Product Description

A back-to-the-basics look at what it means to be the church-defined by the New Testament rather than culture or tradition. Veteran pastor, professor, and church planter, J. Scott Horrell, suggests that the customs, patterns, and structures of our churches may actually be barriers to what God's purposes for the church really are.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #791576 in Books
• Published on: 2004-11-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 112 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780825428913
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
From the Ground Up offers a compelling challenge to local churches to measure all programs and structures in light of God's blueprint for ekklesia in Scripture. Its practical insights bring a much-needed focus on the scriptural foundation and church structures that will enliven and liberate both members and leaders. (Shirley Updyke What's New on the Bookshelf )

From the Back Cover
Special performances, attractive worship centers, and professional clergy are important to the success of churches today. But as the rush of activities continues to grow and the corresponding crush of administration consumes more time and energy, pastors, church leaders, and ministry students find themselves asking, "Why do we do what we do? Why does 'church' have to be a burden?"

From the Ground Up offers a compelling challenge to local churches to measure all programs and structures in light of God's blueprint for ekklesia in Scripture. It's practical insights bring a much-needed focus on the scriptural foundation and church structures that will enliven and liberate both members and leaders.

"This is must reading for pastors in general and church planters in particular."
-Aubrey Malphurs
President of Vision Ministries International
Chairman of the Field Education Department at Dallas Theological Seminary

"It is quite amazing how a small book like this can carry such big ideas, powerful enough to make significant impact in today's church."
-Dr. Imad Shehadeh
President and Professor of Theology
Jordan Evangelical Theological Seminary

"From the Ground Up can serve as a refreshing check-up for leaders to assess vital signs of church life or as a foundations checklist for church planters."
-Klaus Issler
Professor of Christian Education and Theology
Talbot School of Theology, Biola University

J. Scott Horrell is Professor of Theology at Dallas Theological Seminary. He has pastored five churches and taught at seminaries and pastors' seminars around the world, having served with YWAM, TEAM, InterVarsity, the Baptist General Conference, and especially World Team. In Brazil, he was coordinator of graduate studies at the Faculdade Teológica Batista de São Paulo and cofounder/editor of Vox Scripturae, which became the largest protestant theological journal in Latin America. He edited two popular volumes on overcoming barriers in the church.

About the Author
J. Scott Horrell is Professor of Theology at Dallas Theological Seminary. He has pastored five churches and taught at seminaries and pastors' seminars around the world, having served with YWAM, TEAM, InterVarsity, the Baptist General Conference, and especially World Team. In Brazil, he was coordinator of graduate studies at the Faculdade Teológica Batista de São Paulo and cofounder/editor of Vox Scripturae, which became the largest protestant theological journal in Latin America. He edited two popular volumes on overcoming barriers in the church.

Customer Reviews

Required for Church Planting
This work is tremendously helpful for the present day church planter. With all of the planning, praying, and advice out there, this book provides focus to what really matters. The theology behind every church plant must have the solid foundation built on Scripture and history. As church planter's in France, My team and I will be reading this book every year when we evaluate whether we have inadvertently moved off of our "ecclesiological moorings." Thank you, Scott, for this important and timely book.

Good Book to Take Us Back to a Right Understanding
Horrell's book is a very short "primer" on the New Testament model for doing church. It is simple in its overtones, well grounded in Scripture, and convicting as we think about how the churches we see today don't necessarily draw all their practices from New Testament teaching. Horrell adequately makes the point that we tend to draw much of what we do from tradition and even an Old Testament way of doing things. I would like to have seen a little less repetition - he makes the main points several times - and more concrete examples of how a return to this vision might play out. There are some, including a fascinating look at how one church does communion, but I would love to see Dr. Horrell apply his prodigious intelligence to the topic of extended application. (I have had Dr. Horrell's class in seminary, and he is very credible with experience internationally, in various church settings, and at the seminary level.) This book, I think, will blow some doors off the reader's understanding and really get him/her thinking. For that, I think it is a brilliant, short "essay" on how we could think differently about how we "do church."

A confused view of the church
A very confused book! Horrell lays out the biblical description of the church, pokes fun at the monotonus circles the church is moving in, but refuses to make the New Testament description the model for the church. He alleges that God has given the church wide lattitude as to form and structure and seems to twist himself into knots trying not to offend his denomination (with one eye on his job, no doubt). We're probably doing it all wrong, he says, but then adds, who is to say what is right or wrong? Save your money and pass up this book if you are looking for straightforward answers to church dillemas.