Pop Goes the Church: Should the Church Engage Pop Culture?

This is a preview of a pre-release version of the book Pop Goes the Church by Tim Stevens. It will be available in April 2008.

Main Theme

The theme of this book is leveraging pop culture in the local church. Tim addresses this theme at the 40,000 foot level, cruises through some personal examples, theological issues and leadership parables and finally taking it all the way down to on the ground tactics about how to execute the ideas at your local church.

My response

This is good stuff. I found my own thoughts about the interaction between culture and the church to be pushed beyond my current level of comfort. This is a great thing because it has helped me to grow and continue to think about how to be both faithful and relevant. Tim, thanks for letting me be a part of the review process and for helping to grow my faith.

Relevance to The United Methodist Church

I believe that this book will have a great deal of relevance to The United Methodist Church at both the local and denominational level. At the level of the local church, I believe that this book will be useful in helping leaders think about ways to make new disciples of Jesus Christ. At the denominational level, I believe that this book would be helpful for those thinking about renewal within the denomination as an example of doing whatever it takes to make ministry happen.

Relevance to The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection

As a church could we more effectively leverage culture in building a Christian community where non and nominally religious people are becoming deeply committed Christians? Yes, I think we could. I believe that as a church we are moving toward more effective leveraging of culture sometimes timidly, always with an awareness of who we are and continually seeking who God is calling to be.

Recommendation

I recommend this book for those who are curious about how the church interacts with culture, church leaders who are hoping to leverage culture and those hoping to think about ministry in new ways. Look for it in April!