sweet describes ten “life rings” the church must grab. Each ring is followed by “say what?” and “now what?” sections showing how churches can use the information. Tsunami has a companion Web site, extensive footnotes, and real church examples. My favorite ring: Get EPIC (experiential, participatory, image-based, communal). Sweet says high tech must meet high touch. This is a challenging book, to be taken in small bites. His follow-up, AquaChurch, profiles 12 congregations applying the principles
Discontinuity and Hope: Radical Change and the Path to the Future Lyle Schaller (Abingdon, 1999) Schaller always adds a sense of history. In his familiar, conversational style, he leads readers through the seemingly random and disconnected changes of the late twentieth century. These include shifts from small entities to large, neighborhoods to regions, and superstars to teams. Schaller then describes consequences for congregations, committees, parishioners, and denominations.
The Experience Economy Joseph Pine and James Gilmore (Harvard Business School Press, 1999) The authors argue that high profit businesses will move from arranging sales to staging experiences for their customers in order to engage them on many levels. For example, Disney World is not a daytripper’s theme park anymore; it’s a week-long excursion to zoos, golf clubs, watersports, and nightspots. In the next phase, businesses will seek to help customers change their lives. Churches, leaders in transformation, face greater competition as it becomes profitable.
The 500 Year Delta: What Happens After What Comes Next Jim Taylor and Watts Wacker with Howard Means (Harper Business, 1997) You won’t agree with all their conclusions, but the first three chapters offer lucid assessment of the big movements in our culture: the disposition of reason, the deconstruction of economics, and the disorganization of economies. We are living through profound changes in how we think, how we buy and sell, and how we group ourselves for family, work, and recreation. A good tutorial on how to study trends. Now in paperback.
New Rules for the New Economy: 10 Radical Strategies for a Connected World Kevin Kelly (Viking, 1998) These ideas, first published in Wired magazine, are now popping up elsewhere. Don’t label this book “just another thing on the Internet.” Kelly’s insights reach well beyond the Web. On relationships, he observes, “When information is plentiful, peers take over.” Church leaders should consider the impact of technology on their teams. This book gives Christians reasons to be better connected.
—Dave Travis Director of Interventionist Networks for Leadership Network. dave.travis@leadnet.org
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