Viral: A Review

Leonard Sweet's lastest book is an attempt to understand the current cultural phenomena that is found in social media.  This is essentially a look at the modern and postmodern mindsets and lifestyles, but Sweet refers to them as Gutenbergers and Googlers respectively.  I felt that Sweet did a fair job of defining them both and did not take a side with one being right over the other.  Instead Sweet goes into this with the understanding that in order for the church to survive it will have to take the Googlers culture very seriously.  The meat of the book is centered around dissecting the Google culture which he does using the acronym TGIF (Twitter, Google, Iphone, Facebook).  It seems that this book is targeted to those in the Gutenberg culture in order to become more familiar with the Google culture and in addition to understand how the church can use the tools available to minister within the culture.  I felt it was very well written and easy to understand.  I would recommend this book very highly.  

Click here to download and read Chapter 1.  

I received this book for free for review from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.  

I Am a Follower: A Review

My latest offering from the Booksneeze bloggers program is "I Am A Follower" by Leonard Sweet.  In this book Sweet is taking on the leadership culture that is dominating the culture of the church and asking if this is what the church is to be about.  As you might can guess from the title he is seeking to call us away from leadership models and into what he terms followership.  Instead of seeing ourselves as leaders he claims that we are to become first followers.  The reason being that much of the leadership culture that is present within the church can lead us away from following after our own whims instead of listening to the Spirit and following after Jesus.  After an opening section that makes the case for followership, the book is then broken up into three subsequent sections that take a deeper look at Jesus being the way, the truth and the life for those that follow after him.

I will have to admit that I loved this book.  As someone who has worked in the church for the past ten years and has been indoctrinated in the leadership culture, although with a great measure of discomfort, I am happy that someone is finally speaking up.  I only wish that this book had been written ten years ago to save me so much heartache and to help put some of my own thoughts into a more coherent form.  I felt that this book was a very easy read and was clear and understandable.  I think that this book is accessible to all audiences, but I think its biggest impact would be had on pastors and lay people who are in charge of ministries.  There will be a measure of controversy surrounding this book as I know of many a pastor who have sold out to the leadership paradigm to the point where they would turn a deaf ear to Sweet's message in this book.  But there is an important message here for the church and those who have been called by God to be the first followers that help to point others to the way, the truth and the life that Jesus is calling us to live.  Thank you Leonard Sweet for reminding me.