Reggie McNeal, The Present Future: Six Tough Questions for the CHURCH (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2003), xx + 151.

The Present Future: Six Tough Questions for the CHURCH is a provocative book by author, consultant, and church leadership developer Reggie McNeal. He challenges worn out notions regarding “doing church” and offers a comprehensive approach and plan to aid church leaders think through traditional ways of conceptualizing church growth. In The Present Future, McNeal organizes his thoughts around six tough questions (identifying the six most important realities for the church) that attempt to breakdown long-standing and therefore obstinate mental networks that have robbed the church of its missional identity.

The Introduction is one of the best I have ever read since McNeal challenges the reader to stay the course or abandon the project in the beginning. In so doing, the author stakes a claim at the outset enticing, even baiting his reader to continue the journey. In his introductory remarks McNeal systematically describes his philosophy of church growth. But even more than that he provides a brief but appropriate overview of his theology. For instance, he writes, “if you are convinced that God has not abandoned the world, you should read this book” (XV). He adds that we should be leaders who are “growing restless for something to happen that only God can get credit for” (XVII). Furthermore, McNeal’s ability to read popular culture and decipher its impact in the church is very appealing.

Chapter One (New Reality One), “The Collapse of the Church Culture,” catalogues how the North American church is on life support. “It is living off the work, money, and energy of previous generations from a previous world order” (1). The author is also quite to add that “The death of the church culture as we know it will not be the end of the church” (1). Wow. What a relief! I am really glad that someone has put into words what I have been suspecting for sometime. I have often pondered in my own heart how the death of the current subculture in Churches of Christ would not be a bad thing. There is so much mediocrity and lethargy that something has to give. Add to this that with each passing day people in their twenties and thirties hold very little if any loyalty to denominational lines. This is true and apparent because in a Postmodern world people are sick and tired of serving the institutional church. They are not doing so because they hate God, have given up on God or have lost faith but because leaving the church allows them to save their faith. The American culture no longer shares the values of classic Christianity and thus no longer dominates the way Americans as a whole believe or behave. In fact, the church is at a loss to explain what it happening to its membership. It is so because the materialism and secularism of the modern era define a church that worships a God that the church does not need to operate the church. People leave the church when they see a powerless God of the modern church. People of the world and people in the church see men instead of people with genuine spiritual vitality. They distrust a church who props itself up on the backs of coercion and legalism instead of grace and love. They have discovered something church leaders still fail to accept: the church has disconnected with the larger culture. To save itself the church must, McNeal posits, “practice radical obedience to an ancient command, [experience] a loss of self rather than self-preoccupation, concern about service and sacrifice rather than about style” (18).

Chapter Two, “The Shift from Church Growth to Kingdom Growth,” demands recognition of a church living in exile in an increasingly alien culture. McNeal highlights the errors within the church growth movement. He points out that church leaders are asking the wrong question: How do we grow this church? (How do we get them to come to us?) This has led us to believe that we should invest ourselves in the customer service revolution. This has produced impossibility: satisfy an increasingly high-maintenance church consumer (24). All attempts to focus on methodology have failed because these methods revolve around managing church members. Hence, staff members and elders spend their time on the church’s survival. The correct question to ask is: How do we transform our community? (How do we hit the streets with the gospel?) McNeal show the irrelevance of selling membership packages. What people need, he adds, is God in their lives. Therefore, we must follow Jesus into the streets and not define ourselves as those “who can sign off on doctrinal positions but have story of personal transformation” (36). McNeal offers come practical ways leaders can be a mission movement that are helpful (61-65)

Chapter Four, “The Return to Spiritual Formation,” focuses on how we are to not focus on the head as much as relationship. Without relationship there is no passion for Jesus and his mission. The wrong question is: How do we develop church members? This merely makes churchgoers (club members) who want the most out of their membership package. The right question is: How do we develop followers of Jesus? “This question challenges everything. It challenges our beginning assumptions in the church business and it snaps tension and accountability into the evaluation of what we do in terms of the end result of helping people grow and develop” (73). People want to grow spiritually at church not just punch their ticket! McNeal provides an agenda for spiritual formation. He includes worship, application of spiritual truth to life and relationships, ministering to others, sharing faith with pre-Christians, cooperating and partnering with other believers in the mission of God. Chapter three is for the most appealing section of the book, especially the section describing school in the emerging world. His ability to conceptualize the shift from modernity to postmodernity is well done and provides a unique critique of current needs within ministry and equipping of leaders. His emphasis on spiritual formation coupled with the changes in the world of learning and technology make a lot of sense.

Chapter Five, “The Shift from Planning to Preparation,” speaks of the church’s investment in incrementalism. Instead of believing in “incrementalism,” which is not a biblical concept, the church should pray and prepare for God’s intervention. McNeal provides many biblical examples that show incrementalism to be erroneous (“otherwise called disobedience”). The wrong question is: How do we prepare for the future? “Spiritual preparation has the goal of getting God’s people in partnership with him in his redemptive mission in the world” (95). Spiritual formation prepares people to say yes to God’s direction and this allows “God’s people to have their hearts captured by his heart” (96). This chapter provides an analysis of how churches reward negative behavior, some even as a practice. However, McNeal points out that “The key is to reward the right behaviors so that you get the results you are looking for” (109). The right ministries must embody the vision and values of the congregation. This means that the way we measure needs to be changed. Instead of using scorecards that measure bottom lines only – attendance, giving, membership – we should train people to share their faith, track the number of conversions church members are having with pre-Christians, and discover the number of pre-Christians who are being touched by the congregation’s ministry efforts (110). Another interesting section of this chapter is McNeal’s discussion of how we focus on fixing weaknesses. He says, “Our efforts at mending ourselves are a form of idolatry, another evidence of our trying to be God” (111). We should focus not on talent but on character. Hence, we should develop a strength philosophy in our churches to accomplish God’s will. This will allow God to turn church members into missionaries. After all, “The future belongs to those who prepare for it, not those who plan for it” (119).

Chapter Six, “The Rise of Apostolic Leadership,” involves leading in a time when we are unsure where our culture is going. It is leadership that revolves around a biblical definition of mission. The wrong question is: How do we develop leaders? Our efforts to develop leaders through curriculum delivery have failed. So why do we continue to do the same? McNeal provides a historical perspective that shows how and why we have failed. What we need is apostolic leadership. That is, we need a new breed of church leader who can meet the challenges of what it will take for the church to become missionally effective (125). Of course, these challenges “include religious pluralism, globalism, and the collapse of institutional religion, accompanied by an increased interest in spiritual development” (125). McNeal put in words what we have always intuited: “Seminary curriculum is designed primarily to address skill sets for leadership functions other than the apostolic type” (127). Instead, leaders must target the community beyond the church walls. To facilitate this leaders are called to be leader-missionaries who know how to establish and conduct conversations about Jesus and the gospel with people in the workplace, etc.

In The Present Future, McNeal identifies the six most important realities that church leaders must address. In so doing he has provided a useful tool for church leaders that can help them recapture the spirit of Christianity and replace “church growth” with a wider vision of kingdom growth. This is one of the most refreshing books I have read in a long time. I especially enjoy the way McNeal is straightforward and direct in his presentation of facts and opinions. The author believes that by changing the questions church leaders ask themselves about their congregations and their plans, they can frame the core issues and approach the future with new eyes, new purpose, and new ideas.

Dane Boyles

12 July 2004

Mar 24th by admin