Tom is well acquainted with the increasingly progressive stream within the (post?) evangelical world and his sympathies are clearly with our emergent friends. A few of the chapters in his book are actually a tremendous intro to that movement. Still, I wonder how much more helpful it may be to offer some critique or concern about the foibles of that movement? Certainly there are those who don’t think that movement will offer much of substance for the long haul… And does the shift from “post-modern to post-colonial” that Brian McLaren so powerfully discusses in The Emerging Manifesto of Hope indicate a trend? It is one that Tom is perfectly positioned to not only document but to guide.Lastly, I might have wished for more direct discussion of the fate of the mainline churches. Are they sidelined? Are they still viable? Can our historic liberal denominations live into the new practices that they are themselves writing about, being shaped by deeper worship, teaching contemplative, going missional, and more faithfully guided by their best doctrinal traditions? The New Conspirators is not at all irrelevant to mainline churches, even if many of the stories are not of your typical Lutheran or Presbyterian or Methodist parishes. Many of his illustrations are, in fact, from mainline settings (including his good knowledge of Anglican ministry in the U. K.) if admittedly from some of the more innovative and experimental congregations. Again, this is a part of his own heart, and he and Christine speak often for traditional mainline denominations, so I would have wished for just a small bit more about that as a context for forming new conspirators and how that might be encouraged.These are just minor quibbles though, and I invite you to consider getting this, for all of the good reasons named above. The New Conspirators: Creating the Future One Mustard Seed at a Time is perhaps Tom Sine’s crowning work, or, as Alan Hirsch puts it, “vintage Tom Sine.” He does his social analysis, does social visionary thing, he tells tons of inspiring stories, he documents new trends and invites us to be aware of the (perhaps) strategic influences of several new streams within the broader Body of Christ, even as we live out the implications of these in fresh ways contextualized to the contemporary world and its ways and needs. He has tons of interesting foonotes and a great sample of on-line resources. Sine invites you and me, readers, to become friends, well-aware and awake, networked and involved, in spiritual renewal of the sort that is, indeed, “whole life discipleship”—living it up, finding our purpose, taking discipleship seriously, living in a world “between Mustard Seed and McWorld.” Yes, through his whole body of work, and now in this new masterpiece, he invites us to “imagine the future that is already here.”