I like this book.

I just finished reading Total Church by Steve Timmis. It's a good little theology book that deals with what the church really is. It's not buildings and brands. It's people loving Jesus and each other and sharing life together. He really covers the whole subject of ecclesiology well, dealing with theology, apologetics, church structure, mission, and most other major issues within the church.

The last chapter of the book has to do with what success looks like. He argues that big doesn't necessarily mean successful. He doesn't say it's bad, it's just not the ultimate measure we often make it out to be. If we have a good crowd and a good offering, I feel like we had a good day. Timmis argues that if you had messed up people helping messed up people and worshipping Jesus you had a good day, regardless of attendance figures or the smoothness of your sermon.

Here's one of my favorite quotes from the book regarding the performance issue that I and many other pastors struggle with:

The real tragedy of leadership as performance is that it devalues the work of Christ. Our identity then is not rooted in grace but in the success of our ministry. And so we feel upbeat when we have performed well, and we feel down when things are not going well. We become enslaved to other people's approval. We are concerned to prove ourselves, and that is just another way of talking about self-justification. We preach justification by faith on the day of judgement but do not practice justification by faith in the daily routine of our lives. Our practical theology has become disconnected from our confessional theology. Our song becomes:

My hope is built on something less

Than Jesus' blood and righteousness;

I trust my skills, I trust my fame,

And maybe sometimes Jesus' name

Ouch.

and Thank You Steve Timmis.