The Church of Irresistible Influence: Bridge-Building Stories to Help Reach Your Community

by Rob Wilkins, Robert J. Lewis, Robert Lewis, et al.

Book Overview

With compelling metaphors, Jesus described the church and its impact on the world: a city set on a hill, inescapably visible. A lit lamp brilliantly illuminating the darkest room.And indeed, filled... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0310250153
• Release Date: February 2001
• Publisher: Zondervan
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 0.6" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

Worth reading for every church leader...

"The Church of Irresistible Influence" is one of the most compelling books that I've ever read about what the church can and should be. I'm not one to casually embrace huge concepts on a whim, so I'm not yet convinced that every notion from this book is appropriate or even workable in many churches. In fact, Lewis' church has undergone some significant organizational changes since he wrote the book. I would be most intrigued to read a sequel that describes the process of becoming a church of irresistible influence after several more years of experience. In any case, perfect model or not, Lewis presents many extremely dynamic examples of how his church (and, more specifically, the people within his church) began to impact the Little Rock community in amazing ways. It's great to read those stories of connection, blessing, and service, particularly as so many churches are becoming painfully aware of how useless they really are to their communities. I would strongly recommend this book to any modern church leader, not because I think that every church should adopt this exact model of church structure, but because it presents some big issues and paradigm-shifting ideas that have the potential to totally redefine the impact of the American church. It just might totally rearrange the way you think about church!!

Move on out!

Church is not just about a service on Sunday - but about becoming prepared to really live God's Word - and then living in the Word in our communities. What an inspiration. And I am not a Pastor ... just one of the congregation!

Someone has finally put my thoughts into writing!

I am taking a PhD class in organizational communications from the University of South Florida and one of the topics we covered in the class was corporate reputation. My interest in that specific area spilled over into that topic being applied to the church. I have started with the question, "What impacts the reputation of the church?" and the answer points to the presence of the body of faith in service to it's community. It is actually my major project for the semester. This book is being used as a resource for that paper as it solidified that thoughts for me.This book has put into words much of what I have thought, implemented, taught and preached for the past 5 years. It is as monumental to my thoughts towards ministry as Warren's Purpose Driven Church and George Hunter's Church for the Unchurch. If you can read just one book on church leadership this year, read this one. It will challenge you and may place you outside your comfort zone, but it will help move your church towards impacting and influencing your community in ways that please God and grow His kingdom.

The "How to" of Intentional Discipleship

This is an extremely important book, as it tells the story of one church's metamorphosis from a typical 20th century church to a church with truly "Irresistible Influence" in its community.It tells the story in a very well-written, easy-to-read way, of the Fellowship Bible Church of Little Rock, Arkansas.A church that is truly striving to "make disciples" in the manner that Jesus intended when He gave His disciples that Commission.It is a breath of fresh air, and it inspired me to: try to persaude my own church to adopt their approach; or find a church-planting group that is using these principles, and join them.Inspiring! Five stars!

The Book of Irresistible Influence

Although I am the first person to review this landmark book, I will not be the last. As one who is a student of what God is doing through churches in our communities, I am greatly impressed about what the faith community of Little Rock is doing to build "incarnational bridges" into their community. I personally believe this will be the next wave for churches. If you are interested in this process I can recommend a couple of books that have a similar story:The Church that Never Sleeps by Matthew BarnettMeeting Needs, Sharing Christ by Charles RoeselCity Reaching by Jack DennisonUrban Churches: Vital Signs by Nile HarperRecently, 25 pastors in Boulder County, who are committed to its spiritual transformation, received a copy of this book. If we apply the principles in this book, our community will never be the same!