On My Shelf: The Monkey and the Fish (Dave Gibbons)

On My Shelf: The Monkey and the Fish (Dave Gibbons)

"This book is about becoming water, learning to adapt and become all things to all people. It's about being like Jesus, who is the living water." Dave Gibbons, founding pastor of Newsong opens his acknowledgments with these words and succinctly sums up his book, The Monkey and the Fish: Liquid Leadership for a Third-Culture Church. If you are relatively new to Newsong, this book will give you a good overview of Newsong's values.

From the onset, Dave defines the church's calling to be a blessing to the nations with the term third culture, which means "the mindset and will to love, learn, and serve in any culture, even in the midst of pain and discomfort." Inherent in third culture are the two greatest commandments: Love God and love your neighbor as yourself. He challenges us to consider who our neighbor is and how globalism is causing us to reexamine who the church is. How can we be "the most relevant, most vibrant, most vital element of people's lives"?

The contents of Dave's short chapter, "Three Questions That Become the Answers" are actually featured on our own website: 1) Where is Nazareth? (which could also be phrased as "Who is your neighbor?") 2) What is my pain? and 3) What is in my hand? Dave has used these three questions to guide his ministry and personal life. By allowing them to guide us, we can experience God taking us and enabling us to serve Him in a myriad of ways than just the traditional ministries. Everyone with their gifts and talents — including artists, businesspeople, community-development specialists, educators, health professionals, social-justice lawyers, spiritual support teams, relief workers, and economic developers — are all called upon to be God's holy priests (ref. 1 Peter 2:5). The church should be without walls and everybody plays.

Dave also brings in perspectives from innovative leaders around the world to share their thoughts on the status of the church and the third culture concept with an abridged version of their discussion in a chapter titled "Ripples." There is an interesting exercise toward the end of it that lists the attributes associated with Jesus and next to it, the common characteristics linked to the church. Do you think the list was vastly similar or different?

After the conclusion of the book, Dave provides practical steps of living out the third mindset and ends with the sentence, "Be water, my friend."

Even if you have been a Newsong member for quite some time, reading this book is a great reminder of many principles that we have heard directly or indirectly through the years and have embraced at NOC.

Dave Gibbons is the Lead Pastor at Newsong Irvine.