“What are the practices – ancient and new – that form us into Christlikeness for the sake of the world?”

The Kingdom of God is like a river – an eternal current running through history, according to Aaron Niequist. Through his search for a relationship with God that was relevant to life today, Aaron studied history and found ways to bring the focus of church back to God instead of on worship or a sermon. Aaron explores this idea of a practice-focused church in The Eternal Current.

Aaron Niequist is married to Shauna Niequist, who has written several books. I’ve enjoyed Bread and Wine, Cold Tangerines, Present Over Perfect and Savor. When I saw her husband was writing a book, I applied to be on the launch team. I received a copy of the book before it was published in exchange for a fair review. The book was just released Aug. 7, 2018.

I really enjoyed reading Aaron’s view on The Church and how it would be more helpful if Christians focused on all being part of the Kingdom of God rather than being part of a certain denomination. Being a convert to Catholicism from Protestantism, I saw a lot of points in his book that I studied on my own more than a decade ago. One point he made was that the church didn’t put the sermon as the focus of its services until recent history – it was all focused on the Eucharist/communion. Also, he talks about how a church service should be a place where believers gather to learn and focus and then go out into their main mission – the rest of the week. This is rather than using church as a place to attract non-believers.

I wish Aaron had put more of the facts and history of what he learned in the book instead of just referencing the books he read. He also takes a chapter to focus on diversity, rather than focus on seeing each person as a person with unique experiences who adds value to the discussion. I would still highly recommend this book to any Christian who is looking to find a good practical way of engaging the world, but finding a solid way to join other believers in coming together as part of one kingdom. Resources for the book can be found at Aaron Niequist’s Web site.

This book was incredible. It was challenging, well written, practical and all around refreshing. As a church leader, I appreciated Niequest's transparency, wisdom and practicality. Too often, I read books about things like spiritual disciplines and practices that are very profound but not at all practical in terms of implementing or introducing to a congregation.
In this book though, the profound partners with the practical. Niequest's walk through the Practice community was very helpful. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a spiritual breath of fresh air or a deepening of their spiritual life. I also particularly recommend to church leaders,

The cover of this book says so much. There's a table a current of water that supports bread and wine, the central elements of Christian communion. Niequist tells his story of discovering that church is filled with flawed humans and how that can impact faith. He provides concrete examples of ways that churches can provide more than a lesson on Sundays, but experiences that prepare people to connect with God throughout their lives. This book is especially designed for Evangelical Christians that are struggling with the church and faith.

When your faith is shaken by life to the foundation or core-- you have options, our traditional responses are:

1) Double down to your faith that no longer works and it's practices that already isn't working for you.

2) Give up your faith- jump ship. Pitch it...

but this book leads you to think- to have a growth mindset- seeking the Way of Christ, by inviting Jesus and the Holy Spirit to help you see that there are more options, more ways to deepen your faith, to live in love with the Lord Jesus, and to swim in the eternal current.

As someone who was not familiar with a lot of formal practiced based faith practices, after the first two chapters I had more questions than answers, but from chapter three on, Aaron took a chapter to explain his discovery process, attempts in a church setting to include the liturgy, and other faith based practices, as well as his personal and family journey to live out faith practices in deep, meaningful ways.

The book gives resources, ideas, and examples of these practices with the analogy of all of us swimming in the eternal current, and provides hope for even those who doubt their faith (as Aaron once did while working as a music team minister!). It's thought provoking, encouraging, and generated ideas, thoughts, and personal connections for me to explore, build on, and recognize that I already had created my own faith based practices and found others, I just wasn't calling them 'practices.'

Aaron Niequist mentions that he learned and was raised in a church setting labeled the Plymouth Brethern, he also criticized his experience in his local church. As someone who was also raised in this type of church, but attended different locations than Aaron did, and who still attends a PB group, don't be put off by his comments, when you get further into the book, you will recognize that his most essential practice, fellowship around the Lord's Supper/Communion was a faith practice given to him in his upbringing, but like many of us, what we knew in our youth and what we seek in our adult lives, we want to be more intentional, or bigger and better- I have found that I could continue in the same faith tradition and also appreciate the suggestions and concepts in this book. Especially learning from others and having a diverse world perspective of people and practices.

Summary: A realignment from attendance based worship to participatory Christianity.

I was both interested in reading the Eternal Current and hesitant to read it. In some ways I feel like I have been on a similar journey as Aaron Niequist. I have been following him for years on social media and through his wife’s (Shauna Niequist) writing. We have different places in the Church (he is a worship leader and musician and church leaders, I am a stay at home Dad). As I have watched his work with The Practice and read an occasional article or interview or heard about him from some mutual acquaintances, it has felt like we have been moving in similar directions.

As I read The Eternal Current, it is clear we have also been reading similar books. NT Wright, James KA Smith, Scot McKnight, Eugene Peterson, along with lots on Catholic, Orthodox and historic Christian authors. We both started spiritual direction about 5 years ago. We both attend megachurches that we are reluctant to leave, but also do not find completely fulfilling.

Aaron Niequist led a project of Willow Creek Community Church, The Practice, for several years. It was a project that was attempting to put into place a more liturgically informed and historically aware practice of Christianity. Willow has been oriented toward reaching non-Christians for the past 30-40 years. But it has also been aware for at least the last 10-15 years how it has been weak at developing people as Christians. Aaron, based on his passion, and probably at least a bit on his relationship as the son in law of Bill Hybels, started a worship setting that was focused on spiritual development in a historical and liturgical mode.

I cannot really review this book without commenting on Bill Hybel’s status as the former pastor of Willow Creek. Yet another article came out about Hybel’s sexual harassment of a staff member at Willow on Sunday. That makes at least 10 women that have publicly accused Hybel’s of sexual harassment. In addition to the article on Sunday, the head teaching pastor at Willow, which moved into place early because of Hybel’s resignation, himself resigned abruptly Sunday. He had asked to resign earlier because of differences of opinion on how to deal with the allegations against Hybel between himself and other leaders, but after the NYT article on Sunday, he did not show up at church, it was announced that he was sick and then Carter released a statement later in the day.

I bring all of this up, not because Neiquist’s book isn’t important and worth reading, it is. But because one of my questions about the book is whether the liturgical and historically aware form of Christianity can really happen outside of a ecclesiastical structure that supports it. The Practice stopped in 2017. It had a loyal attendance, but it was not large enough to continue. And within the megachurch world, size and resource allocation does matter.

As Niequist talks about his church within a church, there are guest speakers almost every week and there were a number of staff devoted to worship planning and design and support of the members that were attending. These people all seemed to be doing good things, but from what I understand, the attendance at the Practice never really much above 200 people regularly.

At roughly the same time, an acquaintance of mine left Northpoint staff as a worship leader, joined the Anglican church and was ordained and started a new church. The size of The Parish today is roughly similar to The Practice but The Parish is within a structure that support the liturgical and theological system that Neiquist was attempting to create. Today the Parish is still thriving and The Practices has been closed for a year.

I have routinely thought about whether I should leave my megachurch, where I am simply a member, and join a liturgical church that would more closely align with my theological convictions. I have not, both because I do not feel like I have been released to do that from the Holy Spirit and because my family is happy with our church, but also because while I theologically lean Anglican/Episcopal, I am also increasingly uncomfortable with the racial segregation of the church in the US and for the most part, liturgical church tend toward a mono-cultural membership.

There is something that has been lost when parts of the church distanced itself from historic liturgy. But the historic liturgy has not been enough to keep the Catholic church from losing so many members that if ‘former Catholic’ were a denomination, it would be the third largest in the US. And it has not kept the US Episcopal church from nearly being kicked out of the Anglican Communion while rapidly shedding members.

Liturgy is not a magic bullet to save the church from its current problems, even though I believe that Niequest, Jamie Smith and a number of others are right that we do need to have a renewed focus on spiritual formation, and one aspect of that formation is liturgical practices.

One of Niequist’s central metaphors in the book and in the Practice was that the church needs to be more like a gym than classroom (or concert). We are not transformed simply by the application of knowledge. We have to actually put that knowledge into place. We do not get into shape by hearing about good health and nutrition and exercise, we have to actually eat well, exercise and do what is necessary.

I think that metaphor still carries through on the negative side as well. It is likely that you know someone that has eaten well and exercise all their life and done what seems right and still died young. And we probably also know people that smoke and eat badly and never exercise and live into their 80s or 90s. It is not the best practices that save us, but Jesus Christ. The practices can open up space for the Holy Spirit to work in us. But it is not the practices that save us. The Eternal Current handles that nuance well, but it is a reality when trying to talk about the importance of spiritual practices, that many in the Evangelical world still see spiritual practices as a form of ‘works righteousness’ or legalism.

There seems to have been lots of wisdom shared and wise counsel followed as the Practice was developed and worshiped together for a couple years. But sin still impacts it, even a year after it was ended because of the sin of a leader and the inadequate response by other leaders around him. The church will always be made up of sinners. There will always be Christians seeking to reform the church, many of them doing exactly the right things at the following of the Holy Spirit. But nothing will completely solve the problems of humanity. The human church that will always be made up of sinners that keep sinning and always follow God inadequately.

The Eternal Current is worth reading. Even though it is more oriented toward an introduction to a ‘practice based’ faith, I think it is worth reading for those that probably have read many of the same books and thought many of the same thoughts that Niequist has. We are in the world that we are in. Megachurches are not going away soon. Inadequate church structures should be worked on to be made better and more healthy, but every church structure will be inadequate in some way.

One of lines from early in the book, “Christ does not invite us to simply spiritualize how we’re already living. Baptizing the American dream does not make it Christian” (Kindle Location 259), seems eerily prescient. Christianity is not an add-on to our current life. Somehow we have to be Christians that also lives in our current culture and geography. The Eternal Current has some thoughts on how that might work. But those those are limited if for no other reason that the situation of our culture is constantly changing.

This is a book I'm sure I'll be revisiting repeatedly over the next few years. Practical, yet descriptive rather than prescriptive, Aaron Niequist details his own movement from a beliefs-based faith to a practice-based one and how that led to, among other things, the creation of The Practice, an ecumenical, liturgical service. An evangelical worship leader, Niequist discovered, and invites the reader into, the depth and beauty of historic Christian practices, disciplines, and liturgy. Chapter by chapter, he walks the reader through what a practice-based faith can look like, both individually and for our church communities. With a much-needed reminder that the American evangelical perspective is only one slice of the pie, he describes learning from and embracing the best parts of a variety of Christian traditions. And all of it is offered up with the expressed goal of following Jesus and entering into the Kingdom of God, embracing the 'here' and the longing for the 'not yet'.

I was challenged to think about spiritual practices in my own life, why I do what I do and what I might do beyond those practices to draw closer to God. There was also a challenge to consider what the church is doing and what it can do to help the people in the pews to live the life God desires from them.

That said, I think the more might have come if one or the other had been the focus. Possibly even two major sections one for each thought. Following the two major sections a concluding section of how the church could encourage new, old, ways of thinking and practice might have been helpful.

While not the perfect book, it is definitely a good read with some insightful ideas to help focus the church and individuals into a more thoughtful style of living for the God who calls us into a relationship with Himself.

Absolutely enjoyed every word of this book, very inspiring. He writes about how to join in Gods current in a down to earth way. This book has inspired me to live in a different way.

This felt like a series of book reviews mostly. I did find a lot of companion books to review and read that the author referenced quite a bit and I plan on looking in to them for further information. He also name dropped his wife quite a bit and his father in law (who has been in the news lately for some not so great reasons) and that was a bit odd.

On the whole, I did find some good ideas for prayer and letting God in in a group setting.