{"id":4485,"date":"2011-05-07T08:11:10","date_gmt":"2011-05-07T12:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/?p=4485"},"modified":"2012-05-05T15:09:21","modified_gmt":"2012-05-05T19:09:21","slug":"close-your-church-for-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/close-your-church-for-good\/","title":{"rendered":"Close Your Church for Good"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Church<\/a>I’m writing a book called Close Your Church for Good<\/em>. The goal of the book is to help churches and pastors move themselves and their congregations in a missional direction that will help them live and operate according to the principles of the Kingdom of God.<\/p>\n

In Close your Church for Good, <\/em>I don’t want your church to shut down and cease to exist; I want to it to rise up and be all that Jesus intends.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When will the book be out? Well, my current word count is 50,000 words, and I am about 2\/3 done. But I am running into problems on some of the later chapters, so… who knows how long it will take to finish…<\/p>\n

But you don’t have to wait!<\/h2>\n

I am actually writing this book online. I make 3-4 posts per week which are based on the content of the book. While the final edition will not be exactly like these posts, the posts still provide the general idea and thought flow of the book.<\/p>\n

In other words, whether I get the book published or not, you can still read a rough version of it right here on the Till He Comes blog.
\n<\/p>\n

Why am I posting the book online?<\/h2>\n

For several reasons.<\/p>\n

First, free is the new business model<\/strong>. Besides,\u00a0I am not an established author, and I already have a job, so why not give the content away for free?<\/p>\n

Second, am I crazy?<\/strong> I have some fairly extreme ideas for how a church can become more missional, and I really desire reader feedback<\/strong>. So as you read the section, please comment and interact, even if you disagree. If you think I’m crazy or have completely lost my senses, tell me! If, however, you think that other people need to hear what I’m writing about, you don’t necessarily need to tell me, but please tell them!<\/p>\n

Third, books and blogs are getting connected. <\/strong>If\/when the book gets published, I will have a ready-made place to send the readers if they want to ask me a question, or interact with other readers.<\/p>\n

Fourth, blogs are sometimes better than books.<\/strong> I can do things on a blog post that I cannot do in a paper book. Like lots of pictures, for example. To see what I mean, check out this post about church buildings<\/a>. There is no way I could put those pictures in the typical book.<\/p>\n

Finally, I am a book lover. <\/strong> As such, I have always wished that all books were free. I used to have a sign that hung in my study which said, “If grace is free, why are Christian books so expensive?” While I don’t believe that all authors should offer all their books for free, I still think that all authors would benefit from making more of their stuff available for free.<\/p>\n

So where can you start reading?<\/h2>\n

I thought about listing ALL of the posts in the entire book right here. But then I realized that this would be about 200 posts. Nobody wants to look through that.<\/p>\n

So I decided to arrange the posts like a book. Think of this post as the Table of Contents.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Below are the chapters in Close Your Church for Good<\/em>. Each link goes to another page, which contains a ordered list of all the posts that were made from that chapter. If you read straight through them, you will get the basic content of the chapter.<\/p>\n

Enjoy!<\/p>\n

\n

Close Your Church for Good<\/h1>\n

Table of Contents<\/h3>\n

Introduction<\/a><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The Satanic Church<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. Faith of the Fallen<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. The Church Must Die<\/a><\/li>\n
  4. Cancel your Church Service<\/a><\/li>\n
  5. Cut All Church Programs<\/a><\/li>\n
  6. Sell Your Church Building<\/a><\/li>\n
  7. Resign as Pastor<\/a><\/li>\n
  8. Down with Preaching<\/a><\/li>\n
  9. Discard the Doctrinal Statement<\/a><\/li>\n
  10. Let Prayer Meetings Cease<\/a><\/li>\n
  11. Enough with Evangelism<\/a><\/li>\n
  12. Pass on the Offering Plate<\/a><\/li>\n
  13. Give Up Your Rites<\/a><\/li>\n
  14. Give Up Your Rights<\/a><\/li>\n
  15. To Hell with the Church<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Epilogue: Fixing Our Eyes on Jesus<\/a><\/p>\n

    \n

    You don’t want to miss a single one of these posts, so bookmark this page and check back often, or better yet, subscribe to this blog in a Feed Reader or by Email<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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