Jason Locke's Blog

If you’re familiar with any of  the blog posts  from my sabbatical partly spent in the UK, then this book by Mike Moynagh explains a big piece of my research. During our 10 days based in Oxford, I got to visit with the author over cool drinks on a warm, summer afternoon. That two-hour chat was one of the highlights of my sabbatical. Mike is incredibly pragmatic, knowledgeable and humble. We had a wide-ranging conversation about how most efforts to "diagnose" the church's problems are quite misguided. What often results amounts to little more than prescribing surface changes: sprucing up the building, livening up the worship service, preaching more emphatically or with better theology, or simply doing the liturgy well. These changes, Mike suggests, never really address what lies at the heart of church decline in Western societies today. To be clear, Mike Moynagh loves the traditional church. He personally prefers the Anglican liturgy above more "contemporary" ...

Here are five books I read & appreciated in 2022. Not ranked in any particular order: Book #5, Church for Every Context by Michael Moynagh If you’re familiar with any of my recent blog posts about my sabbatical partly spent in the UK, then this book by Mike Moynagh explains a big piece of my research before our trip. I also got to visit with the author this summer in Oxford. Mike is incredibly pragmatic, knowledgeable and humble. This is one of the best books on “doing church” I’ve ever read. Actually, I can’t think of a better one. I honestly don’t understand why this book isn’t being universally used in seminaries to train pastors and church leaders. It’s that good. Why so overlooked? Well, it’s got the weight of a doorstop. And it doesn’t seem as widely available in the US as it is in the UK. So perhaps those are obstacles. But why is this book so important, in my opinion? First, it’s written through the lens of mission. Mike grew up in East Africa, the son of missionaries. Like...