:The Tangible Kingdom:

So I wanted to share a bit of a review that I wrote on a book a little bit back. We read this book as a church a couple years ago, and then I had to read it again more recently for a class I'm taking. It's a great book--I highly recommend reading it and engaging with the things the authors speak about. I would be curious to see/hear thoughts from others on this book, too!

The book's called "The Tangible Kingdom", and it's written by Hugh Halter and Mat Smay. You can check it out here, and the cover looks something like this:

At any rate, here are my quick, nutshell-type thoughts.

Book Reading & Response:

The Tangible Kingdom by Hugh Halter & Matt Smay

In a nutshell, this book is about the church living out the kingdom of God in tangible, relatable, practical ways in the culture we live in, as well as what that might look like in our day-to-day lives. It’s full of examples of God’s kingdom breaking through in tangible ways, and spends a lot of time talking about how we can create this kind of “Incarnational community” in our own churches and neighbourhoods. To me, it was a book that really pushed for and encouraged us to learn what it means to live not only in a Christlike manner as it relates to God’s Kingdom coming on earth, but also as we see the early church do at the beginning of Acts—where they were all as one family, sharing as the other had need, and counting nothing as their own. It’s not as if Halter & Smay say that we should all go back to functioning as some gigantic commune where no one owns anything, but there is a definite sense of something that my parents always pushed when we were growing up: “it’s not yours, anyway”. God’s given us all we have as a gift. We’re called to share our gifts with those around us. So if someone has a need, and we can fill it, it should be our automatic response. To me, this book was an encouragment in this direction, and a challenge to push forward to continue to see God’s kingdom breaking through the fabric of our world in powerful (though sometimes simple, and quiet) ways.

As far as things I agree/disagree with, I think I’d have to say I definitely agree with this book on the whole. When we went through it as a church a little over a year (or was it two?) ago, it really hit home. It was neat reading through it again and exploring these concepts that we’ve been really trying to live out in our own lives and in the lives of The Well as a church. I’ll take a look at some of the things I underlined while reading, and take it from there.

I think one of the most powerful statements in the book for me was one that I’ve always had a pretty strong conviction about myself. On page 12, the authors write: “We need to start by doing some things that we haven’t been doing, and we must stop doing some things that we have been doing”. To me, this has been the question in my life and faith quite often. What am I doing that needs to keep going? What am I doing that needs to change? It’s not always an easy question, but I think it’s ESSENTIAL to walking the Christian life in particular. We’re on a journey, we’re changing and growing. If we stay the same the whole time, we’re likely not alive…we’re dead (I actually preached on this once… so it’s something that’s heavy on my heart)… the question that this has always posed to me is: WHY are we doing WHAT we are doing, and WHERE is it going? If we don’t have answers to these questions, why are we doing it? We need to, as they say on page 24, “…pick what to take, what is absolutely necessary, and leave behind some things that have been important to us”. It’s a constant process—and maybe we’d see that better if we remembered that God’s kingdom is breaking through… it’s coming. It’s growing here on earth. It’s a process. So it can’t be a stagnant thing!

I love what the authors highlight on page 30: “Church must not be the goal of the gospel anymore…church should be what ends up happening as a natural response to people wanting to follow us, be with us, and be like us as we are following the way of Christ.” Reading the book of Acts, it becomes VERY painfully obvious that the early Christians were NOT about putting people into programs, or organized worship times, or anything really that we might classify today as “church”. They were about getting people to SEE CHRIST and SEE THE KINGDOM as they broke into their lives in tangible ways. We need to make this the focus of what we’re doing. It all boils down to us going out and embodying the Kingdom of God and the love of Christ to those around us, both inside and outside the church. Those distinctions shouldn’t matter to us—what counts is that they are people, and just as much in need of the Kingdom and God’s love breaking into their lives as any of us are.

I think as far as pretty well everything in the book is concerned, I agree with the authors due to several things. First, the concepts that they present in this book ring true to me as I read through scripture. Secondly, the concepts presented in the book ring true for me as I have seen and experienced the kingdom of God at work in my own life. In essence, when it all boils down to it, it just makes sense.

I found it to be like the majority of good books that I have read—in the sense that there may have been minor points that I disagreed with, but there was nothing major that jumped out at me and made me go “wait a second, what on EARTH are you saying there?”

Now comes the application part. This is an interesting part of this response to write, because of the church culture I’ve grown up in, as well as the one I’ve been immersed in being a leader in for the past 4 years.

So the answer to the question on the assignments sheet is as follows: the teaching of this book would/will affect my views of/work in churches by encouraging me to continue to live life with a kingdom focus (or the “eternal perspective”, as my Mom always put it) in whatever ways possible. I fully believe that we are part of ushering in the kingdom that Christ preached and exampled for us during his time here on earth. I fully believe that this kingdom is both here, and not fully here yet… that we live in this awesome, yet difficult season of “birthing pains”, where we se the kingdom break through all around us (if we have our eyes open to see it), and yet we live in the reality of a still-broken and not-yet-restored earth. So what is our task? What is my task? To live out God’s kingdom here on earth. To be intentional in my life so as to help others peek through those holes into this new reality that God so desperately wants us to live as a part of. To live to provide glimpses and tastes of the restoration project that we’re all a part of. To invite others to join in on it so that they, too, can be a part of what is ultimately the largest renovation project the world has ever seen—the ultimate home makeover.

My work in churches is, therefore, similarly, not actually to “get people in the door”, but to provide them with a place where they can meet with Jesus Christ and experience that kingdom in a very real way, wherever they are at in life. Beyond that, it’s to live out and encourage others to live out the kingdom so that church becomes, in everyone’s minds, not a PLACE to go, but a PEOPLE to BELONG to. God’s kingdom isn’t defined by our geographic locations. So why do we act like it can be confined to a building? It’s a matter of living out my life as if Christ is alive, like we talked about last session. If Christ is indeed alive, that means he is still at work. And we’re called and commanded to do this same work, in bringing about the kingdom in the world around us. Therefore my primary task is not in “church” on Sunday morning (i.e. the place), but in “church” every day of my life, with each person I interact with on a day-to-day basis (i.e. the people). Call it “being the hands and feet of Jesus”. Call it “random acts of kindness”. Call it “intentional relationship”, Call it “incarnational ministry”. Whatever it’s called, the point is the same. Are we living Christ out, day-to-day, in a way that screams “He’s ALIVE, and his KINGDOM is HERE!” ?

--Sam