Are the people in your pews consumers of cultural Christianity, or are they consumed by Christ’s call to advance His Kingdom? Is your congregation actively involved in your community or is it aloof and isolated, its financial and human resources restrained by costly property and cumbersome programs? The Insider, by Jim Petersen and Mike Shamy, just might be the book that casts a church-changing vision for you and your flock. The subtitle, Bringing the Kingdom of God into Your Everyday World, is a glimpse of the missional vision that lies within these 232 pages. The Insider just may be the resource that helps get your people off their pews and into the harvest.

I realize this is not a new book; however, it’s one every pastor needs to make sure he or she has read. Petersen and Shamy have written an accessible guide to helping Christians “understand their calling to participate in what God is doing today . . . to help people see that this calling is to be worked out within their existing relational networks where they are already positioned as insiders” (p. 25). The Insider lives up to its stated purpose by first, giving the reader a big picture view of how God intends to advance His kingdom through the church and her members (chapters 1-6); second, enabling the reader to identify and overcome four common obstacles to being an insider (chapters 7-10); third, getting into the practical details of how to live this vision using seven “life patterns of an insider” (chapters 11-17); and finally, closing with a plea for individuals and churches to adopt the lifestyle of an insider (chapters 18-19).

What is an insider? The authors explain: “[The Apostle] Paul understood that he and his team could plant the gospel in a city but they could never hope to carry it into the heart of that society. They came in as outsiders to the city. They could reach a few. But those they did reach would, in turn, need to carry it back into their networks of relationships” (p. 60). That’s why the Epistles “are filled with instructions on how to live among the people who make up our everyday life” (p. 59). The advancement of the gospel of the kingdom depends on both outsiders, who bring the message fresh to unreached people groups, and insiders, who “act kingdomly” and “because of their love for God, they love the people in their lives” (p. 32). To the insider the authors give this exhortation: “Through you, God has just invaded new territory! Through you the life of the invisible Christ can now be visible to the people around you. They don’t have to go anywhere or join anything to see Christ, because you’re there” (pp. 62, 63)!

I have used The Insider to train adult volunteer leaders in our college-age ministry as well as to train small groups of college students. I know youth pastors who have used this book to train their discipleship teams. Our church staff walked through this book together, reading a couple of chapters each month, discussing how they apply to our own lives and to our ministries. I highly recommend that pastors work through these concepts with their staff, elders, deacons, and lay leaders, prayerfully transforming the mindset of their church leadership and ultimately the people in the pew.

Having read and taught The Insider in various settings, I do have a suggestion to make: Practice the skills of insider ministry earlier on in the study. You can’t steer a parked car. Get started and read the book as you go. You can’t appreciate the engineering and finer points of a vehicle that you’ve never driven. There are ways to use The Insider that will help you accomplish this. For example, begin by doing the exercise that surprisingly comes halfway into the book on p. 126, 127. There the authors suggest that you map out your network of relationships so that you can see where God has placed and empowered you to display the righteousness, peace, and joy of His Kingdom (Romans 14:17; recall Stan Gale’s concept of “life-mapping” from T. M.’s review of Warfare Witness in our last issue). For more suggestions that space won’t allow here, see the post “Insights for The Insider” on my blog.

You’ll be glad to know that the authors have also published The Insider Workbook. A discussion leader could use one copy as a resource or get a copy for each participant. The workbook focuses on the more practical aspects of being an insider (the four obstacles and the seven life patterns), and begins the study by doing what I’ve suggested above. The workbook leaves most, but not all, of the foundational biblical theory to the original book.

The Insider can be a valuable staff in the hands of the church’s shepherds if we will pick it up and use it. You can be sure that I will be using it to train leadership in the church I’m planting in Knoxville in the months to come.

Jimmy Davis is an associate pastor at Cedar Springs Presbyterian Church (EPC) in Knoxville, Tenn. This spring he and his wife, Christine, begin a new project of church planting in the historic Hardin Valley community of Knox County.