When the great book of life is opened, some would see it that it’ll be the stellar Christians like Mclaren, Baker, Rollins and Wallis who should get all the plaudits. I wouldn’t want to take anything away from any of them, but quietly, ‘one mustard seed at a time’ Tom has been actually inspiring people to do the stuff. It’s a quiet, background role, perhaps, but I think if you could trace the significance of his words and actions through all the things that have happened because of them, you’d have quite an amazing list. Vaux certainly owes him its existence in many ways.
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Tom (Sine) maps the current new things happening with a mapping of four movements whose edges are blurred and overlap - emerging, mosaic, new monastic, and missional and he is enthusiastic about them all (i agreed with shaine clayborne’s hesitation in the foreword that the book runs the risk of making some of us young tykes look too good, better than the reality - but what a refreshing change!) weaving stories he has gleaned into the mix. he does carefully issue a few challenges on the way - for example he loves the creativity in emerging church but wonders why it tends to get focused on worship and church rather than taken outside the walls. he also wonders if those of us who like the postmodern world haven’t got our imaginations too shaped by the consumer dream of cool - these are great challenges and need to be responded to.
He follows the opening section mapping the new conspirators with conversations about culture and what the future challenges might be. woven into this is a view of god’s future that is wonderfully inspiring. in much the same way as i enthused about tom wright’s book a while back, this book also lays out a vision of a future for the earth that is healed when god’s kingdom comes. one of the things i have always found challenging and inspiring about tom and christine is their imagination. in the face of the consumer culture and the busyness and drain on resources so many of us face they suggest communal responses in relation to housing, resources, and neighbourhood. it takes courage to take these on board, but this is precisely the kind of imagining christian communities should engage in. in fact the last section of the book, taking our imaginations seriously, was definitely my favourite - story after story and idea after idea are laid out so that you can’t help feeling that as tom puts it all of life is a design opportunity to be co-creators with god. at the end of it, because the whole approach is inspired by jesus’ story of the mustard seed where something grows from a tiny seed, you think that even i could do something really really small and see what happens…
If you cant make the conference, at least buy the book. Its called The New Conspirators: Creating the Future One Mustard Seed at a Time. Tom sent me the manuscript last year and I was really impressed with it. Tom and Christine Sine are possibly the most connected people I know to the wider emerging church scene AND the historic Jesus movement of the 70’s in which they also had a part. It was the Sines that connected me with key leaders around the world including New Zealanders like Mark Pierson (who is speaking at the conference this weekend) and Emergent Kiwi Steve Taylor. They are always ahead of the game.
From Tall Skinni Kiwi, Andrew Jones
Scotland
His (Tom) book is worth reading and discussing and it’s great to have a guy with his breadth giving some credence to this new generation of thinkers envisioning a new reality in our new emerging culture that is both consistent with and yet somewhat different than the previous incarnation of church in an earlier historical culture.
The New Conspirators serves as a really terrific primer and conversation starter for people who are new to a post-Christendom thought process, and it represents a good “next step” for those who are already in sync with that.
Steve Lewis, Washington, USA
Tom Sine captures what many who have focused exclusively on one or another “stream” in the current context of the church have missed: the incredible diversity and creativity of various movements within modern Christianity.
If you want a picture of the best of what the church has to offer the world not only today, but into the future, you should start at the frontier, which is where Tom has taken us. Since Mustard Seed Conspiracy through Mustard Seed Vs. McWorld and now in the New Conspirators Sine has kept his finger on the pulse of that place where church meets and engages culture in new and exciting ways. This is a must read for anyone who cares about the future of the church in a global, post-Christian world.
Lucas Land “myfourwalls”Texas, USA
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
We have journeyed a mere eight years into the third millennium, and the church is facing a profound crisis of relevance. Do we have anything to offer a creation that is groaning in travail? Tom Sine speaks to this crisis when he asks the question, “Does the future have a church?” “The New Conspirators” is his hope-filled answer. Tom offers convincing evidence that, yes, the future does indeed have a church. It just doesn’t look the same as it used to.
The church of the third millennium is not a church of “bricks and mortar.” It is a church of “poets, monks, clowns, prophets and other conspirators” who are sowing seeds of redemptive compassion throughout the world. These “small, small seeds” are sprouting, growing, and bringing new life and new hope to our groaning world.
In these pages, Tom Sine has assembled a compelling collection of stories of people of faith who are living out the good news of the kingdom of God in their lives. Through their stories, he reminds us that God really does love this world, and more importantly, God is fully invested in redeeming it. These new conspirators of hope are the evidence that God is indeed at work in the world, and Tom Sine invites us to become a part of this divine movement.
This book is particularly good news for those whose souls are aching under the weight of the shallow, trivial, and mundane. It is a book for those who are hungering and thirsting for something of substance in the unsatisfying realm of virtual reality. It is a book for those who want to spend their lives on something that will endure the test of time.
Scott Smith Indiana, USA
Sine notes that ‘these days God is working through a generation who will not be satisfied with anything less than an authentic faith that makes a real difference in the lives of others and in the care of God’s good creation’. I wholeheartedly agree with this statement. There is a rising up which God is clearly at work within, and I for one am excited to see where He will lead us.
From Beyond the Four Walls blog, Lyn Hallewell
United Kingdom
I love his choice of the humble touch, the small, and his consistent choice to apply what he says…
From Reconciliaton Talk, Peter Adams
England
Tom presents a taxonomy of hope in four small streams that are washing over the roots of a sprawling and ailing church: missional, emerging, monastic and mosaic.
From Next Reformation blog, Len Hjalmarson
Canada
One of the things I immediately like and appreciated is Tom’s engaging style. He is humble in his presentation and is constantly inviting his readers into the conversation without being overbearing.
From Missio Dei blog, Jonathan Brink
USA
Perhaps the real emergence of today’s church, the primary re-structuring that needs to take place, is in our own hearts. That we would be willing to be the unseen, unheralded ambassadors who heroically refuse to walk in the ways of this world for the sake of demonstrating a love that throws money-changers out of temples, embraces sinners, and forgives those who nail us to a cross.
Australia
Tom explores taking the culture seriously, taking the future seriously, taking turbulent times seriously and taking our imaginations seriously. A wondrous ride through the alley ways.
From Jesus Creed blog, Scott McKnight
USA
I already am challenged by, and enjoy, that which I am reading. Tom is not afraid to question. He does not accept the pat answers…
Hawaii, USA
‘The New Conspirators’ is the sort of book that I will find myself returning to in order to facilitate my thinking and stimulate my imagination as I seek, together with family and friends, to live with and for Christ and to express the inaugurated kingdom of God.
From Chisendom blog, Chris Tilling
Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Publisher Weeky review of the New Conspirators
The New Conspirators: Creating the Future One Mustard Seed at a Time
Organized as a series of conversations, this book explores the “lively edge” of Christianity in the U.S. and the U.K. Sine, who wrote The Mustard Seed Conspiracy in the early 1980s, has always championed Christian subversives and exiles who act in small but significant ways to care for the poor and marginalized. This book begins by delineating four streams of Christian expression that greatly challenge the norms and assumptions of traditional churches. These streams—emerging, missional, mosaic and monastic—frequently flow into one another, and Sine does a fine job of defining them as separate but interdependent entities. Sine looks to these streams for tentative answers to several difficult questions, such as “Did we get what it means to be a disciple wrong?” and “Did we get what it means to be the church wrong?” As he explores these questions, Sine considers the context, particularly what he calls “the global mall,” in which the church must define and distinguish itself. Sine is unflinching in his assessment of Christian consumerism, but his tone is never angry. Rather, he exudes childlike enthusiasm as he shares example after example of Christians all over the world who are expressing their faith through profoundly countercultural acts of mercy, justice, love and compassion. (Mar.)