Reading Phyllis Tickle was a treat. Not only is she brilliant, to the point and able to bring in some fresh understanding to the emerging church conversation, but she brings a compassion to the conversation that is not always present, or encouraged. I sensed as I read this book that she cared deeply for the direction of the christian church in western society and wanted this book to her voice toward that end.

The book starts out as a history lesson on 3 (or more considering events prior to Jesus arrival) “Great’s” in Christian life. Described as rummage sales, Phyllis speaks of The Great Reformation (1500), The Great Schism (1000), and Gregory the Great. She then begins to describe how our time’s “great” had emerged and this is where I truly began to be impacted. Her understanding of technology, the war, and the role of women as a result of the WWI and II, and technology was really helpful in realizing how we have come to the cultural point we are at now.

She then describes (with the help of a good diagram) how Christianity is presently moving within denominationalism from a bounded set (rules/ beliefs describing each denomination) to a centred set (a few or more core beliefs and practices that describe the church that we can all agree on and follow together no matter which denominational background a person comes from). And this is where I find myself and the people that make up the open house. We are all attempting to move in a direction toward Jesus, shaking off the fences and moving toward a well of practices and beliefs that we are “for” rather than those that we are “against.”

As a church planter, this book will come in really helpful as you swim through waters of centred sets, with people that want to be “for” something and not “against.” I give it a CP of 4.5/5 and believe it should be read in light of a few other books such as the “New kind of Christian” trilogy, Exiles, Forgotten ways and my personal favourite Search to belong.

Thanks to readernaut, I am going to put it on my list of books to read again in 2009.