Church isn’t about structure – it’s about people in community with each other and God. So Simon Reed’s Creating Community gives you a way forward for your church that doesn’t rely on clever and complicated structures that deliver only organisation at best and a straight-jacket at worst.

His book could be titled The Ordinary Church: a Way of Life, says the book’s foreword, as the author shares his vision of a local church that’s the hope of the world and through which each church can find its distinctive calling. Reed redirects attention from trying to attract a crowd to building a community that will grow naturally.

From his own experience Simon proposes three practices that coheres with New Testament practice:
- A way of life.
- A network of soul friends
- A rhythm of prayer.

A member of The Community of Aidan and Hilda, which has Protestant Evangelical, Catholic and Orthodox members, the author is more concerned with the Christian product than with the denominational label.

The book is refreshing and timely for local churches facing up to the new Dark Ages of moral disintegration and the unravelling of society. Reminiscent of Churchill’s plea in the dark ages of World War Two, Simon’s book gives local church leaders the tools so that, with God, you can finish the job you were called to do.