Rating: 
Summary: Spiritual Formation Tool is Wonderful
Review: This book is filled with wonderful ideas that if implemented can have an effect on a Christian like none I have ever seen before. In this book Pastor Frazee recommends a tool called the Christian Life Profile. I have taken the assessment several times within the small group context as he recommends. It not only gave me great insight to focus on the areas God wanted me to become more mature in as a believer, but now my home group knows how to pray for me effectively. Our samll group has always prayed for prayer requests for each other, but our prayer requests consisted of desires to change our external circumstances. Now we pray for each other in the area we want to mature in spiritually. Wow, what a concept! We have finally achieved an intimacy that cannot be matched! Thanks to Pastor Frazee for allowing God to lead you to bring such a counter-cultural idea to churches and a country sorely in need of healing. We will only heal if we begin to know our neighbors as he also suggests in his book.
Rating:
Summary: This is one intriguing book
Review: This is one intriguing book and a must read for every pastor who senses that something is missing in the pastoral rat race. Randy Frazee makes a pervasive case for re-inventing the church through the establishment of building authentic community. Over the years, various authors (such as Rutzs The Open Church) have attempted to rediscover the vital community of the New Testament Church, but for the most part, their attempts seem to be utopian and impractical. Frazee, with some reservations, seems to have hit the proverbial nail right on the head. Throughout the book we are confronted with Bob and Karen Johnson, a fictional couple representing the suburbanite lost in the rat race of life. As we meet the couple, Frazee explains what the church must do to establish authentic community. Doing so is easier said than done. Much of what the church claims to be community is nothing more than masked American individualism. Frazee points out that true community requires five things: an authority structure, thus, there must be a leader who knows where the church is going and how to get there. Second, the church needs true accountability. Much of what the church passes off as accountability today is nothing but disclosure that does not allow others to speak into one's life. Third, the establishment of traditions. Fourth, the establishment of standards without imposing legalism, and finally a common mission. As I read this book, I could not help but see how the new breed of postmodern churches uses these five points to build community. Clearly, most traditional and contemporary churches will have to make some radical changes in how they do business if they are going to build the kind of community that Frazee advocates. There were some unanswered questions. Clearly, Randy's church Pantego Bible Church with its seventy-six acre site has resources that most churches can only dream about. If I remember correctly, Randy had the help of Larry Crabb, George Gallup and Dallas Willard in formatting their changes. Most pastors can only dream of having that kind of help in restructuring a church. But I would like to know, how is it going? How successful have they been? Exactly how do they measure success? Despite these questions, I plan on implementing that kind of community. But as a pastor of a small rural church, we live in a different world. My urban friends are always shocked as we walk down Main Street when they visit, it seems like we know everybody. We can't walk two blocks without running into two or three people we know. Yet, the forces that destroy community are at work in small town America. I am planning on getting a head start on maintaining and building community by trying to implement the Connecting Church.
Rating:
Summary: This is one intriguing book
Review: This is one intriguing book and a must read for every pastor who senses that something is missing in the pastoral rat race. Randy Frazee makes a pervasive case for re-inventing the church through the establishment of building authentic community. Over the years, various authors (such as Rutzs The Open Church) have attempted to rediscover the vital community of the New Testament Church, but for the most part, their attempts seem to be utopian and impractical. Frazee, with some reservations, seems to have hit the proverbial nail right on the head. Throughout the book we are confronted with Bob and Karen Johnson, a fictional couple representing the suburbanite lost in the rat race of life. As we meet the couple, Frazee explains what the church must do to establish authentic community. Doing so is easier said than done. Much of what the church claims to be community is nothing more than masked American individualism. Frazee points out that true community requires five things: an authority structure, thus, there must be a leader who knows where the church is going and how to get there. Second, the church needs true accountability. Much of what the church passes off as accountability today is nothing but disclosure that does not allow others to speak into one's life. Third, the establishment of traditions. Fourth, the establishment of standards without imposing legalism, and finally a common mission. As I read this book, I could not help but see how the new breed of postmodern churches uses these five points to build community. Clearly, most traditional and contemporary churches will have to make some radical changes in how they do business if they are going to build the kind of community that Frazee advocates. There were some unanswered questions. Clearly, Randy's church Pantego Bible Church with its seventy-six acre site has resources that most churches can only dream about. If I remember correctly, Randy had the help of Larry Crabb, George Gallup and Dallas Willard in formatting their changes. Most pastors can only dream of having that kind of help in restructuring a church. But I would like to know, how is it going? How successful have they been? Exactly how do they measure success? Despite these questions, I plan on implementing that kind of community. But as a pastor of a small rural church, we live in a different world. My urban friends are always shocked as we walk down Main Street when they visit, it seems like we know everybody. We can't walk two blocks without running into two or three people we know. Yet, the forces that destroy community are at work in small town America. I am planning on getting a head start on maintaining and building community by trying to implement the Connecting Church.
Rating: 
Summary: Add one more chapters . . .
Review: Very easy read, but a very good read. I could not put it down, as much of the advice in this book is an extension of most of the reading material I've been led to read of late. This book is worthy of five stars when Mr. Frazee finds time to add one or two chapters on Suffering. Because when a church becomes countercultural, there will be those who take advantage of it. Mr. Frazee keyed on Jesus' foundational teaching of "Love God . . . Love your neighbor as yourself." Not all in the church will "sign up" and fully participate. Mr. Frazee needs to give us warning - just as the apostles have in their epistles - that even those in the church will persecute their fellow Christians. Turning the other cheek, walking the extra mile, giving in when it isn't fair is not always reciprical in the Christian community. Even though it should be. And we need practical advice on how to react when fellow Christians are not being Christ. And this persecution will not just come from within, but without the church as well. Not all the principalities and powers, both spiritual and non-spiritual, will like what we're doing when we're building common purpose, common place and common possessions in such a counter-cultural way. Again, how do we react to such situations? Some dissappointments: the lack of quality quotations from our church's past. This breakdown in the church is not just a late 20th century phenomenom. It's happened before. Looking deeper into our church history can help us "discover" how our forebearers "fixed" these problems, and what methods we can use today. A small request is to eliminate Mr. Frazee's numerical growth goals for his church. Although I appreciate the need to strategize for church growth, and it is good to have goals, it may be better to keep these goals internal to his church. We must never be pictured as simply number crunchers. Mr. Frazee admitted his addiction to the ABC's of church management and growth early in the book (attendence, buildings, cash). But we should be quite content in allowing God to "add to the church daily those who would be saved."
Rating:
Summary: Add one more chapters . . .
Review: Very easy read, but a very good read. I could not put it down, as much of the advice in this book is an extension of most of the reading material I've been led to read of late. This book is worthy of five stars when Mr. Frazee finds time to add one or two chapters on Suffering. Because when a church becomes countercultural, there will be those who take advantage of it. Mr. Frazee keyed on Jesus' foundational teaching of "Love God . . . Love your neighbor as yourself." Not all in the church will "sign up" and fully participate. Mr. Frazee needs to give us warning - just as the apostles have in their epistles - that even those in the church will persecute their fellow Christians. Turning the other cheek, walking the extra mile, giving in when it isn't fair is not always reciprical in the Christian community. Even though it should be. And we need practical advice on how to react when fellow Christians are not being Christ. And this persecution will not just come from within, but without the church as well. Not all the principalities and powers, both spiritual and non-spiritual, will like what we're doing when we're building common purpose, common place and common possessions in such a counter-cultural way. Again, how do we react to such situations? Some dissappointments: the lack of quality quotations from our church's past. This breakdown in the church is not just a late 20th century phenomenom. It's happened before. Looking deeper into our church history can help us "discover" how our forebearers "fixed" these problems, and what methods we can use today. A small request is to eliminate Mr. Frazee's numerical growth goals for his church. Although I appreciate the need to strategize for church growth, and it is good to have goals, it may be better to keep these goals internal to his church. We must never be pictured as simply number crunchers. Mr. Frazee admitted his addiction to the ABC's of church management and growth early in the book (attendence, buildings, cash). But we should be quite content in allowing God to "add to the church daily those who would be saved."
Rating: 
Summary: Good if not for the source
Review: While many of the ideas presented in this book are sound it fails in one major area. You have to look at the spiritual leadership and motivation force of the author. Being from the area I can confirm a conflict within.
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