TOM and the Goldfish Bowl

Happy Monday Awakeners!

I’m excited to be writing this week’s article because I get to introduce you to one of my favorite people: Ben Pasley. He’s probably best known for the Worship Circle albums. However, he’s also a teacher, pastor, and author who’s influenced a whole lot of my thinking about the church and my relationship with God. He’s finally gotten around to distilling his thoughts on how man-made institutions and the Church live together and published them in an unassuming 155 page paperback book called “TOM and the Goldfish Bowl.”

Before I launch into this little review, it’s worth saying that I may be slightly biased towards him. A number of years ago I tricked him into letting me hang around his tribe. I’m not entirely sure how that happened, but I consider myself extremely fortunate to have been associated with him in the past, and still consider him a friend. So, I’ll try not to be too gushy in this review.

At it’s core, Ben’s book addresses the challenge of unity as the Church, connecting our disfunction as the Church to our misunderstanding of the nature of the Church. He opens with a short, entertaining, and insightful allegory of institutions, the Church and the Kingdom of God, then moves on to unpack the Kingdom of God: what it means, how it operates, and how the Church exists in it.

His explanation of our confusing the Church as an institution or a building rather than a family sheds light on why we feel so much angst about missionaries, para-church oragnizations (which make absolutely no sense as a category of ministry), and cooperating across denominational lines. This explanation is reason enough for me to recommend that you read this book.

But there’s more – Ben has a genuine love for the Church, and his enthusiasm leaks through when he starts to get on a roll. My hope is that we can all fall in love with the Church in the same way. In Ben’s case, his enthusiasm leads towards his own special terminology – “Kingdom DNA” for instance – but quite frankly, I’m inclined to adopt his vocabulary for describing the Church because it comes from an understanding of spiritual family, not a self-gratifing desire to invent insider’s jargon.

In any case, the perspective contained in this book may help change your mind about your place in ministry – whether you are employed with a local fellowship or planting the Church in some far off land.

You can order it direct at the Worship Circle store. (non-affiliate link)