Book Review

'What on earth is the church for?' - Dave Devonish

Just finished reading this challenging, informative and helpful book about the role of the church both from a Biblical perspective and in a culturally relevant way.

A while ago I was thinking that although since becoming a Christian I have always been within New Frontiers (NF) churches, I dont actually read much from leaders within that movement. Since then I have regularly followed blogs of men within NF and read this book.

Dave Devonish is great at encouraging the church to be missional in its DNA rather than do mission and demonstrates this clearly from scripture. He gives numerous examples of his own experience in each chapter and manages to merge the theoretical, theological and practical into a cohesive, common sense argument.
There are clear implications here for those who feel God is calling them to specific mission (overseas for instance), to those involved in church planting a have unique opportunities to shape the culture of their church now but also to all those who take the local church seriously and seek to play their role in its activity. Bill Hybels is commonly quoted as saying, 'the local church is the hope of the world' and this is the recurring theme of this book.

I found this book inspiring not only for my vision of the local church but also in its implications on all parts of life. There is a great section on your workplace as your mission field.

I highly recommend this read.