One of my summer reads was Alan & Debra Hirsch’s, Untamed. Actually picked this one up at Exponential ’10, where I was privileged to meet Alan, get the book signed (“Stay true Bro! Alan”), and try to talk him into moving to New Orleans. I would suggest reading The Forgotten Ways ahead of Untamed, if you’ve never read Hirsch. I’m certain that this book, like Hirsch’s previous works, will definitely be much help to the body of Christ as we continue to experience mission shifts in the 21st Century. A few of my favorite quotes:

• To fail in disicipleship and disciple making is therefore to fail in the primary mission of the church.
• You simply cannot be a disciple without being a missionary – a sent one.
• Technique is a terrible substitute for God – an idol – and it’s too easy to revert to it to “grow the church” while the authentic experience of the Holy Spirit is being edged out the back door.
• The implicit message church members get from a church that adopts a consumer driven model is that they are essentially discerning consumers and that the local church is a vendor of religious goods and services.
• Disciples tithe to the Lord; consumers are merely paying for services.
• Every disciple carries within themselves the potential for world transformation.
• If every Christian household regularly invited a stranger, or a poor person, or a work colleague into their home for a meal with the family once a week, we would literally change the world by eating!
• If missional defines our being sent out into the world, then incarnational must define the way in which we engage the world.
• Morality may keep you out of jail, but it will not keep you out of hell. – Spurgeon quip