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A Review of Mark Nysewander’s No More Spectators

Printed From: OpenHeaven.com
Forum Name: Older Book Reviews by Steve Eastman
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URL: http://archive.openheaven.com/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=6673
Printed Date: 01/17/2017 at 12:32pm


Topic: A Review of Mark Nysewander’s No More Spectators

Posted By: News Room
Subject: A Review of Mark Nysewander’s No More Spectators
Date Posted: 11/12/2005 at 7:48pm

A Review of Mark Nysewander’s No More Spectators

 

by Steve Eastman

 

             Mark Nysewander is an associate pastor of a church with Sunday morning attendance of close to 600.  The church’s website lists 15 staff members.  An unlikely author for a book that comes recommended by House2House, one of America’s premier house church organizations,      Nysewander is one of a growing number of passionate ministers who are hungering for a more relational form of Christianity, one that puts intimacy with God at the top of the priority list.  His church, Wesleyan Fellowship, of Marietta, Georgia, is a cell church.  No More Spectators identifies eight life changing values of disciple-makers that go hand-in-hand with Kingdom results.

 

            Nysewander digs into the forgotten history of John Wesley, finding support for the book’s premise.  Though remembered primarily by history as a preacher who won crowds to the Lord in big meetings, it turns out Wesley also championed small groups, which went by the name of “classes” in the 1700s.  Nysewander argues that it was the classes, not the large gatherings that were the engine that drove the Methodist revival.  “… there was rapid multiplication through the class meeting.  It was a hot house for new leaders.  A person could start out as a class member, become a class leader, then become a circuit rider.” 

 

             Nysewander also identifies the time Methodism shifted from a disciple-making movement into a church of spectators.  In the late 1800’s the general conference “… decided that attendance at class meetings should no longer be obligatory.  To be a Methodist you just needed to attend the worship event.”  Around the same time the denomination started seminaries, discarding the training process that had produced leaders such as the first American Methodist bishop, Francis Asbury.

 

             So what are the values that put disciple-makers in sharp contrast to church spectators?  Nysewander spells them out as names of some of the chapters:

  • Aim for a Few
  • Be With Them
  • Cause Each Other to Obey
  • Do Jesus' Works Together
  • Enable Everyone to Lead
  • Find Seekers With Them
  • Guide Them to Multiply
  • Help Them Succeed    

            No More Spectators will clearly attract readers from the traditional, cell and house house church models, although the purpose of the book is not to advocate a structure but the values that encourage selling out to God.  Nysewander quotes from such well-known house church advocates as Frank Viola, Wolfgang Simpson and Neil Cole as well as from the lesser known Brother Yun, of China.  Since the three groups often take divergent views on church leadership, it is interesting to see how Nysewander approaches the issue.  “The supervision of a spectator is like teaching a child to read.  The supervisor must stay with him and direct him until he gets it.  Apostolic supervision is more like a parent helping a child to walk.  The parent watches and helps but most of all gives her freedom to walk.  The child will walk if she is allowed to walk because walking is in the child.”  Nysewander credits inspiration for that example to Roland Allen, author of The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church.  No More Spectators urges a servant leadership style, using the term “low-profile footman.”

 

           A number of prophetic people are sensing a season of change for the church.  Nysewander may not go far enough for some but the fact is he is calling people in traditional and other churches to stop being spectators, to pursue God with a passion and to encourage others to do the same.  He is a needed voice for God’s people.

 

             Mark Nysewander is an associate pastor at Wesleyan Fellowship in Marietta, Georgia.  To contact him about No More Spectators, use this email address: mailto:markn@wesleyanfellowship.org - markn@wesleyanfellowship.org .

 

http://archive.openheaven.com/forums/forum_posts.asp?TID=6671&am p;PN=1 - Read Steve Eastman's interview with Mark Nysewander.

 





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