Missions Resources - Bibliography
The Externally Focused Church
Authors: Rick Susaw, Eric Swanson
ISBN: 0764427407
Publisher: Group Publishing
Number of pages: 224
Type of cover: Soft Cover
Summary:
If your church disappeared today, would your community miss it?
Rick Rusaw and Eric Swanson believe it should. The authors of The Externally Focused Church use their leadership experience in churches so named to provide models of a church whose sudden absence would be noticed. Together, they have written an apologetic for service to an American evangelical church that has been known more by what it is against than by what it is for.
This has not always been the case. In the late 20th century, evangelical churches threw out the baby with the bath water by de-emphasizing its witness through redemptive work outside its walls in contrast to mainline Protestant churches that focused on the “social gospel.” Evangelical social crusaders and ministries had been more evident in previous generations. The Externally Focused Church calls for a return to that heritage and presents a realistic and biblically reasoned roadmap to reunite word and work in gospel harmony.
Rusaw and Swanson know their target audience. Today’s church leaders and members want to impact their community and world for good, but their models have tended toward programs and services designed to attract the community to their campus rather than going out to serve the community’s needs. Their work is timely, as more and more leaders feel the uneasiness created by research such as George Barna’s, which found the American church to be viewed as an “island of piety, surrounded by a sea of irrelevance.”
Evangelical churches have worked for relevance in a variety of ways. Worship styles have adopted cultural forms and technologies to attract the unchurched. Programs of interest to the surrounding community have been implemented, from youth sports leagues to counseling centers. The best means of transformation was typically considered to be an encounter with truth, rather than an experience of grace. Rusaw and Swanson provide a helpful tool for identifying where a church lands on the continuum of truth or grace, advocating for a both/and gospel that keeps both in balance.
Issues of concern for many evangelical church leaders today are addressed directly. One is how to help believers grow spiritually. The authors make a strong case for service out in the community as an effective means of producing real spiritual growth for the believer. “We need the poor more than the poor need us,” is the slogan of one externally focused church. Serving church members have discovered that relationships with “the least of these” have aroused their hunger for God’s perspective, and enlarged their hearts as they care for those He loves.
Another issue is that of church growth. Rusaw and Swanson have seen great growth in many externally focused churches. They are winsome and attractive, both to those served and those who want to be a part of a church that serves. They acknowledge, however, that service by itself will not convert people, and advocate training volunteers to recognize readiness and be given tools to share the gospel message.
A good case is made for churches working in partnership with agencies and organizations in the community addressing mutually recognized needs. For those concerned about being “unequally yoked” with groups whose values differ from theirs, the authors encourage churches to form associations with morally positive but spiritually neutral partners, and to not try to impose the church’s agenda. This kind of selfless service creates goodwill, trust, and a better community.
The final chapters of the book are useful for those in ministry who want the nuts and bolts for becoming an externally focused church. As they do, the church will again become an institution in America whose contribution is recognized and valued.
by Robyn Priest
Robyn Priest is the adult minister at Oaklandon Christian Church in Indianapolis and a former missionary with Christian Mission Fellowship.
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