[rating:4.0]
(Grand rapids: Zondervan, 2012)
350 pgs
There is no question that Andy Stanley is an outstanding communicator. Son of the extremely influential pastor, Charles Stanley, Andy has developed into one of the most influential pastors in America today. In his book, Deep and Wide, Stanley offers interesting, candid, and at times, thought provoking insights into what led him to develop the popular North Point Community Church in North Atlanta. In his latest book, Stanley presents much to think about. And, whether you ultimately agree with all he says, this book is helpful in addressing critical issues for today’s church.
Having read James MacDonald’s book, Vertical Church, before reading this one, I would suggest readers do the same. I believe both present their cases well, for their particular perspective. MacDonald argues we are too driven by pleasing people and not enough concerned with pleasing God. Stanley argues that churches are not sensitive enough to unchurched people and they need to make adjustments to make visitors feel more at home. Both points have merit. Regardless of which perspective you lean toward, both books will make you think.
Stanley is a master at sound bites, and he has a number of them in his book. He begins by saying, “As leaders, we are not responsible for filling everyone else’s cup. Our responsibility is to empty ours” (11). His fundamental point is this: “I think every church should be a church unreligious people love to attend” (12). Stanley models one thing well: He is clear on his and his church’s mission, which is to make his church one that unchurched people enjoy attending. Stanley’s argument is that, if unchurched people keep coming, they have a chance of having God’s word penetrate their heart. He claims: “We don’t grade ourselves on size. We grade ourselves on how attractive we are to our target audience” (15). Even if you do not agree with all of his points, reading Stanley’s book should drive you to be more intentional about what you do believe.
Stanley grew up in the traditional First Baptist Church of Atlanta with a famous father as pastor. When First Baptist Church purchased land to the north of downtown, they asked Andy to launch a satellite campus that would eventually merge with the main campus once it relocated north. In 1992 they launched the new congregation with 700 people (31). Soon it was running over 2,000 adults. Andy reveled in discarding traditional church trappings and intentionally reaching out to the unchurched. However, things came unraveled for Andy during his parents’ high profile divorce. Andy recommended to his father that he resign his church and to allow the congregation to re-issue a call to their now divorced pastor. However, Charles viewed that suggestion with suspicion, wondering if his popular son was trying to supplant him (39). This caused untold hardship and sent the father and son into two years of weekly counseling to try and preserve their relationship (40).
Ultimately, Andy resigned his church and launched North Point Community Church in 1995 (47). 1500 people showed up at their organizational meeting (47). The rest, as they say, is history. Throughout the book, Stanley shares his rational for the unique type of church he developed that has been unusually effective in reaching unchurched people.
Stanley notes that the early church was “fueled not by what they believed, but by what they had seen” (51). He also charges: “Say the word ‘church’ today and very few people think ‘movement’” (54). He argues that most churches focus on their members. He notes: I grew up around people who believed the church was for saved people who acted like saved people” (73). He notes that the problem with that perspective is that it simply fills the church with hypocrites
Interestingly, perhaps, for a church of its size, Stanley says he embraces “the glorious mess” (78). They keep policies and rules to a minimum. They also break a number of traditional rules. They promote people into leadership roles quite early and without formal leadership training. He claims: “We put people into leadership roles too early, on purpose” (79). His point is that people don’t really know what they need until they are in the middle of that need. His church lets people get into the deep water so they recognize their need to learn how to swim. They also allow unbelievers to assume leadership roles (80). You can join their church Online without ever talking to anyone in person (81). The church also supports non Christian charities in their community led by non Christians. Stanlely believes churches isolate themselves too much from their community and try to reinvent the wheel at times. However, to be baptized you must be willing to have a five minute video made that is shown to the congregation (81).
Stanley’s point is that as many barriers as possible ought to be removed from people coming to church and hearing the Gospel. He comments: “Becoming Jewish would require surgery. If you think membership standards are high in your church, think again” (88). His philosophy of ministry comes from Acts 15:19 where the early church sought to make it as easy as possible for Gentiles to come to Christ. Any unnecessary obstruction was removed.
Stanley insists that you can be intentional about making unchurched people feel welcome without having to compromise your message. He has built the discipleship of their church in an untraditional manner. There are five “Faith Catalysts” that are emphasized. These are:
- Practical Teaching
- Private Disciplines
- Personal Ministry
- Providential relationships
- Pivotal Circumstances
Stanley makes some strong points for these being an intentional part of a church’s programming. He suggests: People are far more interested in what works than what is true” (114). His point is that preachers often pride themselves in being doctrinally correct, but people see no relevance to their lives with what is being preached. He argues: “If people are more interested in being happy, then play to that. Jesus did” (115). He is arguing that Jesus connected with where people were, and then drew them to where they needed to be. He also offers the intriguing question: “What is it like to be on the other side of me?” (116).
In defense of utilizing unbelievers he argues: “Before you judge me, every church has unbelievers involved in their ministry. The difference is, we do it on purpose, and in most cases we know who they are” (128). He has a number of important comments such as, “The sermon begins in the parking lot” (157). And, “If you don’t define what excellence looks like for your staff and volunteers, they will define it for themselves” (163).
Stanley offers an apologetic for being seeker sensitive that can be controversial at times. He notes: “To seek and to save the lost, you must first capture their attention” (173). He also argues: “It’s the presentation that determines interest in the content” (176). Concerning presentations he explains: “A great presentation is one that makes a well-known text come alive through illustration and fresh application. Face it, David always beats Goliath, and there will always be ten commandments. The only thing that changes is the presentation” (175). He confesses; “We’ve gone to great lengths to protect our audiences from presenters who aren’t engaging” (178). One interesting approach is to separate those who are good at content or logistics from the presenters. Some people present well but are shallow on content. Others have deep insights but are boring communicators. Stanley urges church leaders to let people play to their strengths and to avoid areas they do not do well. He also acknowledges that he spends a great deal of time crafting sound bites (183). He wants to communicate in a way that causes people to keep thinking about what they heard long after the service is over.
Stanley makes the key observation that “The approach a church chooses trumps its purpose every time” (194). In defending himself from critics who claim he is “selling out” the Gospel, he argues: “Does this mean we tailor the content to non Christians? Nope. We tailor the experience to non Christians. There’s a big difference” (197). He goes into detail about the template he uses to design the service each week. He suggests: “A template doesn’t put your team in a box. Your team is already in a box” (199). He adds: “Your current template is perfectly designed to produce the results you are currently getting” (201).
In their services, they begin by making it comfortable for unchurched visitors. He notes that “comfort” takes precedence over “theological” at this point (210). In his services, the band might begin with a Beatles song or something that is familiar to unchurched people. He argues that it is not fair to invite unbelievers to church and then ask them to do something for which they feel uncomfortable, such as worshipping (215). He points out that many people do not like to sing, and song leaders need to be mindful of that (217). Stanley agrees that their approach cannot cause people to accept the message. Yet he claims: “But our whole approach to sowing the seed of God’s word does not determine whether the seed will take root, it does determine whether an individual is open to returning the next week for another round of sowing” (221). Stanley observes of the high drop out rate of young people in church; “but there’s no mystery as to why they drop out. I’m convinced they drop out because nothing compelled them to stay” (230-231).
He makes some statement that will raise eyebrows, such as; “Content isn’t everything. It’s the approach that makes all the difference” (233). He does comment that, “Every innovation has an expiration date” (265). What is “cutting edge” today will be old fashioned and behind the times tomorrow, yet there will be church leaders who cling to those methods because they worked once. Stanley also observes: “In 100 percent of the cases, the leaders who can’t get their people to change, can’t articulate their visions either” (271). When it comes to change, Stanley quips; “Date your model and marry your mission!” (284). He also notes that many churches hire pastors or teachers or chaplains, but not leaders (294). He suggests: “But knowing the Bible does not a leader make” (295). He claims that there are leadership skills that greatly help in ministry. He points to the Apostle Paul as a highly ambitious and skilled leader who was the most effective in the New Testament (296). I am not sure if Stanley is tongue in cheek when he suggests that the former untrained fishermen were bound to Jerusalem until the risen Christ called Paul to shake things up in the early church. Stanley also says, “We say silly things like, ‘It’s not your ability that matters; it’s your availability!’ Really? You wouldn’t choose a surgeon based on that criteria would you?” (297). I am not sure I agree with Stanley here. I know what he is addressing when people blithely assume they can provide mediocre effort but get divine results. But the difference between a surgeon and serving God is that God guides you and empowers you when you are doing His work. I don’t know that we necessarily select a surgeon and a minister in exactly the same way.
In the final section, Stanley seeks to challenge the existing church to transition to being more outward focused. He points out that once the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost, “the church left the building” (313). He also urges churches to stop praying for protection and to start praying for boldness (312). He makes the great point that “If you want to know what Jesus meant by what Jesus said, pay attention to what Jesus did” (298). Stanley concludes by asking a compelling question: “Are you really content to spend the rest of your life doing church the way you’ve always done it?” (311).
Overall, I enjoyed reading this book. Stanley is a great communicator and he says things in a way that makes you think. He gets a little too “home spun” at times, using the word “heck” a little too often. But there are perhaps three major issues that need to be considered.
First, Stanley’s model is very much about a performance, attractional model. He readily admits that the major event of the church week is the weekend service. But developing a home run experience for unchurched people who are used to being entertained means putting enormous pressure on the staff. It also suggests that the primary tool of evangelism is the service rather than through the average believers who have been disciple to evangelize their friends throughout the week. While Stanley is correct to urge ministers to be at their best, most ministers cannot compare with Stanley as a communicator. You can only broadcast Stanley’s sermon into so many auditoriums on Sunday!
A second and more fundamental issue is whether the Sunday service ought to be primarily driven by unchurched people. Stanley believes we should not pressure unchurched people to worship when they are uncomfortable doing so. A valid question would be whether unbelievers are even capable of worship. Which begs the question: If worship is the lifeblood of believers, then why would you forfeit their prime worship time so you could accommodate people who cannot worship anyway? This is a complicated issue. Stanley is correct in that too many churches are utterly insensitive to outsiders in their services. But should the Sunday morning service be primarily about the guests? If your mature Christians are focused on making unbelievers comfortable, when do they worship? To often the church confuses evangelistic services with worship services. This is why I think it is good to read this book and Vertical Church in tandem. There are strong points to be made for both perspectives.
Finally, the focus on presentation as more important than content raises some questions. Certainly ministers could learn much from the masterful way Stanley uses presentation. But one wonders what the apostle Paul would say about this. He acknowledged that the foolishness of the Gospel was powerful enough to transform lives. Nevertheless, Stanley has also demonstrated that churches ought to be intentional about how they present their message.
This is a book that presents the “seeker driven” model well. Even if you do not agree with everything he says, there are plenty of helpful nuggets here to help make our ministries more effective. I’d recommend people read this book and then think carefully through the issues presented. I am going to rate this book quite high, not because I agree with everything Stanley says, but because he offers plenty of things to think about as well as some solid advice worth implementing right away.
by Richard Blackaby