The basic outline for the book follows:

• Cole's first section will discuss the barriers he perceives in allowing for leadership to emerge "organically",
• His second segment discusses how "healthy leadership emerges naturally", how such leadership is formed and measured, and
• The third part of this work discusses scriptural principles Cole has identified to produce "humble" yet "spiritually powerful" leaders in the church.
• In section four, Cole presents practical "recipes" for leadership development.
• Section five is section of resources for "healthy" churches and leaders.
• The final section concludes with examples of the kind of leadership Cole seeks to see reproduced in the church.

Indeed, for too long we have let leaders "bud" locally, be sent to some "seminary hothouse" to be aggregated and build up a few megachurches in close proximity to the seminaries, and then send them out to repeat the process of skimming the cream of leadership from the local church and systematically weakening these communities. Cole is part of the trend of encouraging leadership development in situ and creating networks of house churches.

The first impression gained is how many chapters kick off with bits of "wisdom" from those whose relationship to Christ and His Church is tenuous at best. This raises the question . . . what are the actual and ultimate ideological roots of this work? Nervous first impressions aside, the content picks up on pp 22ff with a helpful list of warning signs to determine if spiritual leaders in the church have "plateaued" and in danger of undermining their ministry to others (25-27).

Cole launches into his critiques of problems in the church such as "Institutionalization", "Phariseeism", etc. with mixed results. Some critiques are valid, some are exaggerated, and some betray Cole's thin sacramental theology and his tendency to abstract the New Testament's teaching on the People of God from the entire witness of scripture on topics such as the Liturgy of the church. His critiques or "leadership logjams" have some legitimacy though they are likely not problems that have escaped your notice or rants you haven't heard at least in part before.

The strength of Cole's book lies in the practical ideas it offers for pastors and church leaders who want tips on putting 1 Timothy 2:2 to work in their ministries.

Here are some examples:

• New leaders will emerge from the harvest - so focus on harvesting and praying for workers to emerge from this same harvest (134). Cole reiterates a point he made more clearly in his book Cultivating A Life For God: look for hurting people, people who will love Christ much because they have been forgiven much (Luke 7:42).
• Cole reminds us on p. 151ff that success is not measured in the proliferation of money, buildings, and programs but in faithfulness, fruitfulness, and finishing well. He discusses the types of authority (177 ff).
•  He introduces a mentoring tool to be used with each potential leader that is worth considering (the M2M Mentoring tool at cmaresources.org in conjunction with the principles of mentoring he lists (228, 234ff). Perhaps the most important lesson mentioned to our Western church is that of focusing our mentoring on producing obedience to God instead of the mere acquisition of "head knowledge" (244.ff).
• Cole's point not to waste time on people with "potential" but who show no "performance" is a lesson worth rereading (245).
• He also offers reasons why most "How To" manuals and curricula don't work (257 ff). I found the idea of using the seven signs of John's Gospel as an evangelistic tool quite helpful as well (263-264).
• His closing chapter full of case studies of how "organic church leaders" support their ministries will be helpful for many who have to fund their own ministry and want ideas on how they might do so while building a church. These should prove very encouraging to tentmaking pastors who feel limited in their ministry potential.

Cole's work is widely popular and contains a variety of practical insights. Nevertheless it is impoverished by the practical Marcionite heresy inside today's evangelical ghetto which is embraced and promoted here. This tendency considers the Old Testament - outside of a few favorite passages - irrelevant to the life of today's church. As a result Mr. Cole's understanding of the liturgy and sacraments - and by extension the Christian Life - is impoverished. He cannot understand why some people put so much stock in the Lord's Day liturgy because he considers them in the same category as other mindless "traditionalists" he's encountered. Worship for him is only a "simple family experience" produced ad hoc by whomever feels lead by the Spirit. In the "organic church", there is nothing in the Bible that really teaches about worship... it all boils down to "do what feels right". For them 1 Corinthians 14:26 is a glorious (if otherwise unsubstantiated in scripture and history) prescription for "anything goes" "simple worship" that is supposedly Biblical when the greater part of the Church since the Apostles has considered 1 Corinthians 14:26 to be Paul's description of their problem along with all the other dysfunction in that city! Christians in churches with a commitment to the liturgy and sacraments - Anglicans, Lutherans, and some Reformed - who know why they worship as they do will be saddened by this running subtext in the work and evangelicalism as a whole.

Chuck Huckaby is the pastor of St. Andrew's Church in Lawrenceburg, TN Website: http://MissionLawrence.org