Book Review: Limited Church: Unlimited Kingdom

Limited Church: Unlimited Kingdom 

 Uniting church and family in the great commission

 by Rob Rienow. 

As I sat down, tea in hand, I was prepared to read and absorb, or so I thought. I will honestly say after reading, once isn't enough. I plan to do it again! The amount of information in this book is amazing. In review, the design of this book is well done. It puts a significant amount of thought provoking information in a bite sized section, and then pauses for reflective questions. I appreciate this, so many times an author will twist and turn through a verbal journey and when you arrive, there is no sense of how you got there. The book flows nicely and builds on itself from one section to the next, while constantly referring to scripture.

Content!  Rienow begins with what most would consider to be obvious information, the Bible is sufficient. Then moves to challenge with the reflective question "To what degree does your church use the Bible as a sufficient guide for making ministry and programming decisions? How often is the Bible referred to when making ministry strategy decisions?" Not only does the beginning of the book speak to general ministry, I personally believe every young adults pastor needs a copy on hand. 

Rienow suggests that the biblical doctrine of jurisdiction has been largely lost in today's church.  Dr. Rienow consistently reminds us that God has given us the information in the Bible to carry out His mission, everything from what He wants done, how He wants it done, and who He wants to do it. Reinow does well to lay out the four foundational realms of authority, areas of jurisdiction in society. They are; the individual, the family, the local church, and the government.  He focuses on the local church and the family while covering each area based upon the sufficiency of Scripture and repeating the framework God has given each one according to His Word. Those committed to loving God and others advances God’s mission through a godly marriage, godly children, a godly local church.  

Limited Church: Unlimited Kingdom is definitely a tool to be used by family ministry leaders, children's ministry leaders, and young adult leaders as well. The first read through is great, but I plan on digesting it with my team in a section by section format.