Renovation of the Church
Renovation of the Church: What Happens When a Seeker Church Discovers Spiritual Formation
Reviewed by Michael A.G. Haykin
This important book is a further reminder of the importance of spirituality for the Christian scene of twenty-first century North America. It records the pain and joy of transitioning a California church that was seeker-oriented à la Willow Creek to one that was intentional about making its members and adherents disciples. In the process, attendance plummeted, but there is no doubt on the part of the authors that the pain involved in that and no longer being a mega-church is worth it all. While easy to read, the book is a frontal attack on the superficiality that grips large segments of North American Evangelicalism where the rank-and-file are dominated by a consumerist mentality and the leadership are happy to go along as long as it fulfills their personal ambitions of being seen as successful. The honesty of the authors is refreshing as well as their refusal to give a three-part, or whatever-part, formula of how to do such a transition. Their simple desire is to be serious in their following Jesus and communicate that to the community of which they are a part. May God multiply their breed!
HT: AFC
Michael A. G. Haykin is Professor of Church History and Biblical Spirituality at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He has authored numerous books including: The Spirit of God: The Exegesis of 1 and 2 Corinthians in the Pneumatomachian Controversy of the Fourth Century (E. J. Brill, 1994); One Heart and One Soul: John Sutcliff of Olney, His Friends, and His Times (Evangelical Press, 1994); Kiffin, Knollys and Keach: Rediscovering Our English Baptist Heritage (Reformation Today Trust, 1996); ‘At the Pure Fountain of Thy Word’: Andrew Fuller as an Apologist (Paternoster Press, 2004); Jonathan Edwards: The Holy Spirit in Revival (Evangelical Press, 2005); The God Who Draws Near: An Introduction to Biblical Spirituality (Evangelical Press, 2007); The Christian Lover: The Sweetness of Love and Marriage in the Letters of Believers (Reformation Trust, 2009); The Empire of the Holy Spirit (Borderstone Press, 2010); Rediscovering the Church Fathers: Who They Were and How They Shaped the Church (Crossway, 2011). Haykin is the director of the Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies and blogs at Historia ecclesiastica. Haykin is married to Alison and they have two children, Victoria and Nigel.
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