Product Description

What would a theology of the church look like that took seriously the fact that North America is now itself a mission field? This question lies at the foundation of this volume written by an ecumenical team of six noted missiologists.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #123218 in Books
• Published on: 1998-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 280 pages

Customer Reviews

A good introduction to missional theology.
This is one of the better books currently available introducing church leaders, pastors and lay ministers to ecclesiology from a missional perspective. Guder and his fellow writers do a worthy job of synthesizing contemporary perspectives on church in post-Christian North America. Especially engaging is the way that the writers articulate the distinctive claims a Canadian culture (as opposed to an United States culture) will make on a missional church. There are valuable lessons here for pastors seeking to become more adept in cultural discernment. What is lacking in this book are concrete examples of what a missional church "looks like" in ways different than what one finds in Christendom. One hopes that this is an absence that will be addressed in the next four volumes. In short, check out this book as a synthesis of ecclesiology from a post-liberal perspective (a la Hauerwas, Yoder, Brueggemann). Also, a note for pastors: Chapter 7, "Missional Leadership: Equipping God's People for Mission," is worth the price of the book.

Will use it as a required text in a course I'll be teaching
Guder does an outstanding job of editing this text.

The writers present a quality summary of today's American spiritual culture as well as justification for returning the church back to its apostolic (i.e. sent) roots. The mission of God is so well presented in this book that I'm going to use it as a required text in the evangelism/mission course that I'm teaching this fall at a Christian/Lutheran university.

After the Bible, the best book I've read all year.
I've been plugging this book at clergy gatherings for the last 6 months. This book was a partial answer to a prayer that I've had for years, "God, What are you calling us to become, because it seems clear that we can't continue with the Christendom models." I've read a lot of other books, but none come close to giving the depth of anaysis into the problem of Christendom. The essays in this book present an exiciting mission for the church as it moves to the margins of culture. The book is not an easy read for those who have limited theological training. However, with a copy of Westminsters Dictionary of Theological Terms in hand, thoughtful Christians will gain a host of insight into the North American Church context(AND YES! They do separate anaysis for Canada and the USA context). Rev. Jim Love (United Church of Canada)