Roberts and Marshall, Reclaiming God’s Original Intent for the Church

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Wes Roberts and Glenn Marshall, Reclaiming God’s Original Intent for the Church. NavPress, 2004.

Referenced in: Missional Strategies – Transitioning Established Churches to Missional

LifeandLeadership.com Summary

This is a refreshing and resourceful book that most practicing ministers will experience as a pastoral-but-prophetic prod to move missionally in the post-Christendom context. It is not as practical as one may want, but it is a helpful philosophical expression of the missional mindset.

Like most literature of the missional genre, it affirms that the church is increasingly marginalized, confused, and directionless, but that the Sovereign God is still present and at work. The marginalization is an opportunity for the “church to return to her ancient roots in order to reclaim God’s original intent for the church.” (18) Consider these words from the opening chapter:

“In reality, much of the resources, time, and energy now spent by the church are an attempt to rebuild the crumbling ruins of Christendom. For example, we spin our wheels trying to get prayer back in public schools, or we try to keep the Ten Commandments posted in public places. Within the church, we define success in terms of attendance, budgets, programs, and buildings. We don’t know what else to do or how else to measure success because we don’t know any other way to operate.

But there is another way.

We need to go back to the much older ways ” to the time before the church became an institution. This was a time when the church was marginalized, persecuted, and alien ” much like it’s becoming today. Returning to these much older ways will seem quite new. But if we begin to see that our current situation is similar to those early days, we’ll see great opportunities for the present and for the future.” (21)

As part of this, Roberts and Marshall suggest shifting from a way of doing and being church that is more familiar to us, the Christendom way, to a “much older way” of the apostolic period. To understand what this might look like, see the chapter titles:

It’s About Authenticity-Not Size
It’s About Making Disciples-Not Simply Recruiting Volunteers
It’s About a Calling-Not a Career
It’s About Character-Not Credentials
It’s About Community-Not Just Management
It’s About Trusting God-Not Technique
It’s About Following the Spirit-Not Mere Strategizing
It’s About Servanthood-Not Power
It’s About Fruit-Not Achievement
It’s About Listening-Not Just Preaching
It’s About Love-Not Being Right
It’s About Our Triune God-Not Us

If you are looking for a resource that describes the missional church in a way that lay leaders can understand, or you are looking for an encouraging, challenging, and inspiring call to a missional mindset, consider this volume. But again, it is heavy on description, weak on application.

From the Publisher

Out of the 350,000 some churches in North America, only about 3,500 are classified as mega-churches. In fact, the average church size falls between 110-135 members. So why are so many pastors and denominations fixated on church growth? Believe it or not, size isn’t God¹s primary concern for His church. The early church shows us that character, servanthood, discipleship, and following the Holy Spirit are much more important than attendance numbers.

By getting back to these core values and away from energy-sapping obsessions, authors Wes Roberts and Glenn Marshall remind pastors and church leaders why they entered the ministry in the first place.

From the Back Cover

The early church started as a fringe, radical movement; today the church has become a large, bureaucratic institution. In the process, the modern church has lost much of its focus, power, and original intent—which has slowly deadened its impact on culture.

Looking at the history and purpose of the early church as their guide, authors Wes Roberts and Glenn Marshall offer a renewed vision for the church—one in which the smaller church plays the lead role in serving communities and individuals as Christ did.

Reclaiming God’s Original Intent is not a how-to book to make churches—big or small—better; it is a treatise on where we are, how we got here, and how the church can meet the needs of the coming generations. By getting back to the core values of servanthood and character, Wes and Glenn remind pastors of the real reason to be passionate about ministry.

About the Author

Wes Roberts is the author of Support Your Local Pastor and and founder/CCO of Leadership Design Group/Life Enrichment, a worldwide ministry of mentoring, consulting and counseling to Christian leaders. He holds a B.S. in Christian education from Biola University and an M.A. in pastoral counseling from Denver Seminary. Wes lives in Parker, Colorado with his wife, Judy. They have one daughter.

Glenn Marshall pastors Park Avenue Community Church, a congregation of about 90 members, in Somerdale, New Jersey. He and his wife, Jackie, have a son and a daughter.

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