Lewis,
Robert. The Church of Irresistible Influence. Grand
Rapid: Zondervan, 2001.
Synopsis
Author and pastor, Robert Lewis, tells the story of Fellowship
Bible Church in Little Rock, Arkansas as a means to encourage and challenge
readers to lead congregations in impacting their world. Lewis’ goal is to bridge the gap between the
church and the world through meeting social needs and becoming a noticeable positive
influence within the community.
Attempting to convince a postmodern world of truth through preaching at
them is seen as ineffective and irrelevant, but meeting practical needs will
build the necessary bridges on which truth can more effectively travel. Lewis carries the analogy of bridge building
throughout the entirety of his work as an example to follow in the building of
a relevant and influential church.
This work has five parts, which build the basis for a
church becoming irresistibly influential.
The first section lays out the perceived reasons for an ever-widening
chasm between the church and its community.
With a majority of Americans believing the church is irrelevant,
congregations tend to become more and more isolated as hostility builds. The church’s influence is reduced to
bumper-sicker wars and an occasional community wide event.
The second part expounds on how Fellowship Bible Church
has begun to bridge the ever-widening gap by meeting practical needs. The author makes the case that truth must be
proven through love for this generation to hear it. By equipping members for lifestyles of
spiritual integrity and providing opportunities for them to shine their light
into the community Fellowship Bible began to make an impact. Lewis demands three main ingredients for
construction: Confession, Vision, and Structure.
In part three, Lewis presents several practical stories of
real-life situations, which bolster the foundation of his bridge building
premise. There were ‘holy surprises’
such as a couple that moved their children from private school into public
school and helped to start a community wide mentoring program. Wounded healers started support groups to
assist others going through difficult life situations. New foundations and agencies were
established to minister in the most practical ways.
The fourth section tells the story of new adventures and
partnerships, which expand the church’s influence and broaden the impact of
their mission. Lewis challenges churches
and pastors to always be about training, equipping, and reproducing future
ministry leaders. There is no greater
way to influence our world than to multiply the efforts of the church by
reproducing new leaders who develop this bridge building mentality. If all the focus in on the current ministry
of the body and training future leaders is neglected the influence might be
great, but it will be temporary. This
book reminds the reader that to have a lasting influence the church must
dedicate time and resources into reproducing bridge-building leaders.
While answering those who may object to an over emphasis
of the “social gospel,” Lewis takes time in the last chapter to address the
theological basis for his approach. He
also lays out the requirements for the church to remain influential in the
future and attain true biblical success.
Evaluation
The most valuable aspect of this work is its call for
pastors to redefine their understanding of success. Believing two followers fully engaged in
impacting their world is more valuable than two thousand pew sitters ready to
be entertained is essential for the leadership.
The old saying that “there is no limit to the amount good you can do if
you do not care who gets the credit,” certainly applies as a pastor multiplies
his impact by giving away control.
The only point of concern may be the overall push of the
book to put biblical preaching as secondary to meeting social needs. While Lewis is careful to affirm the need for
strong biblical preaching, there still seems to be a desire on his part to down
play its significance. One truth doesn’t
need to be sacrificed for another. In
fact, by increasing social ministry a church strengthens it’s teaching and
preaching ministries as well. It is like in politics, some believe you can help
the poor by pulling down the rich when in reality that method has been proven
to destroy both groups. So too, it can
be dangerous for any congregation to emphasize a particular aspect of ministry
to the neglect, or even de-emphasis, of another.
