Dwight J. Zscheile - The Agile Church: Spirit-Led Innovation in an Uncertain Age

Advance Praise for The Agile Church

Dwight Zscheiles People of the Way invited us to focus more on following the way of Jesus than on maintaining established churches. Now Zscheiles The Agile Church gives us practical counsel on how we can try on new ways of participating in Gods mission through innovation and experimentation. This hopeful book helps Christian leaders to move away from seeing Church as an end to be preserved and move toward reconceiving the Church as a result of our faithfulness to the mission of God.

Ian T. Douglas, Ph.D.
Bishop of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut

In a world of easy, follow-these-10-steps answers to critical questions of leadership, it so good to have a book like this. You have in your hand the reflective work of a theologian who is rooted in the local, everyday life of a parish congregation. He knows what it looks like to work in the midst of challenges that need agility and innovation. Dwights is a wise book, grounded in a theology of Gods active participation with our world. His work on innovation is a rare gift for pastors and church leaders wanting something rooted deeply in Christian imagination and scripture, not just one more trend.

Alan Roxburgh
Author, pastor and founder of The Missional Network

Zscheile perceptively captures the moment the church faces and understands that innovation must be a way of life for churches in the next decades. Churches practicing his traditioned innovation, in which they make good mistakes, learn from them, and move on quickly, have a chance to bear vital witness. This is one of the most important books I have read in a long time.

Lovett H. Weems Jr.
Distinguished Professor of Church Leadership,
Wesley Theological Seminary

While the future of church is unpredictable, it is also more exciting and bright. In an age when people are making choices about their faith, spirituality, and lives in unprecedented ways, our churches have the opportunity to be nimble, graceful, and creative. The Agile Church is an ideal guide for this journey.

Doug Pagitt
Pastor of Solomons Porch and author of Church in the Inventive Age

Dwight Zscheile lives in two worlds comfortably. He knows more about leadership than just about anyone, and he really understands the church. In this book, he has found the right topic. Every church that wants to thrive in the future will need to be agile, and Dwight Zscheile is just the right person to show us how.

Scott Cormode
Professor at Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California

I love this book for several reasons. First, it is hopeful. Weve had plenty of church deconstruction; we need a way forward, and Dwight provides great practical and biblical advice. Secondly, the book blends insights from all kinds of fields: church, business, culture, sports, and life! We are desperate for this kind of integrative thinking to move us out of our church silos. Finally, its just a plain, good read: easy to grasp, interesting, and thought-provoking. Its a book I wish I had written.

Reggie McNeal
Best-selling author and missional leadership specialist

Conversant with Silicon Valley, yet seasoned in good theology, Zscheile lays out what church innovation can and must be: communal, traditioned, and agile. For any church that feels like a deer caught in the headlights, The Agile Church offers new hope and fresh direction.

David Fitch
Professor at Northern Seminary, Bloomfield, Illinois,
and author of Prodigal Christianity

Dwight Zscheiles The AgileChurch is an exceptional foray at the intersection of cultural studies, leadership theory, biblical narratives, and theological convictions, all with the assumption that God is an active agent in our neighborhoods and churches. Innovations toward new missional life are most likely when churches and their leaders exhibit certain characteristics and practices, and Zscheile provides clarity and on-the-ground stories to make this adventure more available for those ready to be participants in what the Spirit is already doing.

Mark Lau Branson
Professor at Fuller Theological Seminary and author of Churches,
Cultures &Leadership (with Juan Martnez)

Dwight Zscheile has been exploring organizational, leadership, and innovation literature for some time. He is also passionate about the local church as it attempts to be a faithful theological enterprise dedicated to raising up leaders and engaging innovation. In this book, Dwight brings together the theological commitments of a pastor and scholar with important insights from sociology, and the church benefits from his work. This disciplined and practical volume is necessary for a missionary church.

Kyle J. A. Small
Associate Dean and Associate Professor at
Western Theological Seminary, Holland, Michigan

Copyright 2014 by Dwight J. Zscheile

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.

Unless otherwise noted, the Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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Morehouse Publishing, 19 East 34th Street, New York, NY 10016

Morehouse Publishing is an imprint of Church Publishing Incorporated.
www.churchpublishing.org

Cover design by Laurie Klein Westhafer
Typeset by Rose Design

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

A catalog record of this book is available from the Library of Congress.

ISBN-13: 978-0-8192-2977-9 (pbk.)
ISBN-13: 978-0-8192-2978-6 (ebook)

In memory of Jannie Swart, 19622014
Colleague and Friend

Over the past few years, I have had opportunity to travel frequently around the church to share in conversations with leaders in a variety of contexts struggling with how to thrive as Christian communities in the twenty-first century. Many of these leaders resonate deeply with the need to renew the churchs identity in Gods mission in a world in which the church is no longer culturally established. Yet they also wonder: What do we do next? What steps do we take? What kinds of practices will help us enter into deeper relationships with our neighbors? How do we learn what it means for us to participate more deeply in Gods life in the neighborhood? How do we carry forward what is best from our past into a new world?

This book is written in response to those conversations. I am grateful to the many leaders who have shared their stories, yearnings, discoveries, disappointments, and hopes with me along the way. I hope this book may serve their journey in some small measure.

I give thanks especially for the local church where I serve part-time, St. Matthews Episcopal Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, which has rooted my learning and research about agility in the particularities and possibilities of a specific community. Several leaders there shared valuable feedback on the book: Philip Boelter, Jeff Kidder, Terese Lewis, Blair Pogue, and Lisa Wiens Heinsohn.