Steering Through Chaos

Man am I a sucker for a free book. I recently read "Steering Through Chaos" because I read on Shane and Shane's twitter page that their pastor had a new book out and had some available for free if you promised to read and review on your blog. So I signed up to read this book in spite of it being a church strategy book.

I guess I should let you in on why that's such a big deal to me. I have been an associate pastor for the last nine years and am now under my fourth different pastor. I have been very surprised to find that most pastors do not have the same philosophy of ministry even though we are all in the same denomination. That being said, my first assignment was with a pastor that shoved church growth propaganda (my term) down our throats. Success was wrapped up in numbers and as an associate pastor my job was to sell the propaganda to all those who fell under my ministry. Needless to say I was not a huge fan of this kind of ministry or those that championed it. So for most of my ministry I have been trying to figure out how to navigate this world of church growth and still somehow remember what I felt ministry was about, real people with real feelings and not just numbers.

So I was interested in reading what Scott Wilson had to say on the subject. I did not know anything about Scott other than he was Shane and Shane's pastor. I will admit that I began reading this book with my sarcastic goggles on and ready to have a good time with this book. But I will have to say that I was pleasantly surprised with what I found inside. Yes there were moments of church growth strategy, which I'm not fully opposed to, but they were balanced by a real plea for spiritual direction in the midst of the strategies. This is what I found lacking in my previous experiences in 'church growth'. I appreciated so much how Scott shared with us the stories of his ministry and how he was able to steer through the chaos of church change. I resonated with how he challenged his staff and elders to prayer and fasting on a regular basis in order to discern whether God was actually leading them or if they got caught up in a dream of man. I like how his leadership style is about getting everyone to see where God is leading them and not trying to divide those who get it and those who don't. I could go on and on but am afraid that I've given too much away already.

All of that being said, I definitely recommend this book to any pastor or leader who is trying to figure out how to steer through the chaos. I'm not naive enough to think that his story will work in every situation and with every kind of leader, but I do think there are good enough principles that everyone can gain some sort of new insight into what it will take to accomplish our God sized dreams.