Just finished reading James Rutz' "Megashift". Boy does this book open "cans a worms"! Comments flying around in the blogosphere all over the place and everyone seems to be taking flack! Not that this book "open" cans of worms, but rather Jim Rutz does strike a nerve with many - he seems to be speaking into an issue that is in fact crucial but that, I think is camouflaged and diluted by many with too much of a focus on external methods, shapes, formats and "packaging". To use an analogy that a friend once told me, there seems to be a lot of focus on the franchise, not enough on the product. Larry Silverman thinks that this is the "Great Debate"...the battle cry of the hour, that will pass when juicer debates and battle cries emerge. This is an opinion that I highly respect, not least because he is an instrumental voice within the house church movement itself, being a house church planter par excellence. Noted Kingdom Rain author and theologian Don Williams of the Vineyard identifies the similar vein in the "no church, no problem?" article on his website and does highlight several very pertinent points. An important voice within "Emerging" circles is "Tall Skinny Kiwi" Andrew Jones, who blogs his impressions/reviews of the book here and here. Another review online is found within the forums of the revival/renewal website "Open Heaven" can be found here. Now for my personal review: Overall the book is a good read - I certainly enjoyed it and would recommend it to any discerning reader. I found it an excellent "Chronicle" of what God is doing worldwide. Jim Rutz certainly seems to have done a colossal amount of research for this volume, and the testimonies described in it are just faith-building fire starters! The main strength of the book in my opinion lies in his portrayal of the priesthood of the believer, and the calling of the saints to "do the work of the ministry". Another strength lies in advocating the flexibility of the new wineskin, and each believer's involvement in what God is doing nowadays. However the main drawbacks in my opinion lie in the general overtone of the book. For someone who is proposing an alternative to "structured" Christianity, he certainly places a heck of a lot of emphasis on the alternative structure, with too much emphasis on the way in which we are supposed to "do" church. I fear that some will just find in the book a voice piece for rebellion, or at least lack of honouring, of leadership within existing churches. He freely borrows from examples in which God has moved wonderfully in “traditional” churches, and then somehow manages to use that in order to bolster his ideas towards a new paradigm. I found that convenient licence on his part. Also one gets the impression that all you have to do is adopt their style and structure of meetings, and life, growth, miracles etc. will automatically flow from that. Although I certainly believe that having flexibility within the wineskin can aid and encourage believers to move in the Spirit, I believe that our emphasis should be more on the New Wine than on the “wineskin.” All in all I do believe that this book can speak into our situations, visions, and yes, even our churches traditional or no. I applaud Jim Rutz’ line on how traditional churches could spawn church planting movements and open church networks. Somehow I believe that this is a key. In a thought-provoking paper called “The Two Structures of God’s Redemptive Mission” [PDF] noted missions veteran Ralph Winter explores the underlying theme of “Modality” versus “Sodality” that the Megashift book also deals with (but unfortunately does not identify expressly). Looking into the way in which monastic communities spread the gospel throughout church history, one sees that it is not an either-or option, but ideally a combination of both. Much more could have and should have been explored in his book regarding this link.