TatV Chapter 8

This is the best chapter of the book so far. Its premise is that churches work in one of three ways: 1. Pastor as service providing clergy, 2. Pastor as CEO, 3. Pastor as trainer.

They recognise the strengths of the first two, the concern to faithfully preach or to reach people for the gospel, however, they helpfully highlight their weaknesses too. But what I found most helpful was thinking through what each of the first two convey to congregations and how it leads to spectators in church.

Obviously given the premise of the book the 3rd option is in their opinion the biblical and most beneficial. What was going to be my one criticism of the chapter was answered in it as they recognise that each of the 3 are straw men, that no one church will fit exactly one model, but will be a curious amalgam of parts of all three. The big challenge from this chapter is to use the tables they give to diagnose your church and then to think about what that means for people coming to faith and growing in maturity.

I think on reading the chapter most people would agree with their conclusions - ironically the very people who need to be provoked and encouraged to grow in their faith and to grow others in their faith - in short to be disciple making disciples - probably won't be reading this book. So how do we engage such people. Inevitably modelling and teaching Biblically about discipleship is vital, as is structuring our church in such a way that passengers feel they are missing out.

Fascinatingly as I've been reading through this book I've been preparing 1 Thessalonians to preach which picks up on many of the same themes as it shows us a young community of disciples growing and going.