Ok, we always suspected that there were not easy answers, no one fix for the spiritual angst and restlessness that confronts us as we jostle through our culture listening to bits and pieces from people’s stories.
I assume most people, like myself, want to be invited into the conversation, though, and want to find a way to bring God along without the religious baggage. Jesus unencumbered.Sine’s book gives us the handles we need to do just that. It’s cool that he doesn’t champion one theory or push one particular method, but instead reports what God seems to be doing in spite of us among those who want to get their hands dirty in ministry and those to whom the traditional image of the church has lost appeal.
I was really pumped and challenged to learn in The New Conspirators what God is doing through this new generation of innovators and risk takers that really seems to make a difference in their world. I like the sense of honoring the smaller things, the things that don’t get the headlines or get marketed in a 12 disc DVD series. The New Conspirators is the first book I have found that not only focuses broadly on the emerging stream but on the missional, mosaic {multicultural church planters), and the monastic streams as well. I was moved not only by the imaginative new models of community, celebration, and mission these young conspirators are creating but also the meaty questions they are raising for all of us about what it means to be a follower of Jesus, be the church, live responsibly, and do mission. The New Conspirators is a wonderfully balanced book of information and insight. It’s both prophetic and practical.
As a pastor in a traditional church that is morphing into a missional community, I read Tom’s insights and observations with fear and trembling. If we follow where God seems to be leading, there will be blood. The death of unexamined assumptions has to happen to find the spiritual foundation on which to change the way we think about God’s Kingdom and the communities through which it grows.
The New Conspirators address that fear and calms it somewhat by demonstrating that God’s works through small mustard seeds to engineer large vision. Cool, Eh? I think so. I’m bringing my copy to all my board meetings!
Mr. Stan Thornburg “Thorny Quaker”
Oregon, USA