The Church of the Perfect Storm
by Leonard I. Sweet · Abingdon Press · 2008
Book summary
An edited conversation about converging cultural storms and the forms of leadership, theology, and community required for churches to remain faithful.
Chapter & section guide
The Gathering Storm
Multiple shifts combine into a crisis for inherited church forms.
Culture and Change
Contributors interpret social, technological, and spiritual transformation.
Leadership
Adaptive leadership is distinguished from institutional maintenance.
Authenticity
Communities must embody what they proclaim.
Mission
The storm redirects attention from survival to participation in God's work.
Innovation
Experimentation becomes a form of practical wisdom.
Resilience
Prayer, story, relationship, and shared purpose sustain the church.
After the Storm
The future church is imagined as more networked, local, participatory, and Jesus-centered.
Editorial note: these are original thematic summaries prepared as a research and reading aid, not quotations from the book itself.