By Dr. Mark Convoy

The Church of Jesus Christ sports a 2000 year history, punctuated by breakthroughs, set-backs, catastrophes, and new beginnings. Peyton Jones’s book, “Church Zero” is nothing less than a cry for a hard-boot, restart of the modern evangelical leadership structure.  Imagine the gall of an upstart Southern California church planter, calling for nothing less than the restructuring of the modern common highly centralized evangelical church leadership model. Then imagine the possibility that he may be right.

Church Zero is first and foremost a call for churches to get back to the Bible. Jones challenges the modern senior pastor driven church power model, and contrasts it to the church leadership structures established in the Books of Ephesians and Acts. Church Zero likens the offices listed in Ephesians 4:8, (apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers) to the members of the A Team. Jones shows a deep understanding of not only Scripture, but of the writings of many respected preachers, church leaders, and even branches out into the musings well known modern thinkers, luminaries, and pop culture icons. Church Zero builds a case for radical church restructuring by alternately citing the silly and the sublime. Jones invokes the likes of John Wesley, Muhammad Ali, Alan Hirsch, and Sylvester Stallone, Charles Spurgeon alongside Heman, Suicidal Tendencies, Counting Crows, and Voltron! Jones seems to be attempting to use pop culture to leave lasting images in the minds of his readers, perhaps subscribing to The Apostle Paul’s Mars Hill tactic of using the local culture of a people group as a conversational open door for sharing the Gospel.  He’s also stating that our methods of attracting people are stuck in the 80s.  And nobody wants to be stuck there!

Jones describes the failure of the modern church to raise up leadership in the five Ephesians 4:8 offices, preferring instead the more centralized structure of the all powerful senior pastor and satellite assistants typically charged with a combination of administrative, counseling, and individual group teaching assignments. Church Zero bravely argues for the re-establishment of the office of apostle. I must confess that this concept was a large hurdle for this writer. Too many groups have cast the Capital “A” Apostle role as an all powerful, all knowing, super Christian who travels the road dropping pearls of wisdom at very great prices. A large portion of the modern evangelical world now recoils in light of the abuse of the word “Apostle” and clings tightly (and rightly) to the very Biblical definition of the capital “A” apostle as one of the original Twelve who walked and learned personally with Christ. Jones effectively argues for a small ‘a” apostle, and describes the role as one who plants churches, trains up indigenous leadership, and then moves on to the next church planting opportunity. Jones also fleshes out the other Ephesians 4:8 roles as being vital and integral for the health of both church plants, and established fellowships, and how they work together on the front lines for kingdom expansion.

Jones discusses the obvious need for new churches, and spanks mega churches for not breaking off some of their massive resources and funding church planting endeavors and the gifted people who (often at tremendous personal cost) go out and establish new works for God.  Church Zero indicts both the power and comfort that has come to the precious few senior leaders, and calls for the funding and support of all five rolls in the modern church. Jones said “I am convinced that unless the church changes itself, it will never change the world.”  Jones did not come to his current vision over night. Jones harkens back to his own Reformed roots, and cites his own spiritual senses as being more the product of a journey than of a systematic theological education. He argues for continued reformation (small “r”) and Transformation (capital T), both individually and for the church at large. Church Zero asks church leaders to self asses and open their minds to the possibility that they may be forsaking several key parts of the system that God designed to grow His church and advance his kingdom.

Jones is admittedly a ‘voice crying in the wilderness,” and as noble a work as Church Zero is, this call will go unanswered unless it is retransmitted, re-tweeted, and trained into being by other church leaders. Jones appeals to the current generation’s love of technology, and their preferred method of learning; interactivity, as one means for spreading his message of what others call five-fold Christian leadership, or APEST.  Jones uses the term FIST Leadership because of slight tweaking to the implications of each of the views. Jones also touches on the modern interest in radical things like reality TV cage fighting, and then sells a Biblical return to five fold leadership as another radical way to push back against the system; which is the status quo centralized church model. Jones astutely observes that the current status quo tells youth to come to church, not speak, not lead, dress right, and do what they’re told, and then the modern church wonders why their kids leave church the moment they turn 18. Church Zero calls for engaging young Christians in the areas in which they are gifted, and then investing appropriate authority and responsibility in them as a means to help the church grow and thrive and reach new generations. Jones quotes Tozer who said that “we may be preparing for a tragic hour when God may set us so-called evangelicals aside and raise up another movement to keep New Testament Christianity alive.” Connecting to the gifts in young Christians and constructing approaches that purposely engage young believers in the various offices of the ministry is one of the most salient points made in this book.

We have all heard the call, even from our own status quo pulpits, to “get out of our comfort zones.” Church Zero is a call to jump completely out of the plane of our old ways of doing things, and parachute bravely into the front lines of God’s Kingdom expansion plan. The call to grow the Kingdom by shrinking individual power structures is radical. It is also Biblical. It also just makes sense. Proverbs tells us that in the heads of many there is good counsel. Pastors burn out in their jobs at a very high rate. Kids lose interest in ministry in some degree because of their lack of access to important positions, and also due to their own observations of the dysfunction of the current highly centralized model. Church Zero calls for a Biblical redistribution of the many important responsibilities of ministry, in order to give called men and women the time and resources to do what they have been called to do. Read Church Zero. It may be the initial book you want to give your friends to introduce them to the concept.  It’s easy to read.  In fact, it’s hard to put down.  It carries the reader forward quickly, and rather than being dense, is still informative with a logical flow.  Jones’s humor buffers some of the punches, and will help the person who is completely new to the conversation quickly grasp the concepts of the five gifts operating together.

Dr. Mark Convoy is a church planter in Flagler Beach, FL.  He is a part of the New Breed Church Planting Network leadership team and trains church planters for the network.

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