Book Review

Book Review

Bibliographical Entry

Erwin Raphael McManus. An Unstoppable Force: Daring to Become the Church God had in Mind 2001 (1st edition). Group Publishing, Inc. 2001.

Author Information

Erwin McManus was born in San Salvador, Central America, and raised in Miami. During his college years he was on a philosophical quest for truth. He was an atheist part of the time, an agnostic some of the time, and uncertain the rest of the time. In the midst of his quest, something broke through and shattered his disbelief--God revealed Himself to him. According to him , The sermons that are changing the world are the ones where the pastor is real--sharing his journey with the congregation. One should stop preaching sermons and start telling stories. We should break though the pressure to be a great preacher and become a great leader.

Content Summary

It seems, from time to time, God raises up visionaries to nudge the church toward His divine directives. The book of Revelations carries letters to the churches reminding them, correcting them, and showing them that even at that early age the church had the potential to stray a bit from the path we are to follow. And throughout our history, there have been others to bring this message to His bride.

Erwin Mcmanus is one of those messengers. He speaks with clarity on the issues that many of us have been wrestling with for some time. To quote the great theologian Morpheus, "you know something is wrong, like a splinter in your mind". According to the author (101), he wrote this book with the conviction that the church can create and shape culture. He believes that the church was never called to institutionalize and formalize into dead religion, but to remain a viable movement that becomes the vanguard of design for the ethos of every realm of society. Quotes that embody this: “Biblical interpretation must be missiological, not theological,” “My goal is not to keep up with the changing world, but to be standing there waiting for it when it arrives.”

He also indicated (126) that his greatest hope was that our cultural language about the church will be elevated and at the same time capture new language that inspires us to believe great things for the local church. The author challenges his readers even when it comes to understanding the meaning and nature of the word church. He asks the questions:-What does it mean to be the church of Jesus Christ?-What is an acceptable definition of a local church?-When does a local church cease to be a church of Jesus Christ?

The author speaks about how in the past 40 years communities have changed dramatically yet many local churches have stayed the same. This explains the irrelevancy and bankruptcy of the church in regards to being salt and light and functioning as agents of change for culture. Even the way the gospel is communicated has to be changed if we are going to reach this present generation. One of the dramatic changes in ...