Over my holidays and in between gardening and generally chilling out, I have began to flick through Steve Taylor’s new book “The out of bounds Church”. Steve will be launching the book at nccc next Wednesday (11th May at 7.30pm). Details on the book launch are here.

The book is designed as a set of postcards sent by Steve about the emerging church. There are some postcards in the book that are sent from specific places like Australia, UK etc. But, more importantly are the postcards that steve writes about certain aspects of the emerging church.

These postcards are:

1. Beyond Romero and Juliet
2. Edges of Culture
3. Koru Theology
4. Creativity download
5. Spiritual tourism
6. Redemptive Portals
7. Missional interface
8. Culture samplers
9. Keep the home fires burning

Dan is waiting for a review copy and she will then post up a more in depth review. But for now, let me say that this book is a worthy addition to the collection of books under the emergent publishing line.

Steve is a practioner and an academic. He is not someone who writes about the emerging church as an outsider looking in, but rather someone who writes with passion and energy about something that has consumed his life. Steve planted Graceway in NZ as an attempt to connect with his friends who were not connecting with the established church. This was eight or so years ago now. So, Steve writes as someone who has been involved in this emerging missional imagination for some time now. Yet he also writes as someone who has thought deeply about the issues involved. Steve wrote his doctorate on the emerging church and you can gain a copy from Steve by contacting him through his blog.

Having spent time with Steve in NZ earlier this year at his new Church at Opawa Baptist, I observed someone who is incredibly gifted at what I would call the alt.worship scene. He is wonderfully creative in the way he uses things to prick up all the senses. This gift comes across in his book.

Yet, if that is all there was to Steve - I wouldn’t see him as the sojourner that I do.

Steve is also passionately committed to a missional mindset for the Church. He writes about this and I love how he puts it when he says:

“Perhaps the greatest question facing the emerging church is how to integrate spiritual tourism with the notion of redemptive community”.

Steve is someone who is gifted at creating spaces for the spiritual tourists but also recognises the missional importance of redemptive importance and it is this mix that makes him worth listening to and worth reading his book - the out of bounds church.

I am sure I will have more to say after the book launch next week but for now, I am proud to call Steve my friend and recommend you read the book. If you are in Melbourne make sure you head over to the Melbourne book launch too next week!

Coda: Having read on the back of the book that Steve and Lynne have twin daughters, I am a bit concerned. Did you lock them in the cupboard during our week at your place because your other two daughters seem to be a couple of years a part. Maybe you had a long birth process Lynne?

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 5th, 2005 at 12:29 pm by phil and is filed under books and dvd's. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.