Paul notes – My good blog-friend Chris Erdman has a book on preaching due to be published in September. Chris has always been a real inspiration to me via the content of his blog. Alan Roxburgh, in his excellent book, The Missional Leader: Equipping your church to reach a changing world, describes what Chris does amongst the church, amongst whom he serves as a leader, in this way:
“…Chris Erdman…has become a gifted leader…He has listened to the narratives of his people, especially among the leadership of the church. Some of those leaders initially resisted his leadership. They didn’t really want all the talk and pushed for a strategic plan that would achieve results and give clear leadership within the congregation. But Chris persisted. He gathered people together, invited them to share their stories with each other, and asked them to bring those stories into contact with the Scriptures.
Chris did not use Scripture to give people answers or a few new tactics based on its ‘principals’. Rather, he gradually taught his leaders the skills of indwelling the Scriptures, of listening to God in the midst of the Word. The process took time…The leaders would attend retreats, which were not so much big planning events as a place to learn how to go more deeply into the process of listening to Scripture. Out of this, they committed to some daily practices around prayer, Scripture, and discernment. What slowly emerged was a growing sense that among the people of this church there were wonderful God-given dreams waiting to be called forth in the context of their neighbourhood and community. There is now a real sense…that God is at work among them…” (p.71).
Read more about the book on Chris’ site. Read the contents page, introduction, chapter 1 and chapter 2 here (PDF).
You can pre-order, as I have done, from here…
Paul, thanks so much for your kind and helpful words.
Posted by: Erdman | Monday, 28 May 2007 at 09:17 AM