"Intelligent Church: A Journey Toward Christ-Centred Community"

written by Steve Chalke

Reviewed by Murray Brown

"If we live in a world that is at least open to and quite possibly desperate for spiritual input and authentic community, why is the church declining in numbers?" This is the question posed by Steve Chalke in the opening chapter of a book that calls for an "intelligent" approach to church, and by implication, youth ministry. Throughout the book he explores different aspects of what a ministry that seeks to build Christ-centred communities should be characterised by:

• Inclusive church: Our ministries would be places where the "unloved and unlovely find refuge and belonging." We do this by being incarnational and going to where people are, attracting them into our communities of faith.
• Messy church: The outworking of an inclusive ministry will be a messy ministry. We will have young people coming who will cause us problems and add stress, but these were the sort of people whom Jesus reached out to.
• Honest Church: The messy people we attract will bring with them questions and doubts. To be honest means that we do not need to always have answers which we try to force upon people. We must leave people the space to struggle with doubts.
• Purposeful church: God is a long term purposeful strategist, and Jesus is a strategic leader with a clear sense of timing and purpose. Similarly we are to set goals and objectives that give our ministry clear focus and direction.
• Generous church: We are to be generous and sacrificial in the love we express to people, showing abundant grace and costly giving.
• Vulnerable church: In the same way the God of the universe became a vulnerable baby who would eventually die for mankind, we are to make ourselves vulnerable to people, showing them respect and participating in their pain and struggles.
• Political church: Our ministries are called to be concerned not only with social action but with social justice, as Jesus Himself was. We must take on a prophetic role, independent of the political system yet involved in it.
• Diverse church: Diversity in our ministries brings strength providing these differences are embraced and utilised for the common good. This diversity presents a challenge to leadership who try to lead with a top down approach. It is most effective in an environment that encourages bottom-up initiatives.
• Dependent church: The extent to which prayer is evident in our ministries is the extent to which we truly depend on God. Our aim should not be to only teach doctrine but to lead people into a relationship of dependence upon God.
• Transforming church: Our ministries will lead to the transformation of lives when they are built on love and acceptance. Through tolerance and service we confront society and become God's agents of change.

While there is little here that might be termed new or original, the writer does lay a solid theological foundation for what our ministries should be like. In that sense it serves as a checklist and although his primary focus is the church in general, we can take the principles he outlines and use them to measure our own ministries against. Along the way he includes many memorable and insightful stories that illustrate community in action and make the book more readable.