The Sky Is Falling: Leaders Lost in Transition

by Alan J. Roxburgh

Book Overview

This is more than a book, it is a manifesto, a proposal for a new way of imagining a common life together as the pilgrim people of God seeking to fulfill God s purposes for the world in our time. If... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0977718409
• ISBN13: 9780977718405
• Release Date: February 2006
• Publisher: Allelon Publishing
• Length: 187 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Fine Print

The print for this book must have been incorporated with the postmodern emergents in mind because they have such trendy 20/20 vision. We liminals need our traditionally biased bifocals to read such small print. Seriously, please use a larger font for future writing projects. Otherwise, good ideas offered concerning a dialogue that the church of Christ has been engaged in using a plethora of labels that really end up meaning the same things when you get right down to it. Saints are divided, the church is under God's judgment, and something should be done to fix it. Thank God that Christ said, "the gates of hell shall not prevail against His church".

The Sky Is Falling : A Critique

Alan J. Roxburgh uses his book The Sky Is Falling to bridge the gap between the denominational structures (the Liminals) and those involved with the emerging/emergent movement (Emergents). He points out that over the last fifty years there has been a huge shift in church dynamics and church preference due to the rise of the postmodern era. There is a large percentage of the US Christian population that feels disillusioned by the denominational structures that have historically led the missional call of God in America. These folks (the Emergents) have broken ties with denominational structures and their leaders, the Liminals, to form their own congregations. The Liminals as a response to the changes in American culture have held tightly to traditional ways, turned their focus inward, and guarded against transformation until they realized they were failing. Seeing the dire need for Emergents to hold fast to tradition (to understand how God has historically moved in the world) in order to sustain themselves and for Liminals to seek new culturally innovative ways of being missional, Roxburgh challenges both sides to engage in missional conversations with one another manifested in communitas. Together, he believes, they can find answers to many of the challenges facing followers of Jesus and what it means to be "Christian" in today's postmodern world. Both Sides Need Each other...Communitas Roxburgh argues that both the Emergents and Liminals have much to learn from one another and need to form communitas with one another to see the missio dei come to fruition. It is his, "conviction that without dialogue and cooperation between these two tribes--the Liminals and the Emergents--we will never be able to discern the shape of the communities God truly wants to call forth." He feels that because both groups are trying to address similar questions of missional faithfulness in the midst of sweeping change in Church life they need dialogue with each other. He writes, "The Liminals can receive from the Emergents their gifts of imagination, critical evaluation and feedback, and holy restlessness. The Emergents can receive from the Liminals the gifts of history, tradition, habits, capacities, and foundational theologies handed down to them through years of schooling and discipleship." Roxburgh believes communitas must be based on a dialogue committed to understanding and addressing the discontinuous change in the cultures core brought about by the postmodern era. Guiding Leaders Through the Change Process Transition Roxburgh states that both Liminals and Emergents can learn together how the process saving the church and meeting the needs of people in the postmodern era is the acceptance that life is a continuous cycling in and out of periods of stability. Life as a Christian and for the church is in a constant state of transition. This period of constant transition is brought about from the discontinuous change of the postmodern era. Discon

The Sky Is Falling: Leaders Lost in Transition

This is an excellent work by Alan Roxburgh on this subject. In fact, it is one of the best I have ever read. I have read other works by Mr. Roxburgh and he is a very relevant and very thorough writer. I highly recommend this work.

The Sky is Falling Review

Alan Roxburgh is a pastor, teacher, writer, mentor and intellectual. He has had various professorships in distinguished academies and seminaries and currently teaches at Fuller Theological Seminary and has been engaged in research on the connection between the Gospel and Western culture for much of three decades. Roxburgh travels widely through much of the West and brings a genuine global perspective. He is the author of titles including Reaching a New Generation (1993), Crossing the Bridge: Leadership in a Time of Change (2000), Leadership, Liminality and the Missionary Congregation (1998), Missional Leadership: Equipping your church to serve a changing world (2006) and now The Sky is Falling: Leaders Lost in Transition. He has co-authored and contributed in many other publications. Roxburgh is ignored at our peril and in The Sky is Falling book he traces the seeds of the Emergent and Missional Conversations and where they could lead. In many senses this is building upon his previous publications however this book contains an important addition. Roxburgh imagines how those inside church systems and those who have left for new endeavors can help each other. The Sky is Falling opens an imagination for new possibilities through the idea of local missional networks under something like an abbot. The Sky is Falling develops the possibilities of this cultural moment through unpacking what occurs in and through communitas and liminality. This is very helpful territory to any leader who is struggling in a church or denominational structure or who has left theses structures for new horizons. It helps explain some of what and why this occurs and the possibilities for missional imagination because of and in spite of these systems. It isn't a long book but what Roxburgh covers in 150 pages could have saved me about 50 other Missional and Emergent books worth of time and money!