Book Review: Becoming A Contagious Church

Mark Mittelberg is passionate about seeing people trust their lives to Jesus. You can't read Becoming A Contagious Church and miss that one.

It's the sort of book that America and the guys at Willow Creek does so well - energetic, inspirational, aspirational, motivational and other words that make you want to get up out of your chair and change the world. Being British, we may first have a cup of tea and wait for it to be a bit warmer, which sort of takes the steam out of it a bit.

It certainly has food for thought, I liked the fact that it started with prayer and ended with a real clear understanding that it is God who saves. It wasn't simply a book that said if you do my course in your church you'll become a megachurch in 5 years! Thankfully it avoided those pitfalls.

It had some ideas that I think would work in the UK which is always a benchmark for me, how culturally 'locked in' is it. So while the style probably doesn't move that well, the substance could.

Basically it starts with the leader, for the church to care about those beyond its walls the leader must care. For the church to invite friends and speak to non-believers the leader must invite and speak, for the church to win the lost the leader must live it as well as speak it. As the leader of my church is me, that's challenging stuff. Am I stuck in the Christian ghetto and am I scared and silent when I'm not amongst Christians? I don't think so, but I needed to ask the questions.

Then bit by bit you work the circle outwards, find a co-conspirator, find a few more and then from amongst this group of passionate soul-winners you start infiltrating the culture of the church. Simple really.

If you're involved in evangelism or leadership then this book is worth considering, and whatever the application the passion in this book should motivate you.