Rising Tides - (Starling Initiatives Publication) by Neil Cole (Paperback)

About the Book

We face four exponential growth trends: the population boom, the technology tsunami, the rising economy gap and increasing polarization. These trends are leading us toward a crushing break. With an unflinching appraisal of the challenges we face, coupled with tangible and achievable solutions, Rising Tides offers profound hope for the way forward.

Book Synopsis

We stand on the edge of an opportunity unlike any in history. Every moment we hesitate, the distance between irrelevance and influence grows exponentially. Our time is now.

Today's culture is defined by four exponential growth trends: the population boom, the technology tsunami, the rising economy gap and the increasing polarization of worldviews. Rising like tides, these trends are leading us toward a crushing break.

Rising Tides is is a wake-up call for God's people, who must act now to respond to the demands of these shifing tides if they hope to weather the storm. Time is short.

Neil Cole carefully lays out some simple ways we can catch up, and keep up, with this rapid change. With an unflinching appraisal of the challenges we face, coupled with tangible and achievable solutions, Rising Tides offers profound hope for the way forward.

We can future-proof our faith.

The Church will not be overcome, but our old ways must be if we hope to survive the rising tides.

Review Quotes

"Like Google Maps, Neil Cole guides us past traffic jams of increased secularism and hostility to the gospel. He identifes a 'bridge to nowhere, ' then paves the road to effectiveness for a church that has lost its way. His directions are simple, biblical, and will guide you to God's destination for you and your church. Neil has accomplished the near impossible--he's combined a strong prophetic warning with an extremely uplifing outcome."

RALPH MOORE
Author of Making Disciples and How to Multiply Your Church

"Rising Tides is Neil Cole's best book yet (and they are all good!). I simply couldn't put it down. Absolutely riveting, because he's absolutely right! He has pointed out the root issue facing the church in the West. The way we are prosecuting church is not just increasingly irrelevant for those who are not susceptible to being congregationalized; we simply aren't preparing people for the world they confront every day now, much less the future. If we don't make a culture shift from church-as-institution to church-as-movement, we will be sunk by the forces of the rising tide of massive discontinuity. 'It's not your fault, ' I recently told a group of church leaders, 'for the growing societal allergic reaction to institutional religion. But it is our failure if we do not grow followers-of-Jesus who live as viral kingdom agents, who view and live life as a mission trip.' is book will help you do just that! Come on, get wet!"

REGGIE MCNEAL
Author of Kingdom Come and Kingdom Collaborators

"As Bob Dylan said, 'You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.' We all know the axis of global culture is tilting dramatically. We can feel it. But we do need a weatherman to show us not only how to survive these seismic shifts in our society, but to thrive and fulfill God's calling on our lives. Neil Cole's storm warning is just that--a winsome, biblical, and inspiring plan for a future-proofed faith."

MICHAEL FROST
Morling College, Sydney, and author of Exiles and Incarnate

"In his books as well as his ministry, Neil Cole has proven himself to be an exceptional apostolic practitioner, an original thinker, and a biblical scholar, as well as an artist and a novelist to boot. Now he reveals himself as something of a prophetic futurist, recalling the Church to its ancient destiny to be a transformative force in the 21st century. A worthy read."

ALAN HIRSCH
Author of The Forgotten Ways and 5Q, and founder of Forge and 100Movements

"A frighteningly accurate wake-up call to the times in which we are living. Just glance through the table of contents and you'll see a world you recognize, whether you want to or not. Yet Neil's vision is not one without hope. He incorporates ideas for positive, concrete actions we can take. It's not fatalism; it's a call to the battle. Chapter nine and ten alone are well worth the price of the book--they cover the essential elements of a multiplication movement and provide many clear strategies that could be immediately implemented. Neil provides a hopeful way forward that will work in today's world."

DR. ROBERT E. LOGAN
Author of The Missional Journey and The Discipleship Difference