Zondervan, 2014, 239 pp., $16.99
Success as a Christian leader or faithfulness—for which do you strive? Tim Suttle’s Shrink restarts a conversation about the motives and heart direction of those called to ministry. “The typical assumption of most books on church and ministry,” the author writes, “is the idea that the church’s job is to grow. My argument is that this assumption is built not on the gospel but on the American narrative.” After a sobering introduction of where the church stands in today’s world, Suttle transcribes a multi-chapter plea to readers to exchange slick marketing tactics for deep Christ-centered virtues. Similar to a substance-abusing athlete, the church could be in danger of making result-production at all costs and with little thought given to doing things differently. What a wake-up call of a word picture!
Unlike other books of its kind that seem to be more of anti-church rants from those on the ministry sidelines, Shrink speaks for the church from an author who has taken a ride on the church-growth movement and now leads differently. This book calls leaders to influence from a place of vulnerability, patience and more. Honestly, the author could have been shorter with some stories, leaned less on other authors, and been more practical in his takeaways; but that might be me thinking along the lines of the leadership paradigm that Shrink calls into question. It is a book dedicated to small church pastors everywhere, but I think it also should be in the hands of every student training for ministry and church planter in the making or in the trenches. Shrink is a great addition to the resources that provide new ways of thinking and also has some unique things to share that you might only find in its pages.
