What's the difference between a thriving Christ-centered church that's saturating its city with the Gospel, and other churches that love the Lord, but are plateaued or declining? A key part of the answer lies in identifying new wineskins for ministry, ones that can earn a fresh hearing for the Gospel with spiritually thirsty generations.
In a fluid, rapidly-changing world, every church struggles with finding fresh ways to win a hearing for Christ with the current generation. What worked 20, 10 or even 5 years ago too often loses its effectiveness as our world experiences a tsunami of cultural change, especially among the younger rising generations. Church leaders want to know not only how people are responsive today, but also why. They want to understand how leading churches are pouring the living water of Jesus Christ through new wineskins, and how some of the ideas, along with their underlying values, could work for them as well.
Looking underneath Liquid Church's phenomenal growth from a dozen people to more than 5,000 weekly attenders in 12 years, this book explains how this vibrant church has pioneered a number of ministry shifts that has resulted in strong cross-generational appeal. How does a church effectively saturate its community with the good news about Jesus without diluting the truth and power of the gospel? Lucas and Bird look at six spiritual currents that churches can leverage to reposition themselves for community impact while holding fast to the timeless, unchanging truth of Christ. These shifts reflect national trends as well, and the authors include examples of how other churches are doing the same thing in different cultural contexts.
