Webb contrasts his spiritually vibrant time with Campus Crusade for Christ with the typical Western conservative church experience, and then shows us how he's pioneered a way of doing church that involves people like 'Cru' did.

Church-as-family

It's interesting to me that although I got this book a couple of years ago when I was first re-looking at what church was meant to be, it's only now that the Spirit so ordered events to get me to look at this now—when we're moving house with an eye to being able to have people over. (Amongst other things.) To include them in our family.

That's what this book is about—the recognition that church is family, and that mission is as easy as inviting people into your home—or place that you make feel like home.

Crucially, this does at least two things:

1. Gives everyone a clear active missional role from the start: just invite people along for a free meal—you can do evangelism because you see others doing it in front of you

2. Creates a sense of family instead of a sense of religion

Leadership and participation

Family too is evoked by way of the leadership structure. First, Webb suggests to not pay any staff, as that tends to create a staff/laity distinction that is unhelpful—as well as reinforce the subtle but powerful idea that the laity are to sit back and be served while the staff do all the work. Instead, as family, everyone pitches in to help clean up after a meal together; everyone has a go at hosting an event.

There are leaders, however, and standards. He argues for family council, rather than business-style leadership—so everyone can have their say and be brought along together. A bit too idealistic - have you ever tried to reach agreement with 30 people?! - but I appreciate the attempt to not lord it over others and include everyone.

Teaching and discipleship

One of the most unhelpful things about modern church experience is that because they focus on a lecture style of teaching, there is very little ability for church-goers to wrestle with it, ask questions, pull it apart—and therefore much goes in one ear and out the other. Webb invites us to consider sitting around tables as a great way to help facilitate discussions, without losing the ability to preach and teach. Again—start with your dining table, but as you expand, you may want to split into two or three or more tables as required. (And by doing this, you may well overcome the leadership issue above, about inclusion.)

Theology of church-as-family

Webb is shaped by his experiences, but, argues reasonably well that "only a family can fulfil the Church's purpose" (chapter 2). The Bible is full of family metaphors: God the Father; Jesus' brothers and sisters as those who obey him; putting the family of faith first (Gal 6:10); and so much more. It's redemptive, so that "we know we are part of the family when we 'love the unlovely, forgive the unforgiveable, embrace the repulsive, include the awkward, accept the weird.'" (Quoting Tim Chester.) We belong together, each smaller parts of the whole Body.

I love his practical tips at the end of most chapters, for example he counsels in this one to deliberately use the language of family, and to integrate family time in your service, and more.

Letting go of being world-changers

I've never heard a defence of the idea of a 'parish'—a specific place that you define as your boundary which is the extent of your mission field. But Webb does this well. We must lay down the wordly idea of being world changers because that ironically focuses on ourselves and our rise above everyone else.

Webb uses a tri-focus of God, People and Place that reminds me of Graeme Goldsworthy's 'pattern of the kingdom': "God’s People, in God’s Place, Under God’s Rule". God wants us to spend enough time with the people around us that we would be able to serve and love them, to be that light on a hill that needy people would want to come to. This is something I've come to appreciate about living regionally—there is great strength in developing strong networks and community. The fractured and weak links you build in a fast-paced city, with so little connection to any one place, ultimately leads to loneliness and ineffectiveness in just about everything. All big and worthwhile projects need lots of people to come together, and stick together for long periods of time.

Practically? Live more of your life in your chosen place, by choosing relationships over convenience or your back pocket.

Inviting non-Christians into the inner circle

Webb believes the core mission of the church is to build relationships with non-Christians, through inviting them into our network. This is one area which I would push back on. It's a belong first, and then believe model.

Traditionally, you would evangelise people external to the church, and treat them as inquirers until they made a decision for Christ and to obey him: believe first, and then belong (and then 'behave').

Many churches now adopt a belong-believe model, which is also called a seeker-sensitive model. This allows non-Christians to serve alongside Christians, almost as if to say that becoming a Christian is to simply change your behaviour. It's very confusing in that sense. It does not communicate that Jesus is the reason why we are different. What's also happening is that while you are lowering the barrier to entry and allowing more people in, you are making it very hard to bring them to a point of change.

In my experience, whatever method you bring people in by is the method you have to continue to have them stay. Don't be afraid—in fact make it a strong point of difference—to have a clear barrier of entry for becoming a Christian, being a member, and being a leader. Think about it this way: if we were going into a Muslim mosque, we would not expect to be able to contribute to anything there, even if they were feeling particularly generous. It's not our gig. But if we're willing to commit, we may be allowed into more things.

Webb puts belonging to the family first, but Jesus put surrender to him first:

“Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say goodbye to my family.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”” (Luke 9:61–62, NET)

My solution? We need to let non-Christians see us in action so-to-speak. But we should also just let them watch from the sidelines. They do not have the right heart to serve. Let us serve them and experience the love of God—that in itself is huge! By doing this, and teaching the same, we let them know that they cannot of their own strength simply do the same things that we do—they must surrender their life to God and do things from God's strength.

Notice the separation of those who feared God and the outsiders in Acts 5:12-16. It's an indictment on seeker-sensitive churches that non-Christian 'seekers' cannot see and feel the difference of those calling themselves Christians. In my experience belong, believe, behave models collapse into belong, behave and don't believe! This may be because, once becoming friends, you don't want to tell them the hard news they have to commit—you may lose the friendship. Everything gets watered down, as the focus on relationships becomes excuse for not getting into the harder—but core—matters. Once again, we must not let our current focus on one side of the equation push us into an equal but opposite error. Relationships matter, but so does obedience to God.

Unserious church

I love Webb's very practical focus towards the end on managing change. He picks up the oddity that there is often very little expectation that what gets taught is put into action. "There is no live expectation that we will come back different the following Sunday." He invites us to be serious, and not worry about putting people off (yay for being less attractional!). He gives some pointers about change management. The model of family provides key place to seeing others behave—and so helps greatly with discipleship: we're not always just seeing people on their best Sunday behaviour. It's in fact when we see people at their worst but still love them that the Gospel shines through—all the while not getting rid of standards. Jesus showed this best with the woman caught in the act of adultery (John 8:1-11).

Conclusion

Overall, this is an incredibly practical book, easy to approach and I feel like it would be easy to put into practice. Webb is not a theologian but manages to ground a fair amount of it in Scripture. Where he lacks, though, is how to put a boundary between those who will not take up their cross and follow Jesus. At some point, Jesus always forced people one side of the fence, but Webb leaves people hanging with their ultimate aim of developing friendships with Christians. It is crucial to let others see our love—but in order to be redemptive, people are going to need friendship with God. Overall, I feel Webb recovers much of what has been lost over the centuries, and with a few tweaks, this will be the way to 'do church' that is best in line with Scripture.