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The Out of Bounds Church?: Learning to Create a Community of Faith in a Culture of Change
What's Going on Out There? Author Steve Taylor takes trips to the edge of the church envelope and sends us back what he's finding inside the emerging church around the globe. From the revival of ancient spiritual practices to the rise of multimedia, each of his posts sketches a view of the body of Christ in wild flux. Topics birth; pilgrimage; community; creativity; DJing; and leading and following.
176 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 2005
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About the author
Steve Taylor
1 bookLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
Steve Taylor is the founding pastor of Graceway Baptist Church (www.graceway.org.nz), in Ellerslie, New Zealand. He is completing a PhD on the emerging church and has a Masters in Theology in communicating the cross in a postmodern world. Steve receives requests to supply spirituality resources and to speak in UK and US.
Steve Taylor is the founding pastor of Graceway Baptist Church (www.graceway.org.nz), in Ellerslie, New Zealand. He is completing a PhD on the emerging church and has a Masters in Theology in communicating the cross in a postmodern world. Steve receives requests to supply spirituality resources and to speak in UK and US.
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November 19, 2015
Steve Taylor may be best known as the “http://www.emergentkiwi.org.nz,” referring to his blog with which he provides spirituality resources to emerging church leaders in the U.K. and U.S. Taylor is the founding pastor of Graceway Baptist Church in Ellerslie, New Zealand.
This book, in Taylor’s own words, is his “attempt to articulate a postmodern missiology that will be meaningful in a world of increased fragmentation.” (161) Taylor suggests ways to “provide inviting experiences and pathways for people to move from being passive to active participants” in the emerging church, “moving them from experiential to experimental to existential converts.” (89) This book helps define how today’s emerging church leader may become like a “DJ,” a “Sampler” of the “two poles of gospel life and cultural resources.” (140) Taylor admits that the book, as with the emerging church, is in “draft form,” as the current “cultural shift is too great to write in any other way.” (161) Taylor offers creative ideas for those who recognize the need to engage today’s postmodern culture as a missionary.
The book is presented in three major parts. Part one powerfully draws from resources of modern and postmodern film, especially two film versions of Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet. Taylor examines “culture shapers” who are “creative, resilient, and capable of surprising acts of re-formation.” (37)
He shows that the “chaos” of today’s cultural shifts is the “seedbed of a new communal future.” (39) Part two highlights “Fire-starters,” people who are not trying to escape, but rather creatively engage the world, especially the local context, in which they belong. The emerging church, Taylor asserts, is seeking to participate in God’s creativity as musician/composer, designer/dresser, architect/builder, crafter/artisan, and playful storyteller. (61) Part three outlines the creative tension between the “ethical community,” or intimate house church, and “peg community,” or tourist/consumer niche group. According to Taylor, the love of God demands an ethical discipleship, while also providing “tourists” a place to gently explore God’s love. (129)
The problem with the Modern Evangelical church is “programs” to which we invite people, pointing them to a church service, which thereby creates “consumers.” (94) My response to this book is a renewed hope that it is possible for a contemporary church, such as Lake City Church in Madison, Wisconsin to make the missional adjustments to re-imagine, to re-new, and to re-create during this time of radical cultural shift and church transition. (69) For example, rather than invite people to an event, we could invite people to a myriad of community life experiences, which may or may not include a Sunday service. We may begin by simply inviting people to browse our website with resources for finding God. (94) To make our site vibrant and active, we will need to resource a missional group of young people affirming their “Cyber-monk calling.”
Taylor uses the metaphors of “birth,” knowing when to “push” when a baby is in “transition,” and the “Divine dance,” our response to God’s lead. It’s not that we should choose between the gospel or culture, fundamentalism versus assimilation, but rather engage our world with a “distinctive and transformative remixing of both gospel and culture.” (147)
The missional calling for today’s church leaders is to create missional communities, providing inviting experiences and pathways for people to move from being passive to active participants both outside and inside the traditional church service. We must avoid the “scent of exclusivity,” thinking our church or community is “ground zero.” We should instead re-imagine our Lake City Church slogan from “where Love is a way of life,” to “a love leaking community.” Our invitation must not be to a place, but to a People. Therefore, we must be a people who love enough to go into the highways, to the margins where those experiences and pathways exist. (93)
The leaders of Lake City Church could also re-cast themselves as “Tech Help,” not making decisions about what the various missional community groups do, but rather assisting them with technical problems, getting online, participating in the traditional worship events. The pastoral staff could equip emerging missional community leaders, giving them creative freedom to navigate and craft their own worship segments, whether it be praise, confession, worship, message, community time, intercession, or benediction. The Out of Bounds Church has confirmed to me that emergence is “part of a long history of God-inspired apostolic endeavor,” which is vitally necessary today. (39)
This book, in Taylor’s own words, is his “attempt to articulate a postmodern missiology that will be meaningful in a world of increased fragmentation.” (161) Taylor suggests ways to “provide inviting experiences and pathways for people to move from being passive to active participants” in the emerging church, “moving them from experiential to experimental to existential converts.” (89) This book helps define how today’s emerging church leader may become like a “DJ,” a “Sampler” of the “two poles of gospel life and cultural resources.” (140) Taylor admits that the book, as with the emerging church, is in “draft form,” as the current “cultural shift is too great to write in any other way.” (161) Taylor offers creative ideas for those who recognize the need to engage today’s postmodern culture as a missionary.
The book is presented in three major parts. Part one powerfully draws from resources of modern and postmodern film, especially two film versions of Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet. Taylor examines “culture shapers” who are “creative, resilient, and capable of surprising acts of re-formation.” (37)
He shows that the “chaos” of today’s cultural shifts is the “seedbed of a new communal future.” (39) Part two highlights “Fire-starters,” people who are not trying to escape, but rather creatively engage the world, especially the local context, in which they belong. The emerging church, Taylor asserts, is seeking to participate in God’s creativity as musician/composer, designer/dresser, architect/builder, crafter/artisan, and playful storyteller. (61) Part three outlines the creative tension between the “ethical community,” or intimate house church, and “peg community,” or tourist/consumer niche group. According to Taylor, the love of God demands an ethical discipleship, while also providing “tourists” a place to gently explore God’s love. (129)
The problem with the Modern Evangelical church is “programs” to which we invite people, pointing them to a church service, which thereby creates “consumers.” (94) My response to this book is a renewed hope that it is possible for a contemporary church, such as Lake City Church in Madison, Wisconsin to make the missional adjustments to re-imagine, to re-new, and to re-create during this time of radical cultural shift and church transition. (69) For example, rather than invite people to an event, we could invite people to a myriad of community life experiences, which may or may not include a Sunday service. We may begin by simply inviting people to browse our website with resources for finding God. (94) To make our site vibrant and active, we will need to resource a missional group of young people affirming their “Cyber-monk calling.”
Taylor uses the metaphors of “birth,” knowing when to “push” when a baby is in “transition,” and the “Divine dance,” our response to God’s lead. It’s not that we should choose between the gospel or culture, fundamentalism versus assimilation, but rather engage our world with a “distinctive and transformative remixing of both gospel and culture.” (147)
The missional calling for today’s church leaders is to create missional communities, providing inviting experiences and pathways for people to move from being passive to active participants both outside and inside the traditional church service. We must avoid the “scent of exclusivity,” thinking our church or community is “ground zero.” We should instead re-imagine our Lake City Church slogan from “where Love is a way of life,” to “a love leaking community.” Our invitation must not be to a place, but to a People. Therefore, we must be a people who love enough to go into the highways, to the margins where those experiences and pathways exist. (93)
The leaders of Lake City Church could also re-cast themselves as “Tech Help,” not making decisions about what the various missional community groups do, but rather assisting them with technical problems, getting online, participating in the traditional worship events. The pastoral staff could equip emerging missional community leaders, giving them creative freedom to navigate and craft their own worship segments, whether it be praise, confession, worship, message, community time, intercession, or benediction. The Out of Bounds Church has confirmed to me that emergence is “part of a long history of God-inspired apostolic endeavor,” which is vitally necessary today. (39)
August 4, 2011
One of the most exciting books I have read about the church for a long time
September 19, 2017
Forgotten everything about this book??? Can't have had too much to say given it's topic?
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews