My reading this summer hasn’t produced a lot of excellent books, but it has produced three excellent books that are worth purchasing.

Perhaps the best book of this summer and perhaps this year is The Age of the Unthinkable, By Joshua Cooper Ramo

If you’re ready to stretch your brain and learn from a wide variety of disciplines then this is the one book you need to read this week. If you want to have insight into why few organizations or governments or churches or denominations don’t work anymore, this is a must read. And it is a fascinating read. So fascinating that you might be tempted to read it just for the pure pleasure of what it contains and miss the implications for your ministry.  For more click here.

The second book is The Great Emergence, by Phyliss Tickle

 If you’re looking for a well written summary of the cultural factors behind the emergence of the Emergents (no pun intended) this book is for you. Tickle couches the entire drama within the context of “who or where is the authority?”

I have two problems with the book. For more click here.

The final book is A Multi-Site Church Road Trip, by Surratt, Ligon, and Bird.  The authors visit some of the best known and some not-so-known multi-site churches and record their findings for us. Like all Leadership Network books the book is excellently researched and written.

The one chart that caught my attention was the one showing the recent exponential growth of the multi-site movement. In 2000 there were only 300 such churches.  In 2009 there are over 3,000 multi-site churches.  Their conclusion – multi-site is becoming the norm.  Look for the book to be released soon.

Bill Easum
www.churchconsultations.com