I found this post in my draft folder and decided I would go ahead and just publish it. I’m aware of the issues that surrounded Timmis in particular, and the resulting fallout of the leadership culture at The Crowded House in Sheffield. There are issues in then ‘recommending’ a book. I’m not particularly doing that but feel engaging with the issues raised by this book remain worthwhile.

Some years ago I read, and was helped by, Steve Timmis & Tim Chester’s book, Total Church and 10 years later I finally read their follow up Everyday Church.

Taking 1 Peter as their base text Chester & Timmis seek to help (I think mostly church leaders) re-frame their understanding of church and mission, with a particular focus on the UK scene.

As with most missional books it opens with what we all know well: the church in the west is in poor shape. The church is declining, the surrounding culture increasingly secular and we can no longer operate with the assumptions of Christendom. Those assumptions that people would in some way agree with the ethics of the faith, have some knowledge of the doctrines of the faith and in some way be supportive of the institutions of the faith have gone. As a result, no matter how much we improve our services the vast majority of people will not come to the church. The future looks bleak. So the church must change and so must how they see its mission.

The church must change from programmes and a Sunday meeting orientation and instead make equipping the church for mission & community in everyday life the priority. As convinced non-conformists their vision of church is as ‘an alternative and authentic society’ (p.164).

Programmes are what we create when Christians are not doing what they are supposed to be doing in everyday life. Because we are not pastoring one another in everyday life we create accountability groups. Because we are not sharing the gospel in everyday life we create guest services. Because we are not joining social groups to witness to Jesus we create our own church social groups.

Please do not misunderstand. We are not against meetings or events or programmes. Indeed the regular meeting of the church around God’s Word is vital for the health of everything else, for this is where God’s people are prepared for works of service. But the works of service themselves take place in the context of everyday life.

(p.58)

Instead Chester & Timmis propose helping people to live their everyday lives with ‘gospel intentionality’. This means seizing opportunities to share meals with church friends (to build community) or non-believers (for evangelism), to weave it all into existing activities so that neither church or mission are seen as ‘add-ons’.

As, I’ve said before, I’ve often found the following to be true: books from the US tend to be high on stories and inspiration and low on helpful solid grounding in the Bible. Books from the UK tend to the opposite. That’s true here, the stories are few and not always particularly illuminating but the grounding in the Bible is theologically coherent and convicting.

There are various helpful tools for the leaders working at helping their people and church move in a more missional direction. This then is applied and practical theology. And it’s worth everyone remembering the four Gs: God is great, God is glorious, God is good and God is gracious.

The church in the West may be down but is a long way from being out. There remains incredible commitment and vibrancy and I believe, along with the authors of this book, that becoming every day disciples, on every day mission, in everyday life will see a new day come to the church, even if we continue to remain on the cultural margins.