I’ve just finished a book by Tom Sine called The New Conspirators: Creating the future one mustard seed at a time (IVP, 2008). Thank you, Tom Sine! In this book, Mr. Sine explores the four new ways the church is working and being organized in the world in the 21st century.
Mr. Sine begins the book by dividing it into five significant conversations:
- Taking the new conspirators seriously.
- Taking the culture seriously.
- Taking the future of God seriously.
- Taking the turbulent times seriously.
- Taking our imagination seriously.
In conversation #1: For those unfamiliar with the “new conspirator” movements, which are often used interchangeably, Mr. Sine provided me with an excellent overview of the emergent, missional, monastic and mosaic movements. Mr. Sine helps the reader to understand the particulars of each stream and how they impact the church in the west. (These church movements are mainly confined to the US, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom).
Conversations #2 and #4: Being someone that is interested in studying the trends of globalization on local communities, I found these sections most interesting. Mr. Sine, known to be a futurist, is a master “connector of the dots” as author Shaine Claiborne states in the forward. He is able to simplify, but not oversimplify how the global context we now and will live in impacts the role of the church. I thought his description and understanding of this post 9/11 world profound and I believe this is one of the few Christian books which helps disinterested, “over family-focused” evangelicals to clearly see the implications that our current global context will have on the rich, middle and low income groups across the globe.
Some concerns: while I understand some of the reasons for the book, I felt that Mr. Sine tried to do too much in one book. Conversations #2 and #4 could have been separate books in and of themselves. The biggest weakness of the book was the lack of examples in many sections of the book. While Mr. Sine seemed to provide an reasonable rationale for his various assertions, I do not believe he demonstrated consistently where the emergent, missional, monastic and mosaic movements are specifically intervening to deal with our current global context and reality. Finally, I would also have liked to see him point out some of the shortcomings of the New Conspirators in dealing with these five conversations and how they plan to engage them.
Tom and Christine Sine head up an organization called Mustard Seed Associates. Recently, Tom and Christine Sine recently lead a conference on the topic of the book, called the New Conspirators Conference. Mp3s for the conference are available, (they’re not free) here.
Here are two more resources:
Thank you