Clergy/Leaders’ Mail-list No. 1-022 (Book Review)

LEONARD SWEET TRILOGY

reviewed by Rod Benson

Soul Tsunami: Sink or Swim in New Millennium Culture (Zondervan, 1999)

Aqua Church: Essential Leadership Arts for Piloting Your Church in Today’s Fluid Culture (Group Publishing, 1999)

Soul Salsa: 17 Surprising Steps for Godly Living in the 21st Century (Zondervan, 2000)

Sweet is Professor of Postmodern Christianity at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. Soul Tsunami is the Big Gun of his recently released pomo trilogy – a trail-blazing, pacesetting, mind-numbing tour-de-force of cultural criticism and technological triumphalism ameliorated by a passionate commitment to the Christian Way. Soul Tsunami is aimed at courageous souls and dynamic churches shifting from modernist to postmodernist paradigms, and desiring to engage the fractured Western culture of the early 21st century with the radical claims of an unchanging gospel.

Sweet argues that a tidal wave (tsunami) of change has swamped life as we knew it. In its place is a new world colonised by the brave and the stupid. Sweet wants Christians to be among the brave, and writes convincingly on how to accomplish this. Soul Tsunami offers ten “life rings” (lifebuoys) the church must grab if it is to avoid drowning in the flotsam and jetsam of the tsunami’s aftermath. No church leader who takes himself or herself seriously can avoid grappling with these issues (and no aspiring author can help being impressed at the industry and intelligence of Sweet’s research assistants!).

But it’s no easy read, particularly if you find Sweet’s distinctive style and implicit cultural imperialism (even cultural determinism) at times distasteful. Two sweeteners (no pun intended) are that it’s easy to read in small bites, and there’s a multitude of sermon illustrations to pillage. Unless you’ve already gone under, go out and buy the book. If you are submerged, read Soul Salsa – it may resuscitate you.

The second in the trilogy, Aqua Church, is a handbook for the church and a chart for the church’s leaders into the (un)foreseeable future. Pervasively applying nautical metaphors to the challenges facing the church today, Sweet tackles (again, no pun intended) twelve issues from the centrality of Christ to the imperative of risk-taking, from the value of good vibes to the sanctity of Sabbath rest, from the synergy of teamwork to the energy of intellectual capital.

Sift through the maelstrom of coined terms and cliches, wordplays and one-liners, and Sweet has something vital to say to the church. Whether he speaks to the whole church, or just to those members of the church who are conversant with Windows 2000 and consumers of dial-a-pizza is another matter. Still, this is a must-read for pastors and other church leaders.

In Soul Salsa, the least well-known but just as powerful third volume of the trilogy, Sweet pulls together an impressive array of spiritual life skills and strategies into a wholistic scheme for effective living as followers of Jesus in the next decades. The book is packed full of uncommon wisdom and practical ideas for pursuing “godly” living. Even Sydney Anglicans would be impressed.

As with the others, this book demonstrates enhanced user- friendliness, and is backed up by a website. Each chapter ends with ideas for exploring further. This is one of the most significant books I’ve read this year.

(Rod Benson: <>)