Alan Roxburgh’s most radical and powerful insight: having new kinds
of churches with new kinds of leaders is not the point. In the end,
even though we in the church talk and talk (and write and write) about
church, church, church, church … it’s not about the church.
The church exists for something bigger than itself. Understanding
that one thing alone will be worth your expense, time, and effort in
turning this page and reading on–with an open mind and an open heart.
—Taken from foreword and endorsements by Brian McLaren & Tim Keel
Leadership always functions in a given situation or context. How
do we lead today—in our current cultural situation? Finally…here is the
conceptual framework every leader needs to navigate “stuck-ness”
between a past to which we cannot return and a future yet to emerge.
—Todd Hunter, President, Alpha USA Former President, Vineyard Churches USA
If you’re looking for a model of risky practices for your emergent
church … if you want the most effective strategies for reviving a
traditional church … if you seek dependable and reassuring methods
… forget Roxburgh. But if you believe, as I do, that churches today
have encountered profound cultural shifts, that leaders need
conversations across tribal boundaries, and that we need our
imaginations to be immersed in biblical narratives, then this book is
what we need to deepen and guide our discourse.
—Rev. Mark Lau Branson, Ed.D., Homer L. Goddard Associate Professor Ministry of the Laity, Fuller Theological Seminary
The church in North America is in a crisis precipitated by a
revolution in culture. Alan Roxburgh provides a realistic analysis of
this crisis and warns us not to look for easy answers or quick
solutions—the time of transition will be with us longer than we like.
So he does not provide the latest “how-to” manual for successful church
leadership—we have enough of those already! But neither does he get
stuck in “analysis paralysis.” Instead he suggests a way that we might
work together long-term to develop a more faithful engagement of the
church with the mission of God. The Sky Is Falling should stimulate
important conversations and provoke (I hope) some courageous
experiments.
—David G. Dunbar, President, Biblical Theological Seminary