 Monthly Newsletter - April 2010
Wanted to let you know about this exciting new book...
- Alvin Sanders
Dear Colleague,
I’m pleased to announce that my newest book that I’ve written with Rick Rusaw The Externally Focused Quest: Becoming the Best Church FOR  the Community has just been released by Jossey-Bass as part of Leadership Network’s Leadership Series.
This book is about what we’ve been learning since we wrote The Externally Focused Church back in 2004. It’s really about the 9 missional shifts that it takes to move from trying to be the best church IN the community to becoming the best church FOR the community. Here’s how the book is organized:
Chapter 1: What Kind of Day is Today?
Chapter 2: Focus: They Choose the Window Seat, Not the Aisle Seat
Chapter 3: Purpose: They Practice Weight Training, Not Body Building
Chapter 4: Story: They Live in the Kingdom Story not a Church Story
Chapter 5: Missions: The Few Send the Many Not the Many Send the Few
Chapter 6: Partnering: They Build Wells Not Walls
Chapter 7: Systems: They Create Paradigms Not Programs
Chapter 8: Evangelism: They Deploy Kingdom Laborers Not Just Community Volunteers
Chapter 9: Creativity: They Innovate not Replicate
Chapter 10: Outcomes: It’s About the Game Not the Pre-game Talk
Each of these practical chapters…filled w/ diagrams, principles and examples, ends with a “Leadership Challenge” that helps you chart your course moving forward. I encourage you to go to Amazon and leaf through the sample chapters or download a couple of sample chapters on your Kindle and see if it is helpful. I think you’ll like it.
We’ve been very gratified with the reviews that The Externally Focused Quest has already received from pastors and leaders who read pre-release copies – especially because they represent such a wide cross-section of the body of Christ. I’ve attached a few at the bottom of this email.
In the mean time, if you’re interested in getting your hands on an early copy, it’s now available from all the usual suspects. Or you can order a copy from Amazon at 34% off. Here’s a link to the Amazon page: The Externally Focused Quest
A decent summary of the book is found on the inside cover flap beginning with a quote from Alan Hirsch, who so kindly wrote the forward:
“The attractional church is about getting the community into the church. The missional, externally focused church is about getting the church into the community. Incarnational ministry, at its heart, is taking church to people by helping believers live out their calling among people who do not yet believe and follow Jesus.”
—From the foreword by Alan Hirsch
Most churches, blatantly or subtly, have an unspoken objective—“How can we be the ‘best church in our community?’”—and they staff, budget, and plan accordingly. How a church answers that question determines its entire approach to its members, staff, prayers, finances, time, technology, and facilities.
Becoming an externally focused church is not about becoming the best church in the community. The externally focused church asks, “How can we be the best church FOR our community?” That one little preposition changes everything. And this is the big question this book new book from the authors of The Externally Focused Church seeks to answer.
In The Externally Focused Quest, Eric Swanson and Rick Rusaw show church leaders how to transform their churches from being internally focused to being more oriented to the community around them. They use nine big missional concepts that need to be addressed in the quest to become the best church for the community:
focus, purpose, scope, missions, partnering, evangelism, systems, creativity, and outcomes.
Understanding and applying the truths of each concept will provide many of the tools leaders need to take their churches on the externally focused quest. Written by the co-founders of the Externally Focused Network, this book presents a highly practical approach that gives step-by-step guidance for churches to become truly externally focused without giving up the programs that serve their members.
Key Endorsements
I started a casual reading of this book, then couldn’t put it down, then decided my whole leadership team needed to read it with me. This book won’t just change your ministry; it will change the world around you.
Dr. Joel C. Hunter, Senior Pastor
Northland – A Church Distributed
Longwood, Florida
I read the book today. It took me all day but I loved every minute of it! First of all, it is a fantastic book, chock full of pertinent ideas and it leaves you with a heart for the globe that is fresh and vibrant! “The Externally Focused Quest is a must read for every follower of Christ today. Like me, you will come away with a heart bursting with fresh vision for the world outside the four walls of your church. I am making this a required reading for students in the colleges I oversee. It will challenge and dismantle your excuses; then it will inspire you, instruct you, and compel you to action. I am different for having read this book.”
Dr. Wayne Cordeiro, Senior Pastor
New Hope Community Church
Honolulu, Hawaii
My friends Eric Swanson and Rick Rusaw continue to challenge the church to look outward--to join Jesus on his mission in a hurting world, and to show and share the love of Christ. If you are serious about being the church for your community, this book will help provides the insight and tools you need to make it happen.
Ed Stetzer,
President of LifeWay Research
I am a big fan of Swanson and Rusaw. They are helping the church become what she has been destined for - to be outwardly focused. This is another great book that will help you get beyond yourself.
Steve Sjogren, Author, Missional Leader
I just finished reading The Externally Focused Question, and I LOVED it. Here is my endorsement—use whatever of it you would like: “Wake up, Church, and read the challenges of our world as opportunities for the church. We are called to serve, and at no time in history has the church had such amazing opportunities to be a transformative presence in the world. In The Externally Focused Quest, Swanson and Rusaw set our hearts on fire for becoming the church that will change the world, and then provide concrete examples of how to begin wherever you are in the church and the world. Swanson and Rusaw are redefining the church to be not simply a group of people who believe the same things but a group of people who are on a mission together as big as the world we are called to serve.
Diana Garland, Dean School of Social Work, Baylor University
Building on the already significant insights from their previous writings, Eric and Rick blend years of direct leadership experience with great theological insights and a real heart for missional impact, and so concoct up a really good book for our time. Our appropriate compliment ought to be to follow their advice, move into our communities, and transform them in Jesus name.
--Alan Hirsch, missional author, dreamer, and strategist (www.theforgottenways.org)
Really hope you pick up a copy…and help change the world.
For the King and the kingdom,
Eric
Eric Swanson
Leadership Network
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