Louise Douglas

I picked up this book on the recommendation of a few people from Church. As is clearly obvious, things are not normal at the moment and of course Church has been affected by that. Almost every activity we do has been cancelled or materially altered in some way, and as we start to look to ‘the new normal’, it’s the perfect opportunity to take a deep breath and evaluate what and how we’re doing.

As I’m sure it did for the people who recommended it to me, this book gave me so much to think about – there were so many quotes that made me stop and go back to read again that I couldn’t possibly share them all here.

We start with the basic principles that “the basic work of any Christian ministry is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ in the power of God’s Spirit, and to see people converted, changed and grow to maturity in that gospel. That’s the work of planting, watering, fertilizing and tending the vine”.

But for any vine to grow, it needs a support structure, a trellis. The trellis work includes management, finances, infrastructure, organisation and governance, and as the vine grows, so all this stuff becomes more complex.

As the author says “our goal is to grow the vine, not the trellis”. We’re not trying to just get more people into our church, but to make genuine disciples of Jesus. Our trellis should be supporting, not all-consuming.

I felt slightly floored by the idea that “We should start with the people that God has given us, not our programs”. When someone leaves a volunteering role, it can be very tempting to just try and figure out who should fill that gap, rather than whether it should actually be filled. Instead, we should be thinking about the people in our church and considering what their skills and gifts are and where they could fit.

Then we end up with people doing things that they have a talent for, and not ministries that are staying afloat rather than flourishing.

The book talks about ideas like not having membership of the congregation, but partnership, to develop the idea of all being in it together. Ideas like training being parenting. Loving someone enough to want to see him or her grow and flourish.

The only minor thing that put me off was that when the authors were talking about training and developing, their focus was fully and pointedly on men, and not just men, but men who could ‘pastor their wives’. So not just ignoring women, but also men who don’t want to be married. This may just have been badly worded and not deliberate, but it felt jarring to me.

I don’t want to finish the review there, so I’ll finish my review with the chapter towards the end of the book that shook me, given the book was written in 2009. It started with these words: “As we write, the first worrying signs of a swine-flu pandemic are making headlines around the world.” It continues to imagine a world where public gatherings of more than x people are banned and could be banned for 18 months, then asks the hypothetical question “How would your congregation of 120 members continue to function with no regular church gatherings of any kind?”.

Sounds pretty familiar, huh?

The final question was the kicker:

“When the ban was lifted and you were able to recommence Sunday gatherings and all the rest of the meetings and activities of church life, what would you do differently?”

Having seen people I know have to leave a church due to a lack of inclusion and acceptance, I was interested to read this book to figure out what we should be doing better. As the book blurb says “Accessibility is so much more than ramps and physical access”.

“When we see someone who is different to us, do we choose to look away to walk away and disengage because we are fearful of what might happen or of what they might say or do? Or do we choose to ask God to enable us to see differently, as he sees, to look beyond what we see in an initial glance?”

The book takes us through each of the senses (including ones I’d never heard of like the proprioceptive sense), and gives helpful tips on how to include people who may have difficulties with these senses, either through disability or through sensitivity.

“When we choose to welcome individuals who the world sees as less important, we are stepping further into this picture of a body in which every part is recognised a unique and significant.”

Each chapter starts with a quote from the Bible which can be related to the topic that’s about to be discussed, and this helpfully frames the topic as a biblical one rather than just any other book on inclusion.

“Jesus does not just welcome those who he is expected to welcome. The very nature of God’s kingdom is counter cultural. It includes women, tax collectors, beggars, gentiles- inividuals who would all have been perceived as on the edges of society. Jesus sees their whole life and he loves what they bring to his kingdom”.

I’ve been reading this book in small chunks for quite a while now, and while the topic was very interesting and well researched and presented, I found it a little hard to engage. I think a big part of it was the the kindle version I was reading had some formatting issues which made it a little disjointed to read – this shouldn’t be a reflection on the book though.

It contained some really good insights and tips that I will definitely be using going forwards – for example including physical motion into youth group sessions to help people settle their senses and be able to concentrate for the rest of the session.

I’ve had this book on my shelf for ages, and having read it, I really wish I’d picked it up so much earlier (at the start of lockdown, but ideally way before that), as it has taught me so much about myself.

Just a heads up (I finished writing and had to come back to add this), this review feels a bit more like therapy than an actual review, but I just had to write about how much I personally connected to this book, so feel free to move on if you’re just wanting a straight up review 🙂

Like I said, I feel like I related so much to this book, the feelings of hurry and the signs that that exhibits.

“But the thing is, I feel like a ghost. Half alive, half dead. More numb than anything else; flat, one dimensional. Emotionally I live with an undercurrent of nonstop anxiety that rarely goes away, and a tinge of sadness, but mostly I just feel blaaah spiritually… empty. It’s like my soul is hollow.”

While that quote may be stronger than I’m feeling, I have struggled this past couple of years with feeling hollow and numb, and when I read that paragraph, I knew that this book would ‘get me’.

Which soon brought me to the next quote that jumped out at me:

“Corrie ten Boom once said that if the devil can’t make you sin, he’ll make you busy. There’s truth in that. Both sin and busyness have the exact same effect – they cut off your connection to God, to other people and even to your own soul.”

Right before lockdown started, I had been feeling close to burnout, I was so busy every night of the week and while I enjoyed each of the things individually, I felt like I was constantly busy. And even though I spent a lot of time at Church, I was losing connection.

“When we get overbusy and life is hectic and people are vying for our time, the quiet place is the first thing to go rather than our first go to. The first thing we lose is unhurried time to just sit with God in the quiet. To pray. Read a psalm. Take an internal inventory. Let our souls catch up to our bodies.

In seasons of busyness we need more time in the quiet place, not less, definitely not less.

The main takeaway I’m taking from this book is the need to bring back a sabbath day each week. I’ve always thought that a sabbath meant that so many things were prohibited and for that reason I had avoided it, but Comer explains that:

“The Sabbath isn’t the same thing as a day off. […] On the Sabbath all we do is rest and worship.”

Framed like that, it seems like something I can do, and something that will be hugely beneficial. Is social media rest or worship? For me, no. So a day away from social media. Is watching tv rest or worship. For me, yes, it can be both (depending on what I’m watching). So yes, I can do that, carefully. It’s about making thoughtful choices about how you spend the day. As Comer writes, Sabbath will look very different for different people, but that’s okay.

This is what I really want to take away. Because spending the whole week trying to avoid the distractions is never going to work. But a day away from the hurry and the rush and oriented towards God, I think I can manage that. I hope I can.

I would whole-heartedly recommend this book to everyone I know. Even if you’re not struggling as I am, I think this will be a hugely beneficial read to just think about how you spend your time and how you can be doing better.