Jim Rutz's book arrived in the mail this week. Its called "MegaShift: Igniting Spiritual Power" and its been kickin' butt on Amazon.com so you have probably already heard of it. And you should have by now. Its a great book and it will make an even greater impact that "The Open Church" because the time is riper and more people are open to the idea of simple house churches, or as Jim calls them, "Emerging Scripture Based Congregations"
Kinda late. He told me he couldn't find my address to send it to me but I suspected it's because I always give him a hard time about his style and graphics. I have previously stated that he writes like a used car salesman, and the graphics on his site and earlier book "The Open Church" are so L.Ron Hubbard that he should be designing covers for Issac Asimov sci-fi books and running the graphics department for the Church of Scientology. To be fair to Jim, he didn't design it - but he did allow it which is just as bad
And so the book arrived . . . and dangitt if I wasn't right again!!! - another sci-fi looking book written with enough schlick to polish an 1976 Cadillac DeVille! Thankfully, he spared us all by covering the book with a black mask.
However, I feel I should forgive such aesthetical violation and his DONT WALK . .. RUN TO THE NEAREST STORE NEAR YOU!!! tone of voice, because, firstly, he has a good sense of humor about it (in fact, he even signed my book as "Jim Rutz, UCS, used car salesman") . . . .
. . . and secondly, I have to forgive him because he has written a really fantastic book. Really . . . a superb book. And one that I highly recommend buying, reading, and organizing study groups around the chapters.
Megashift starts off with real life accounts of miracles going on around the world and the movement of new organic churches rising up alongside it. Jim gives lots of figures and stats and stories to illustrate what God is doing and how radical it really is. Not all of it is new, especially for readers of Friday Fax, but it is great to have it all in one book.
A bonus is the excellent chapter "Thirty Hallmarks of Emerging Scripture-Based Congregations" that is dynamite and should be blogged by someone over a month for us all to comment and discuss. In fact, this chapter is worth the price of the book.
Megashift not only highlights the hundreds of movements around the world but it also gives practical advice on how to be involved in launching your own church planting movement.
It is a motivational book, a macho book, a 'testicular' book (can i say that and not get in trouble?) and maybe it will appeal more to men than to women. But, as Jim would probably argue, after decades of wimpy books written for snaggy pew-sitting males singing wussy songs and complaining about the preaching, its about time for a shake up. And 'Megashift' offers a prophetic, John-da-Baptist swinging axe-head kind of wake up call for all who have been lulled to sleep and need to rise up into their high calling of changing the world for God.
Megashift is a sensational book - and Jim writes in that sensational manner that I normally hate . . and most of you will have to forgive him also .. . but in this instance . .. it seems almost appropriate. God is doing sensational things around the world and Jim has written a sensational book to capture and illustrate that. And the graphics may annoy you as much as me, but they are integral and fit the genre. In fact, I think Jim has done exceedingly well to pull this off - and it works. I need to do another blog post to cover his material - watch out for Part 2 of this review.
Buy the Book?
Yes. If you are ordering George Barna's Revolution, read this one first. You may also want to buy Frank Viola's "Who is Your Covering?", Wolfgang Simson's "Houses That Change the World". Other books related to it are "Church Planting Movements" by David Garrison and "A Churchless Faith" by Alan Jamieson.
Link to Amazon
"A bonus is the excellent chapter "Thirty Hallmarks of Emerging Scripture-Based Congregations" that is dynamite and should be blogged by someone over a month for us all to comment and discuss."
What a great idea!
Are you volunteering to be that blogger, Andrew? I'd love to see this discussion take place, but my book allowance is very, very small these days, so I'm counting on someone who already has the book to fill the rest of us in.
Posted by: robbymac | September 03, 2005 at 05:06 PM
i would be happy to blog them - but i think i would need permission from jim's publishers to re-publish them and i dont know how agreeable they will be after i poked fun of their graphics.
anyway, i would rather someone else do it.
Posted by: andrew Jones | September 03, 2005 at 05:40 PM
Happy Birthday, Andrew. Enjoy! I didn't get paid early enough to do this... but the thought was there. :)
Posted by: Mark | September 04, 2005 at 11:08 AM
mark
how thoughtful of you
my birthday is sep 7th so you have a few days to ponder how to celebrate with me
Posted by: andrew | September 04, 2005 at 03:16 PM
wouch! how much did Jim pay you!! I've already started blogging thru the book, starting with some of the stats then I'll do a story or two then on to the hallmarks type stuff; www.simplechurch.co.uk
Posted by: alexander | September 04, 2005 at 08:07 PM
Hi Andrew! This is great stuff! I have just started to read the book and I find it very exciting! I am looking forward to your review part two and three!
Posted by: Erling Thu | September 05, 2005 at 09:07 PM