Book Reveiw: The Connecting Church By: Randy Frazee

The Connecting Church

Randy Frazee wrote The Connecting Church to explain Pantego Bible Church’s (PBC) search for authentic community which has driven the local church to align its discipleship teaching and living practices into a model for other churches in America. This book provides anecdotal narration to practical application of each step of their model.

Reading this book reminded me of Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The overall model can be overlaid on several points including “Quadrant Two” living and Interdependence. With a Christian worldview these points have set up the definition of discipleship for PBC. In addition, they have quantified the approach to discipleship through the Christian Life Profile. This profile was developed to organize and report spiritual maturity expressed in ten core beliefs, ten Christian practices, and ten Christian virtues. Everyone at PBC is annually self-assessed in order to focus on one to three areas of growth.

The book begins with a description of Individualism, Isolationism, and Consumerism as the societal bane of authentic community. Harkening back to days prior to the 1950’s, Frazee seems to compare our time with the other. I am not sure that the former communal aspects were as clean and superior as he seems to make them out to be, but I do not feel they negate the argument of the situation we find ourselves in. I pastor in a context that does face these problems. Marylanders in the Baltimore area spend the second longest amount of commute time in the nation. They have sprawled to just about every area including out of state where workers purchase large, isolated homes in West Virginia and ride the train for an hour each way to work in Washington, D.C. The alternative is to live in a county like mine and fight traffic. Developers are building as fast as they can, stacking large homes on top of each other, but each cleanly separated with privacy fences and decks on the back to the house with no porch on the front. The fast-paced lifestyle of the Northeast further complicates social interaction while also feeding affluence which fools us into thinking we can replace the rewards of community with the bigger, better, and higher tech stuff. We left the Joneses behind a long time ago, and now are trying to keep up with ourselves. In this context I minister to many desperate people who do not know what they are desperate for, and I was the same way until I started a small group in my home that opened a door for genuine community. It ruined my life by the old standards and now has given me a better life.

My experience still has not gone to the extent Frazee is an exponent of. My group meets weekly, but only interacts lightly through the week. His groups do so in a much greater way. Sharing common meals, regularly in and out of each others houses is a much more localized approach than our small groups. There is always a process I go through when I read books like this: I read it, embrace it, and then try to contextualize it. It just seems impossible. I am not saying it is, but from where we are it is more of an ideal than something to fully implement right away. In the book, the members of PBC sell their homes to move into mutual neighborhoods. I don’t see that happening for a while at Severn River Church. I do think the depth of community can grow, and should grow in that direction of commitment based on greater interaction with one another.

I love the model. One thing stands out to me, the decentralization of ministry. I love that the Home groups are responsible for outreach, foreign missions, and compassion ministries. The development that goes on at this level is fantastic for meaningful life change. I believe that spiritual maturity is not about what we know as much as what we do. This model puts doing right at the practical level of the Home groups of people.

I have questions about this model. Do the same 30 principles get old? I can see the effectiveness over 3 years, but what about over 30 years? Does this process limit overall Bible interaction and knowledge? Does this matrix limit presuppositions to be read into the biblical text? I have submitted these questions through e-mail for their response. It would take time to really know the answers. They are in the best position to know.

This was a rewarding read. I was challenged and encouraged on our means of discipleship because of it. I look forward to exploring the model through implementation of parts of it at SRC. I have completely read this book in its entirety.