Book Reviews

Body Ministry: The Body of Christ Alive in His Spirit

by Geoff Waugh (2011)

Popular, updated version of his Doctor of Missiology research from Fuller Seminary, including amazing reports of transforming revivals around the world

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An article in Renewal Journal 20: Life

Chapters:

Book Structure

 Part 1:  Body Ministry

 I. Body Ministry                         with                      II. Body Organization
1. Kingdom Authority                 with                     6. Divine Headship
2. Obedient Mission                   with                     7. Body Membership
3. Mutual Ministry                       with                     8. Servant Leadership
4. Spiritual Gifts                          with                     9. Body Life
5. Body Evangelism                   with                   10. Expanding Networks

Part 2:  Ministry Education

11.  Open Education: From narrow to wide
12.  Unlimited Education: From centralized to de-centralized
13.  Continuing Education: From classrooms to life
14.  Adult Education: From pedagogy to self-directed learning
15.  Mutual Education: From competition to co-operation
16.  Theological Education: From closed to open
17.  Contextual Education: From general to specific
18.  Ministry Education: From pre-service to in-service

Endorsements:

From the Foreword by Rev Prof Dr James Haire, former Principal of Trinity Theological College, Brisbane, and President of the Uniting Church in Australia:

The church needs to be analyzed in order to prepare itself for mission in the changing situations of societies around the world.   However, these always must remain secondary.   Its primary self-understanding is that the church, the expression of Christianity in the world, is the object of God’s self-giving love and grace for the sake of the world.

In this very helpful and timely book, the Rev Dr Geoff Waugh takes up the implications of these issues and applies them to ministry within and beyond the church, the Body of Christ.   As the framework above indicates, Dr Waugh’s analysis, evaluation and application of the theology of the living Body of Christ inevitably is no less than truly revolutionary, as is his analysis, evaluation and application of the theology of the living Spirit’s work.

Dr Waugh has had a long and distinguished mission career, especially in education, in addressing the central Christian issues outlined above.   It has been my honour and my privilege to have served alongside him for eight years (1987–1994) in Trinity Theological College, in the Brisbane College of Theology, and in the School of Theology of Griffith University, in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.   He has been a dear and valued friend, and especially one who day-by-day in his life has lived out what he taught.   Moreover, he has had vast experience in his long teaching ministry, not only in Australia, but throughout the South Pacific, Asia, and in Africa.

His work is thus very important reading indeed for us all.

From Rev Dr Colin Warren (former Principal of Alcorn College, Brisbane):

Case study 1: traditional ministry

Peter was deeply committed to his calling to the ministry, ably supported by his wife, Petrina.  His many talents found full expression in his ministry: preaching, teaching (including school Religious Education), counselling, visiting, chairing committees, leading meetings, representing the church on denominational boards and in civic functions, administering church activities, interviewing people for baptisms, church membership and weddings, conducting weddings and funerals, and fitting in a bit of study when he could as well as attending seminars for church leaders.

The phone rang constantly, especially at breakfast or dinner when people hoped they could catch him before he was off again.  He wished he had more time for his family, and knew that the strain was showing in family relationships and in his own reaction to stress, inevitable with the constant demands of the ministry.  He wished he could find time for waiting on God and quiet reflection as well as study, but there was so much to do.  His work was less than his best, because he had so little time to pray, wait in God, and prepare well, and because the constant demand of meeting people’s needs saps energy and consumes time.

Case study 2: body ministry.

Paul and Pauline were both deeply committed to their ministry. They recognized that they had different gifts and calling within that ministry.  They also believed strongly in the need for all Christians to minister in the power of the Spirit.  They prayed regularly with people about this and saw their prayers answered.  The members of their church asked for, expected, and used spiritual gifts.  Church members prayed together for one another and for others.   Most of the pastoral care and outreach happened in the home groups.  Paul met with home group leaders one night each week, and enjoyed that.  Mary met regularly with the leaders of women’s day time groups, social caring groups and the music team in the church.

Paul usually preached once on Sundays, and the home groups, study groups and youth groups used the summary of the message.  He encouraged gifted preachers in the church who also preached.  Church members did most of the teaching (including all the school work) and those gifted with administration organized it all, usually part time with one specific area of responsibility they had chosen and loved to do.  A small caring group organized volunteers to visit all the sick people.  A keen task group made sure all visitors were contacted by phone or a personal visit during the week after they came to a service.  The elders insisted that one day each week was family day for the pastor and his family so they encouraged them to spend time away to wait on God and bring their vision and the Lord’s leading clearly in their ministry.

__________

From pages 16-19

Accelerating social change

Alvin Toffler wrote about the Third Wave in sociology.   He could not find a word adequate enough to encompass this current wave we live in, rejecting his own earlier term ‘super-industrial’ as too narrow.  He described civilisation in three waves:  a First Wave agricultural phase, a Second Wave industrial phase, and a Third Wave phase now begun.

He noted that we are the final generation of an old civilisation and the first generation of a new one.  We live between the dying Second Wave civilisation and the emerging Third Wave civilisation that is thundering in to take its place.

Think of church life during those three sociological waves.  Church life changed through the agricultural, then industrial, and now the technological ‘third wave’.

1. Churches for most of 2000 years of the First Wave agricultural phase were the village church with the village priest (taught in a monastery) teaching the Bible to mostly illiterate people, using Latin (and Greek and Hebrew) parchments copied by hand for 1500 years.  Worship involved chants without books or music.  These churches reflected rural life, with feudal lords and peasants.

2. Churches in 500 years of the Second Wave industrial phase (co-existing with the First Wave) became denominational with many different churches in the towns as new denominations emerged.  Generations of families belonged there all their life and read the printed Authorised (1511) version of the Bible.  They have been taught by ministers trained in denominational theological colleges.  Worship has involved organs used with hymns and hymn books.  These churches reflected industrial town life, with bureaucracies such as denominations.

3. Churches in 50 years of the Third Wave technological phase (co-existing with the Second Wave industrial phase in towns and cities and the First Wave agricultural phase in villages and developing nations) are becoming networks of churches and movements, among which people move freely.  They tend to be led by charismatic, anointed, gifted, apostolic servant-leaders, usually trained on the job through local mentoring often using part time courses in distance education.  Their people have a wide range of Bible translations and use Bible tools in print, on CDs and on the internet.  Worship involves ministry teams using instruments with data projection for songs and choruses.  These churches reflect third wave technological city life.

Many churches, of course, live in the swirling mix of these phases, especially now with the Second Wave receding and the Third Wave swelling.  For example, some denominational churches, especially those involved in renewal, may have a gifted ‘lay’ senior pastor not trained in a theological college or seminary.  Some denominational churches function like independent churches in their leadership and worship styles.  Some new independent churches have theologically trained pastors with doctoral degrees in ministry.

These changes have become increasingly obvious in the last 50 years.  Many of us became involved in renewal and revival ministries both in denominational churches and in independent networks and movements.

I give many examples of those developments in my autobiographical reflections, Looking to Jesus: Journey into Renewal and Revival (2009), and in my accounts of revivals in Flashpoints of Revival (2009) and South Pacific Revivals (2010).

These books on renewal and revival are one small example of rapid change.  They describe the swirling changes renewal and revival bring as they recapture New Testament Christianity in our day and 21^st century context.

Even more!   Telling the story has changed.  You can read about it right now on a Google search and on many web pages such as renewaljournal.com.

Furthermore, this book is updated regularly also – for free with Amazon’s Print on Demand (POD).  Check out the “Look inside” feature in a year’s time and you may see more changes.  No longer do we need to spend thousands of dollars to stock pile resources, when we can freely update and adapt them.

We live and minister in this revolutionary ‘post-modern’ era, full of freeing possibilities and challenges.

Subsistence villagers still think and act in a First Wave mode, rural townspeople tend to think and act in a Second Wave mode, and urban people in megacities usually think and act in a Third Wave mode.

The norms of the Second Wave Industrial Society still influence us all strongly.  We are familiar with the organizational society of the town and its bureaucracies, especially the religious and educational ones.  We organized the church around denominational bureaucracies.

However, the Third Wave megatrend swirling around us now involves adapting to different and smaller social groupings, more transient and diverse than ever before.  Denominations continue to exist, of course, but now mix with many flexible, changing structures, such as networks of small groups or house churches and national or global networks for prayer and mobilising action together through websites and emails.

We have a mixture of both Second Wave people and Third Wave people in local churches.  Second Wave people tend to emphasize institutional roles and responsibilities.  Third Wave people tend to emphasize relationships and adaptation to change – as in renewal and revival.

Read current examples from this book (pages 76-82) in Geoff’s article in this Renewal Journal – Community Transformation

Looking to Jesus: Journey into Renewal and Revival

by Geoff Waugh (2009)

Autobiographical discoveries of renewal and revival by this Australian Baptist minister and missionary.

Chapters:

This book traces the author’s journey through a lifetime of discovering renewal and revival. He explores the transforming and unpredictable nature of God’s Spirit now touching and changing people in all denominations and in all countries. The book will interest people who love to read about renewal in the church and revival in the world. The author’s other books such as Flashpoints of Revival, Revival Fires and Revival in the South Pacific give fuller and more general descriptions of God’s transforming work around the world. This autobiography gives a personal account of the author’s experience of renewal and revival in Australia, the South Pacific, and in other nations. “Looking to Jesus” points continually to Jesus, the One who renews and revives us by his Spirit within us and who is so powerfully at work in the whole world.

By Rev Dr John Olley, former Principal of Vose College, Perth.

Invitation to a Journey
Geoff Waugh’s life and ministry have influenced people all around the world. This autobiography with reflections will be of interest not only to those who know him. Beginning in Australia, then Papua New Guinea, his invited ministry in renewal and revival has involved every continent. While he has written “Flashpoints of Revival” (recently updated) recounting revivals in the past three hundred years around the world and many books of bible studies this book “Looking to Jesus” has a different focus, as Geoff traces his journey from strong roots which remained the solid core of his life from childhood to marriage to retirement. Here is a personal journey with reflections that will enrich the lives of all readers. As he ?looked to Jesus? along the way he was opened up to many exciting new ventures in Australia and into countries where revival and renewal is vibrant, changing many lives. Although a biography, many others are involved. Geoff?s journey is like a rose bush with strong roots and branches. He is one bud of many, opening into a beautiful bloom as he opened himself to God?s leading into an exciting journey. A bonus is an appendix with outlines of his other works.

By Daphne Beattie