Breakout. A Book Review by Ali Tyler

One Church’s amazing story of growth through mission-shaped communities

by Mark Stibbe and Andrew Williams.

This book is written by the (then) Vicar, Mark, and the Associate Vicar, Andrew,

of St. Andrew’s Anglican Church in Chorleywood , Herts.

I bought this book having read a review of it in the Christian press and also

having been a visitor to St Andrew’s myself. Ian and I took this book on holiday

with us over May half-term and we were both moved, challenged and inspired

by it.

It tells the story of a Church BREAKING OUT of it’s traditional structure.

Instead of a “come and join us” model, of drawing believers and non-believers

to the Church building, it is transformed by God’s grace into a “we’ll come and

meet you” model of Church. But this book is more than just a story of vision

and strategies, it is the personal account of how Mark, Andrew and many others

listened to the Lord, caught a fresh vision, and obeyed the call to radically

change how they “did Church”.

One image which inspired Mark throughout the process of change was that of

an RNLI Lifeboat. Here is an extract from the introduction:

“Before I became Vicar, I spoke to a group of St. Andrew’s leaders about my

vision for the future of the church. This was in November 1996. I brought

RNLI posters of lifeboats and told them that the church was called to be a

lifeboat station where everyone is working together to save those in peril on

the sea of life.

In January 1997 I took up my post as Vicar of St Andrew’s. Ten years later, in

November 2006, I harked back to that earlier meeting as I addressed the

whole church on our commitment Sunday. I congratulated the people of St. Andrew’s

as I pointed out that we were now indeed a lifeboat station with many

mission-shaped communities meeting at the weekend, using extraordinary creativity to rescue those in peril on the sea of life. It had taken years of hard work but in the end we

had seen the cruise liner church disbanded and witnessed instead many lifeboats launching ……..”

One of the ways this book challenged me was to think how can I/we as a church reach people who would

never dream of coming to a church service. When we drive to Pinehurst or Cowbridge on a Sunday morning, in the warmer months we go past a huge car boot sale by the Amwell roundabout. Have you ever seen it or been to it? I have often felt surprised to see so many cars and also sad to think they weren’t worshipping God. Now I’m thinking “Maybe I/we should be there amongst them, sharing a small part of God’s love with those people.” The book Breakout mentions a group from St Andrew’s who did so, offering free bottles of water to people at a car boot sale. You could equally have a prayer tent (boot!), free

Christian books or something for the children to do.

 

Anyway, if anyone feels they can be part of this idea please let me know.

 

Love in Him

 

Ali Tyler x