Practical and biblical book on building bridges to truth

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	• Pop Goes the Church: Should the Church Engage Pop Culture? Tim Stevens Power Publishing, 2008 - 256 pages average customer review:based on 7 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A Must for Church Leaders

Tim Stevens has written a smart, entertaining book on why and how churches should engage popular culture. It is a very enjoyable read, but is not full of fluff. It presents a straight-forward logical case explaining why churches should not run and hide and complain about popular culture. He does not advocate embracing all of pop culture, but explains why careful choices can be both attractive and enlightening to new and old worshipers.

Who Knew Engaging Culture Was So Engaging?

Should the church engage pop culture? This is the question asked and answered by Tim Stevens from Granger Community Church and the author of the LeadingSmart blog.

The answer, by the way, is that the church can not afford not to engage pop culture. But Stevens doesn't leave us with a pat answer and no next steps: he outlines practical plans and processes for every church to begin to view culture through a scriptural lens. And he does this in an entertaining, compelling and motivating manor. Perhaps the most important message to take away from Pop Goes the Church is that outsiders speak a different language than most Christians do. They have the same issues, the same crises in their lives, but they use different words to speak about them. In addition, they look to sources outside the church to help meet their needs. If we continue to use "Christian Speak" and expect them to understand what we are saying, they will simply turn elsewhere for help. It is time to speak in a way their ears can hear.

Pop Goes the Church reminds me that nearly every human story has an element of God's story embedded within it. This is called the four part gospel: the creation, the fall, the redemption and the restoration. Nearly every story written, sung or performed involves one or more of these elements of the gospel story, and this provides a great talking point with our neighbors and community! For instance, I immediately applied this to my new favorite movie, August Rush. In the beginning August's parents meet and create a love story, but through the well-meaning but wrong actions of his maternal grandfather, August is separated from his parents. The use of music as an image of God's voice runs all through the movie. August hears the music, and it leads him to the church, where he is redeemed. He then composes a symphony which leads to the restoration of his family. This one movie touched on all four parts of the gospel!

I know you can take the "gospel in culture" thing a little too far: sometimes a movie is just a movie. But I believe that as Christians we often don't take it far enough. The world is out there searching for spiritual answers. If we don't begin the dialogue, you can bet that Oprah will!

Tim Stevens' book offers a refreshing change of pace: a book for the church written by a guy who obviously loves the ministry of the church and is willing to engage the culture outside of the church. I'm ready to integrate all of life, secular or sacred, with the purpose God has for us. Pop Goes the Church is a good tool to help me in that quest.

(originally posted at www.coffeeshopjournal.com)

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The Best Book On Church and Culture

All of the Guys at Granger are awesome. Tony Morgan is now gone and down with Perry Noble at New Spring. Tony is one of the most gifted and awesome individuals around. But Tim Stevens is the Executive Pastor at Granger Community Church. They are one of the most innovative and fastest growing churches in America. They have done it by bringing the message of Jesus Christ to culture and presenting it in a most creative manner without sacrificing the timeless truths of Scripture.

I have just finished reading Tim's new book "Pop Goes The Church." I got to tell you it rocked my world. Never have I read a book that I cant wait to read again, this time with a notebook, highlighter, and a pen. See, being a new church in SW Florida we live in an area with a multi-cultural mindset. We have the seasonal retirees that come down for the winter, we have the fastest growing university in Florida with FGCU. We have a large Hispanic ethics group. We have a lot of service workers. We have alot of families from Gen Xers to late Baby Boomers and that is Life Point Churches target. 78% of the people in this area are de-churched or unchurched.

So LPC really wants to rock this area by spreading the message of Jesus all over SW Florida but particularly being culturally relevant to our specific demographic. Now everybody wants to be culturally relevant. Everybody wants to be the church that reaches all the unchurched. The problem is nobody seems to have a grasp on just how to do that in a manner that can be demographic specific.

Until Tim Stevens came along and wrote this book. Tim has written THE KEY BOOK on relating church to the culture so that culture can relate to the church. The Chapter called "Lets Get Started" is really a playbook. Tim breaks down exactly what you need to do in order to be culturally relevant for YOUR CHURCH. The great thing about this chapter is that a small brand new church plant running 35 people can uses these steps as well as a mega church running 5,000 per weekend. In this chapter alone e brings to light somethings I have taken for granted. One of those things where after you read the information you say: " I KNEW that."

For example, he writes that the starting points are:

1: Start Slowly

2: Provide Exposure

3: Lead From The Middle

4: Become A Pop Culture Expert

5: Don't Condem The Art

6: Dont Worry About Being Original

Tim even gives us the names of current magazines to help us relate to culture as well as several churches that are doing it. The interviews with these pastors about culture is awesome.

I am telling you, I read alot of books and have read virtually everything written about church planting and todays culture and this book is at the top of the list. You need to order this book and dvour it if you are the least bit series about reaching culture and the unchurched and de-church.

I am telling go buy this book!!!

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Practical and biblical book on building bridges to truth

Tim Stevens presents a strong case for the importance (and opportunity) of leveraging popular culture for building a bridge between those who see church as irrelevant and anti-culture, and the eternal message of redemption in Christ.

He begins with the problem of the church, so evident to those on the outside but a complete blind spot to many well-intentioned Christians whose focus has turned completely inward. Though not a theologian, Tim gives some strong biblical examples and principles to support engaging our culture, meeting people where they're at and sharing the good news - not in a watered-down diluted message but with the whole truth of the gospel.

The book also describes many examples of how his church and others have intentionally used music, movies and TV shows known to their audience to make a connection, and demonstrate that the questions they're asking are ones addressed by Christ and His church. It falls short of providing explicit help in 'how to' - but the sense is that creative people in the church with an outward focus will come up with their own ideas if just given permission to do so.

One of the most interesting parts of the book was an allegory of how five churches respond to a big pop culture event in their city. Churches may choose to condemn the culture, separate from it, embrace it, ignore it, or they may choose to leverage pop culture while staying focused on the Word of God and providing inspirational services that are relevant to the community as well as the church. The author presents a compelling case to leverage. Sadly, many pastors and churches will condemn and ignore this book, some will embrace it as rationalization for their watered down message. This book is not for them (and its tone may not even allow some to get past the first chapter). But for those who have been wondering why attendance in their church has been dwindling for years, why there are no members under the age of thirty, or those trying to understand how they become more culturally relevant while staying true to the gospel, this book is a must-read. [review first posted on 'Step Up to the Call' blog]

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Incredibly insightful

Tim Stevens brings together a collection of thoughts that make for a very insightful book on how to leverage pop culture to make your church more accessible to those who don't know how to speak the "churchy" language.

Our entire church staff is currently reading it and discussing it chapter by chapter.

Great resource.

reviews: page 1, 2

Whether you're a regular attender, a leader, or have yet to step foot in a church, you may have questions about church that aren't being answered. How can the church remain relevant while communicating the unchanging integrity of God's truth? Author Tim Stevens makes an inspiring case for leveraging pop culture to reach out to people in the language of their lives. He offers a new perspective that gives relevance and impact to the church by using pop culture meeting people in the real world with words, sounds and images that speak to them. He encourages us to get out of our comfort zones and look people in the eyes, meeting them wherever they are, relating to their problems and society's challenges--even celebrating pop culture, where there are exciting signs of spiritual seeking. Pop Goes the Church will open your mind to church in a way that breaks down walls, engages the culture and speaks to a generation that needs to hear good news.

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