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Does Your Church Have a Prayer? Leader's Guide: In Mission Toward the Promised Land
Congregations seeking revitalization can take heart. Jesus has already prayed for their unity so that they may share his love with the world! The Does Your Church Have a Prayer? Leader's Guide presents a model of Christian transformation to guide a congregation through a journey of spiritual renewal in fulfillment of Jesus's prayer in John 17. The Leader's Guide begins with a number of biblical examples of spiritual leadership. Referring to these models, the authors offer pastors important thoughts on choosing, equipping, and encouraging leaders to collaborate with them as they enter a time of discernment. By apply biblical principles through this intentional process of congregational engagement, churches will understand their calling as they move from a wilderness of inward focus to God's Promised Land of Jesus' disciples.
159 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
About the author
Marc Brown
576 books390 followersMarc Tolon Brown is perhaps best known for his series of children's books about Arthur the aardvark, which was turned into an animated television show on PBS. Brown is a three-time Emmy Award winner, for his role on the television show inspired by his books.
He lives on Martha's Vineyard and in New York City with his wife, Laurie Krasny Brown. He has three children, sons Tolon and Tucker, and daughter Eliza. The names of his two sons have been hidden in all of the Arthur books except for one: Arthur's Tooth.
He lives on Martha's Vineyard and in New York City with his wife, Laurie Krasny Brown. He has three children, sons Tolon and Tucker, and daughter Eliza. The names of his two sons have been hidden in all of the Arthur books except for one: Arthur's Tooth.
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March 15, 2016
Well, that was...crap, actually.
So the thing is that the concepts of the book are solid: it uses the story of Joshua 24 where the Israelites freak out because there are scary people in the land to which God led them after springing them from slavery in Egypt to make points about the Church. The way it breaks down the ideas of the "giants" a church can face when desiring to change is actually interesting--but it never carries it through. For whatever reason, Brown & Co. have made this the most convoluted and unhelpful study around. Their prose is clunky, their explanations are unwieldy, and don't even get me started on their supplementary readings. (Actually no, let me get started. So I'm a medievalist, right? I legit have a degree and everything. I've taught this stuff to other people. I've presented at conference. I have my creds. So when this book breaks down historical worldviews, I cringe a little because history is way more complicated than that, but whatevs. When it breaks down those worldviews and puts the current one at the top because of course time is a progressive, linear concept where we as a race are always only getting better, I start to twitch a little. When I see that the only thing they're quoting to come to that conclusion and talk about prior worldviews as though they had some kind of blinders on is AN OVERVIEW BOOK THAT ISN'T EVEN FROM A HISTORIAN AND IS FREAKING TEN YEARS OLD AND OF THE LAST BLOODY CENTURY I JUST CAN'T EVEN WITH THAT. There are many capital letters in the margins for that because you have to support an argument with more than a Reader's Digest column from a single author.)
This is a "participant's workbook," which basically just means that they couldn't be bothered to write a real book so they put a lot of questions at the end of each four-page chapter. It feels like the textbook it is and is equally as boring; I was the leader for my section of this and I didn't even read most of the chapter-resolving questions because they were either so rote that I felt like I was back in elementary or so outlandishly fishing that I didn't care enough to try. I never bought in to any of the ways the authors were trying to push me to consider my own church, which is bad news for a church book study.
Again, the core concept was interesting and there are a handful of good statements, but the execution was so terrible that I regularly found myself wanting to just skip the book and read the Bible passage instead. Surely I could come up with a way to communicate the studies better than this.
So the thing is that the concepts of the book are solid: it uses the story of Joshua 24 where the Israelites freak out because there are scary people in the land to which God led them after springing them from slavery in Egypt to make points about the Church. The way it breaks down the ideas of the "giants" a church can face when desiring to change is actually interesting--but it never carries it through. For whatever reason, Brown & Co. have made this the most convoluted and unhelpful study around. Their prose is clunky, their explanations are unwieldy, and don't even get me started on their supplementary readings. (Actually no, let me get started. So I'm a medievalist, right? I legit have a degree and everything. I've taught this stuff to other people. I've presented at conference. I have my creds. So when this book breaks down historical worldviews, I cringe a little because history is way more complicated than that, but whatevs. When it breaks down those worldviews and puts the current one at the top because of course time is a progressive, linear concept where we as a race are always only getting better, I start to twitch a little. When I see that the only thing they're quoting to come to that conclusion and talk about prior worldviews as though they had some kind of blinders on is AN OVERVIEW BOOK THAT ISN'T EVEN FROM A HISTORIAN AND IS FREAKING TEN YEARS OLD AND OF THE LAST BLOODY CENTURY I JUST CAN'T EVEN WITH THAT. There are many capital letters in the margins for that because you have to support an argument with more than a Reader's Digest column from a single author.)
This is a "participant's workbook," which basically just means that they couldn't be bothered to write a real book so they put a lot of questions at the end of each four-page chapter. It feels like the textbook it is and is equally as boring; I was the leader for my section of this and I didn't even read most of the chapter-resolving questions because they were either so rote that I felt like I was back in elementary or so outlandishly fishing that I didn't care enough to try. I never bought in to any of the ways the authors were trying to push me to consider my own church, which is bad news for a church book study.
Again, the core concept was interesting and there are a handful of good statements, but the execution was so terrible that I regularly found myself wanting to just skip the book and read the Bible passage instead. Surely I could come up with a way to communicate the studies better than this.
Displaying 1 of 1 review