While we were away over Easter I read my copy of The New Conspirators, the latest book by Tom Sine (who will be speaking at the Forge Festival in 2 weekends time and then in Perth after that for a few days)

I don’t have time at the moment for an indepth review, but I will highly recommend this book to anyone exploring discipleship and mission in a changing world.

He surveys what is going on around the world in missional incarnational ventures and then offers some insights into where he thinks we are headed in the coming years. I didn’t warm to the book immediately, as it begins with a fairly generic overview of the fact that the world is changing. However the more I read the better it got.

Right at the start Sine asks what if we got some aspects of our faith wrong over the years?…

– Did we get eschatology wrong?

– Did we get what it means to be a disciple wrong?

– Did we get what it means to be a steward wrong?

– Did we get what it means to be the church wrong?

– Did we get what it means to do mission wrong?

As you might guess his conclusion is… ‘yeah… maybe we did…’

Because Tom is an older guy, (yes – its all relative), has been around a while and his previous books have been widely read he is pretty hard to dismiss. This is not a young punk on a dummy spit, but a thoughtful practitioner asking serious questions. (And yes – they are big questions!)

The New Conspirators is readable without being shallow and has solid depth without being scholarly.

I reckon you should add it to your pile of must reads for 2008.