Erwin Raphael McManus

Winner of the Gold Medallion Book Award

In An Unstoppable Force, author Erwin McManus offers a vision of the church taking its rightful place. An unstoppable force created to change the world. A church that is active and engaged with its community. A church that dares to cut itself free from atrophied practices and programs to flourish in creative and compelling worship. Where teachers of the Word risk reaching out to our multi-sensory, multi-layered culture with music, the arts and other unique expressions of love and faith. A church that prospers in the life of Christ.

New life comes into a church - an apostolic ethos - when it realizes its destiny is found in its early church origins. A living part of the body of Christ. Driven to find its uniqueness beyond being a cookie cutter copy of the “successful church.”

An Unstoppable Force will:

• Challenge you to see God’s vision for the mission and purpose of the church.
• Help you to explore specific changes in the culture that call for immediate change in the church.
• Offer practical ways for your church to find its unique voice and identity to express Christ’s love and faith to your culture.
• Present interactive questions in each chapter to foster discussion about the life of your church, its focus on Christ, and how it can be a richer influence on your culture.

Never settle for church as usual again! Let An Unstoppable Force excite and inspire you to be part of the Church that GOD had in mind!

Table of Contents

Origins

No movement
0. Atrophy

First movement
1. Friction traction
2. Momentum (speed)
3. Change theology (unwrapping the present)

Second movement
4. E-motion
5. Cultural architecture

Third movement
6. The cultural architect (lead)
7. Spirit design theory (faith, hope, love)
8. Soul environments (spiritual environmentalist)

On movement
9. Re-formation (re-engineering)

Epilogue
10. A new way to be human (radical minimum standard)

Get a copy now at the Awaken Resources website.

Endorsements

“I love this book because Erwin loves the church. Growing churches require growing leaders. This book will help you along the way.”
- Rick Warren - Lead Pastor, Saddleback Church. Author, The Purpose Driven Church.

“If I could only require one text for all my divinity students, if I could only recommend one book for every religious leader, this would be the one.”
- Leonard Sweet - E. Stanley Jones Professor of Evangelism Drew University, Madison, NJ.

“Erwin is not predicting the future, he is demonstrating God’s next wave as the prophetic leader of a multi-cultureal authentic faith community. A must read.”
- Michael Slaughter - Pastor, Ginghamsburg Church.

“I love Pastor Erwin McManus’ heart for the Kingdom, for the city and for reaching people for Chirst - he’s one of the great visionaries and innovators when it comes to church leadership of our days. Growing out of his own incredible experience, An Unstoppable Force contains insights and principles that I believe can help any church grow and reach its full potential in Christ!”
- Bill McCartney - Founder and President, Promise Keepers.

“An Unstoppable Force is an abrupt opening of the window shade, revealing that we’ve all been hitting the snooze button for decades… this is a book of timeless wisdom, explained in a present perspective that seeps authenticity and reality.”
- Brad Smith - President, Leadership Network.

“You can hardly find a book more engrossing from page to page - because you rarely meet a man with as fascinating a story to tell. Loaded with profound insight as well as constant interest, McManus clearly has a lot to offer church leaders today, presented out of the raw, real context of actual ministry.”
- Ralph D. Winter - Founder of the U.S. Center for World Mission.

“Erwin McManus excites me - from the first time we met to the end of An Unstoppable Force. Read this intelligent analysis of the church and clear-minded take on culture. It will equip and inspire you to approach church life with the kind of faith, hope and love found at Mosaic.”
- Todd Hunter - Former National Director, Association of Vineyard Churches, USA.

“Two thousand years ago, God ignited a breathtaking revolution using a handful of radical Christ followers. The centuries have seen that revolution fizzle. In a diagnosis that startles and unsettles, Erwin McManus shows what went wrong with the church and how we can again catch the momentum of the Holy Spirit. This book invites us to join a revolution.”
- Barbara Bradley - Justice Department correspondent National Public Radio.

Foreword:
We all have mornings when it’s hard to wake up. Perhaps it’s 40 minutes of guilt-ridden dozing, hitting the snooze alarm every eight minutes. Perhaps it’s sitting in a trance watching the long line of slow-moving taillights on the freeway ahead. But then there is the feeling that hits after the second cup of coffee or after an hour of morning exercise. Same day, different awareness. We feel alive, active, and fully awake. We realize how much we would have missed otherwise.

An Unstoppable Force is an abrupt opening of the window shade, revealing that we’ve all been hitting the snooze button for decades. On the other side of this book is a different faith, a new awareness, a new excitement and a new burden that the need is even greater than we realized before. In talking with hundreds of church leaders each year, I’ve seen two movements of God that seem to cross all boundaries of denominations, geography, and church styles. An Unstoppable Force certainly hits the bulls-eye on both.

First, we see church leaders progressing beyond the church growth movement of the 1980’s, which opened up a new awareness of the culture around us. They’re also moving beyond the church health movement of the 1990’s, which created a new emphasis on intentional discipleship. What church leaders are increasingly talking about is church dispersion. We’ve worked so hard to get people inside the church and on a path to maturity; how do we now move them back outside of the church to serve in the marketplace, community and the world? Church growth and church health really don’t make sense without church dispersion; yet that may prove to be the most difficult task yet. We like comfort. We like safety. It is a daunting task to change church from a place that serves consumers to a place that creates servants. An Unstoppable Force tackles this challenge head-on.

Second, the role of church leaders is changing. In the last two decades pastors have been told they must be good preachers… er, actually we meant teachers… uhh, more accurately leaders… well, what we really mean is visionary CEO types… wait, that’s not it… we really meant system builders and equippers. Now we see that church leaders must be spiritual directors: builders of the culture and creators of the soul of the church. An Unstoppable Force provides great wisdom on building the internal culture, or ethos, of a church without succumbing to a faddish role. And it also provides a demonstration of how that happens. This is a book of timeless wisdom, explained in a present perspective that seeps authenticity and reality.

Erwin McManus is unusually qualified to write this book. I first knew him as we pastored churches about a mile apart in the shadow of downtown Dallas. For years he has been a trusted friend and mentor in new ways of understanding God, the church, and spiritual maturity. He is now the pastor of a vibrant church community who is on an authentic journey to wholeness in the heart of Los Angeles. Mosaic is certainly a unique church. It is multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-locational, and in a rocket ride of transition. It is a rare work of God to see so many principles that other churches merely talk about come to reality in one community. It is evident that Erwin holds this jewel lightly: it is not a product of five transferable steps; no one person created it; and while Erwin is a great leader, he knows he is not what maintains it or keeps it on track.

An Unstoppable Force is not about easy steps, but is a journal of what God is doing in an amazing congregation, explained in ways that can be applied-but not mimicked-in the churches of those who read this book. This book is probably best read with a leadership team. It fosters challenging dialogue. It does not attempt to mechanize something that can only be achieved organically and spiritually.

At Leadership Network, we spend our days looking for innovative, God-empowered churches. Mosaic is a pioneer among pioneers. We have sent many church leaders to Mosaic to see the future firsthand. This book is cheaper than a plane ticket, and perhaps good incentive to go anyway after reading it. Better yet, it convicts me, and hopefully you as well, that we have been pursuing is a slumber-filled Christianity. The light of God on my comfortable Christian life might tempt me to squint and want to snuggle deeper into the warm bedcovers of complacent Christianity. I am thankful that Erwin has opened the window shade so wide that God can use this book to jolt me to a new awareness of God’s intention, and God’s purpose for me and his church.
- Brad Smith - President, Leadership Network