School vice president and professor of postmodern Christianity at Drew University (Madison, New Jersey). Advocating the exciting advantages for the body of Christ in today's multiple postmodern cultures, Sweet says the church belongs in the water created by the tidal wave of change, not sandbagging the shoreline.

"Learn its language, master its media, engage it on a higher level," he pleads, saying that while the what of ministry has remained the same, the how of ministry has changed. Then he defines change: "When you have to do better what you already know how to do."

A book targeted for the churches of America, most of us, Sweet claims, have got the gospel message backwards. Evangelism should not consist in saying to the world, "Come to church," but in saying to the church: "Go to the world." Taking issue with the we/them mentality of many denominations, he says the time has come to recognize that "God is already at work in people's lives before we [church-going Christians] arrived on the scene, and our role is helping people see how God is present and active in their lives."

Sweet's most vital message -- and most radical -- to the contemporary church is this: There is a spiritual awakening in America today, and it is happening for the most part outside the church. If we haven't acknowledged that by the end of his 400 pages, then we are truly suffering what he calls the Not Noticing Syndrome. But it's too late to cry for wakefulness alone. "The church is missing the boat on what it means to be a leader," Sweet says in phrases peppered with provocative wit. "What it needs is the holy intoxications of foolishness, humor, craziness, outrageousness, creative disorder, and passion."

Many disenchanted postmodern believers will welcome Sweet's affirming insight into their frustrations and disappointments with the church. Here, finally, an educated and prophetic voice speaking their language. Steering clear of most Christian clichés, Sweet does at times indulge in a slightly patronizing bent in addressing issues huge to the culture he wants to reach: "the church must help postmoderns …," he sometimes says, betraying his much-needed call for engagement with postmoderns. One imagines his writings may be too finely tuned at times by an evangelical editor's pen. All in all, however, Sweet writes true to his passion: that the church has something to learn, somewhere to go, a great deal to change.

Soul Tsunami is an intensive reading experience from first to last. Mind-numbing? At times. Perhaps Sweet's most perceptive and motivating insights come not with his vast research on postmodern culture, but his rousing call for "community" as a way of life. He advocates the context of "belonging," something many postmodern boomers have given up finding. Here they may find hope as he elaborates on thriving in an age of paradox, complexity, surprise, even quirkiness. Salted with good practical ideas, Soul Tsunami is bound to make waves in the mind and spirit of readers from all walks of church life.

For more information about Leonard Sweet, including his ministries and ideas, see:
Soul Tsunami: Sink or Swim in New Millennium Culture.