Erwin McManus, An Unstoppable Force

Erwin McManus' book "An Unstoppable Force: Daring to Become the Church God Had in Mind" is a great inspiring and exciting book that has the potential to engage many people into a new way of thinking about church and most of all into the Christ-inspired way of being a church that is a hope for the community and society.

Too often churches label people and label themselves. Churches have become places where judgement is rife rather than love and where exclusivity is the norm rather than being inclusive and being a magnet for those who are seeking and hungering for more in life.

Erwin is the pastor of a fast growing multicultural church in the heart of LA called Mosaic (www.mosaic.org). It is a radical place to be. Heavily inspired by creativity and celebrating many aspects of this in their worship as a way of recognising the creativity God releases. The way Mosaic is church is far from what many of us experience when we go or think of a church. It completely shatters the idea of old ladies having tea parties with biscuits behind stain glass windows, inside thick walls that keep us safe from the 'evil world' where people live in sin. Mosaic picks up the radical message of Jesus to be a salt and light in the middle of the world. It models the apostolic ethos that can be seen in the early church. The fact that it does this successfully and Biblically within perhaps the most bizarre and most cosmopolitan of cities: Los Angeles, is proof alone of the truth and passion we all need to embrace to step into the challenge and dare to become the Church God had in mind.

From this perspective Erwin starts writing. His writing style is inspiring, exciting and can almost be poetic sometimes. However, never does he lose the main point, the main message. This eloquent style of writing adds to that what he is saying: the beauty and exciting message that the church is the hope for this world, but we need to take it there by listening to the call of the Spirit and understand how He wants to build the church. Just as anything we see is built from three basic shapes (rectangles, triangles, circles) and with three colours (blue, red, yellow) so everything within the church should be built from the basic three spiritual elements: Faith, Hope and Love. Creative expression of blending these elements can help the church show its true colours.

This review could never in any way capture the great and exciting message this book has to offer. For those in the church and for those outside it, disillusioned and fed up with a church that is failing rather than prevailing. So if you're interested, read it!