JOURNEYS: Transitioning Churches to Relevance

When did the church become our refuge from the world? How did it happen that the church became the place we went when trying to get away from those we are supposed to be trying to reach? How did we ever become convinced that lost people remain lost because they will not come to church, rather than because followers of Christ refuse to live the gospel while sharing the gospel with them?For various reasons, many church leaders today have a tendency to ignore the value of understanding the changing times. Others simply preach against the changing seasons, as if by doing so they will prevent the times from coming. In JOURNEYS: Transitioning Churches to Relevance, Pastors Todd Wright and Marty Duren share candidly about the road they each traveled as they labored to bring their churches to a place of significance and cultural relevance. Wright and Duren speak candidly about their struggles and their own pharisaical attitudes that for years kept them from experiencing lives lived on mission with Jesus Christ. JOURNEYS is about seeing every encounter as a divine appointment to somehow bring Jesus to the surface of life. It is a challenge issued to the church to intentionally find areas of need in their communities to be the eyes, ears, heart, and hands of Jesus. Lots of people can tell you what to do. Some can do so through research, others through personal observation, and still others through their intuition. In JOURNEYS: Transitioning Churches To Relevance, Marty and Todd take us on a journey and tell us a story-and it is a worthwhile journey and a moving story. Instead of telling you what to do, Marty and Todd tell their journey from religious role-playing to personal transformation.and from personal transformation to fresh expressions of mission and ministry in their churches. I found myself engaged and challenged and believe you will as well. - Ed Stetzer, co-author of Comeback Churches and Compelled by Love