The Blessed Church, by Robert Morris

[Note: I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group in exchange for an honest review.]

As has been the case with quite a few books that I have read recently, I may not be the precise target audience of this book, but on the other hand I may be a part of it and merely too modest in my estimation of my gifts and ambitions. That said, the more I read of this book, the more I enjoyed it. In fact, I did not really like the beginning of the book at all, as it felt as if the author was tooting his own horn a bit too much, given his apparent lack of a systematic approach to biblical truth, an issue that appeared in other aspects (including his commentary on the Sabbath rest, in which he didn’t seem to care about what day the Sabbath was kept, even as he commented on the need for rest, which is honoring God only halfway). Included towards the beginning is a great deal of autobiographical information from the author, who admits having been ordained as a novice and being unfaithful to his wife during his early ministry, which appears designed to increase the author’s credibility for being open and honest. Certainly those who have been forgiven of much are passionate about the grace they feel they have been given by God through Jesus Christ.

However, once the book moved beyond the introductory comments about Gateway Church that sought to promote it as a model for other churches, the book actually began to get more interesting as it tended to focus on concepts that I passionately agree with. Reading this book gave me a sense of what the book talks about as “holy discontent.” Often in my life increased knowledge has led to this feeling as I have found myself frustrated with a lack of progress in institutions and a wide gap between knowledge and practice. As I mentioned earlier, I do not feel that I am the ideal audience for a book like this, as this book is really designed for those who are actively invovled in church leadership–especially at the level of elder and above. I say this not because I felt unable to understand the book’s concepts–indeed, I wholeheartedly agree with them and have done my best to write at length about some of them on my blog, encouraging my own religious tradition to adopt certain approaches and courses of action that this book supports. That, of course, might make a bit biased to liking this book more than I would otherwise. Nevertheless, being a member of the laity (however educated in the Bible as I am), there is only so much that a reader like myself can do. Real power in an organization or congregation is necessary to be able to fully utilize this book.

It should be noted that this book endeavors to take a middle course between the various political divides that organizations faces. It speaks positively of servant leadership as well as responsible hierarchies, condemning democracy as well as authoritarianism, speaking passionately about the need of pastors to take great attention to logistical concerns (including their own energy reserves and scheduled time for prayer and family and rest) but also pointing on the need for members and deacons/elders to show respect towards leaders. The book pays a great deal of attention to logistics, to a degree that I found striking–especially as this is an area that is greatly ignored in most commentary about Christian doctrine and practice.

This book is largely a book that is conceptual in nature, dense with scriptural quotations and commentary, laid out persuasively and organized extremely well. The book focuses on issues that are of great interest to leaders (and educated laypeople) in congregations–starting with vision (including the need to make that vision communicated widely), then talking a great deal about the responsibility of being a shepherd and what it means to feed the sheep that a pastor has been provided by God. Then the book examines the job of the minister, including the need for strong leadership which empowers others to minister and serve as well. After this the book talks a lot about the importance of church government, looking at the need for accountability and consensus within the body of elders. The book closes with a focus on the importance of church culture–including aspects of generosity, freedom, rest, worship, and community. As a whole, this book is excellent, and worthy of deep study and application. Hopefully it has the influence it richly deserves, as the time and situation are right for a thoughtful examination and appropriation of the methods that this book discusses for building a house of God that is able to help the broken people seeking God that fill this troubled world.