A Church for the 21st Century Review

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A Church for the 21st Century ReviewIn A Church for the 21st Century, Leith Anderson seeks to describe the current state of churches in America, and attempts to discover and relate how the church will find success in the next millenium, or at least the very first part of it. Anderson's method of doing this is primarily by telling stories, and pointing out what churches are currently doing. He begins by examining the trends that seem to be leading into the new millenium (though as the book was written in 1992 this is shown to be a bit presumptuous). Prediction is difficult, as is clear even before the new century has come. His statement on page 88 of the decade of the nineties being one of "no growth" shows how quickly trends can change. For the first three chapters he looks at these trends and seeks to show the direction which the church is heading. A few comments I especially agreed with. He discusses the old approach as being more theoretical" and "standardized" while the new is more "practical" and "customized". I certainly agree with this. On the next page he discusses the fact that discipleship will be outcome-based, reflecting a change in life and behavior rather than learning a prescribed curriculum. I find my own church already very much having moved in this direction. In this first section I also found his description of the various styles of churches very interesting. In just a few pages he conveys the different models which are going to be prevalent. This will stay a good reference for me to refer back to.
The rest of the book seems to be a shift in his purpose. Rather than spending the book looking at trends and trying to figure out what will happen, after the first three chapters he attempts to encourage and show what can be done now in order to accomplish success in the future, as well as trying to help put churches which have lost a sense of purpose back on track. I found that his discussion and awareness of the current situation is very impressive and informative. By relating not only theory, but talking about specific churches and styles which are finding success, as well as those which are maybe no longer the best he presents a quality picture of the state of the modern church.
My initial impression was that while he was good at relating what is happening now which is successful, there was no sense that he was able to say anything new about what will happen in the coming years. The difficulty lies in the fact that this is a transitioning time for the church and for society in general, so any attempt to predict what will be effective is difficult. I was also a little disappointed that there was little or no reference to Church History. I have found, and have heard others say, that the modern church will need to look more into the past than it has done in a while. Anderson's technique is to look at the situation in the present and by this draw conclusions about where the church is heading. There may be some points he makes, but overall I am unconvinced to the overall value of what he is saying because of this lack of historical reference. My appreciation grew, because I was able, after a few times looking over the book, to draw out some poignant statements. But as a whole, I found that this book did not say anything really new or valuable, and its style seemed unconvincing and rather unhelpful for my situation. It would be interesting to read an update of this book, to see how the last seven years have adjusted his predictions.A Church for the 21st Century Overview

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