Daniel Im

Pastor + Author

book review

Book Review: Saturate by Jeff Vanderstelt

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Saturate book cover*My post here was originally published on June 15, 2015 in Christianity Today.

When I first stepped into my role as a small-group pastor, I was at a loss as to how to help my church get on mission. I knew what it meant to be missional and intentional with my relationships. I knew how to share my faith. I even knew how to motivate my leaders to get on mission with God. However, the one thing that I didn’t know was how to make mission normal in our church—I didn’t know how to help the congregation get on mission with God in everyday life.

As a result, much like Jeff Vanderstelt explains in Saturate: Being Disciples of Jesus in the Everyday Stuff of Life, I loaded my leaders and groups with a task list of missional activities. There was only one problem: I was teaching and expecting my congregation to be Jesus—when only Jesus can truly be Jesus. As a result, I was expecting my group leaders to do more than Jesus every asked of them. In reality, as Vanderstelt puts it, “we are not meant to carry the weight of the world or the mission of Jesus on our shoulders. Jesus came to seek and save. He doesn’t expect us to become the saviors.”

So when I first encountered Vanderstelt’s ministry, Soma, I was impressed with the way they were able to normalize mission and make it easy for their church members to get on mission with God in everyday life. That’s what led me on my journey to digest everything I could get my hands on from Vanderstelt and Soma—articles, seminars, audio files, and the like. But now you can simply read Saturate, a book with all of their wisdom in one place.

As I was preparing to develop a discipleship pathway for my multi-site church, I was inspired by the ministry philosophy, identities, and rhythms of Soma because they have the clearest missional paradigm of discipleship. Soma’s focus, and subsequently, the focus of Saturate, is to provide a vision for complete and utter Jesus saturation rooted in who you are in Christ, rather than in what you do.

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The One Thing 2014 Ministry Report Book

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The One ThingI’m so excited that The One Thing 2014 Ministry Report ebook is finally out! Not just because I wrote a chapter on “Why You Need to Rethink Your Small Group Ministry,” but because Darren is a dear friend and a sharp leader. He had the foresight to ask the important question:

What is the one new thing that has helped your ministry excel over the past year?

I want to encourage you to go download this free ebook here to learn the 11 aha moments from over this past year:

  1. Exploring New Paradigms for Effective Evangelism – Brent Dolfo
  2. 15 Characteristics of Today’s Unchurched Person – Carey Nieuwhof
  3. Mobilizing Student Missionaries – Jason Ballard 
  4. Sermon Series Planning – Phil Bowdle
  5. Execution: The Secret Sauce of Every High Functioning Leader – Darren Herbold
  6. Making Vision Real – Paul Alexander
  7. Why You Need to Rethink Your Small Group Ministry – Daniel Im (that’s me!)
  8. How to Engage a Healthy Staff – Ron Edmondson
  9. 7 Killer Mistakes Church Leaders Make – Scott Williams
  10. Wanted: A Killer Digital Strategy – Tim Nations
  11. Why Your Vision Does Not Stick – Tim Peters

Book Review: The Next Evangelicalism by Soong-Chan Rah

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Soong-Chan Rah is the Milton B. Engebretson Assistant Professor of Church Growth and Evangelism at North Park Theological Seminary in Chicago, Illinois. He has experience in church planting, as well as campus ministry experience. He also serves on several boards, such as the Catalyst Leadership Center, and he has involvement across many organizations, such as the Boston Ten-Point Coalition. His upbringing as a Korean American second generation immigrant is deeply reflected in his life work as portrayed in this book.

The thesis of this book is that Christianity, in the United States, needs to be released from the captivity of the white, Western American culture, in order for the gospel to spread effectively into the future. Rah accomplishes this feat by organizing his book into three different sections.

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Book Review: Creating a Missional Culture – JR Woodward

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JR Woodward is an American church planter, organizational leader, entrepreneur, author, academic, and leader. His foremost interests are in missional theology, missional leadership, theology and film, spiritual formation, and organizational dynamics (see his website for a full biography).

The main argument (thesis) in Creating a Missional Culture is that the unseen culture of a church is what most powerfully shapes its ability to grow, mature, and live missionally, more so than its vision, strategy, and plans (Location 211). Woodward supports this thesis through four sections that each address a different aspect of that powerful unseen culture.

In the first section, he talks about the force of culture in life, society, and in churches. He then addresses how leaders need to be aware of just how powerful culture is in shaping their leadership style and the life of a church. He concludes this section by introducing the concept of polycentric leadership: leaders as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastor, or teachers.

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Book Review: Exiles: Living Missionally – Michael Frost

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Michael Frost is the vice principal of Morling College, the founding director of the Tinsley Institute, the co-founder of the Forge Mission Training Network, and an author of several books, including The Shaping of Things to Come. He is a leading voice in the missional church movement and an internationally recognized Australian missiologist.

The thesis of Exiles is that following Christ in today’s world requires a critique of and departure from the culture of Christendom and the greater empire. In order to do that, Frost exhorts his readers to embrace their identity as exiles living on foreign soil – “as a pesky, fringe dwelling alternative to the dominant forces of our times” (10). This is a book that will empower all Christians to embrace a Christ-centered faith that is lived out through a missional lifestyle in the everyday rhythms of life. [Read more…] about Book Review: Exiles: Living Missionally – Michael Frost