 Trade In this Item for up to £1.90
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21st-Century Church for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £1.90, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
For the first time we in the West are living in what has been called a post-Christendom era. Most people throughout the Western world have seen what the Church has to offer, and they have found it wanting. The current credibility gap has made it hard to communicate the gospel with clarity and authenticity. Paradoxically, this is the case even though it is currently a time of almost unprecedented openness to the issues of God, faith, and meaning. This is a time when the need for, and relevance of, the gospel has seldom been greater, but the relevance of the Church has seldom been less. If ever there was a time for innovative missionary effort in the West, it is now. This raises enormous challenges for Gods people in the West. This book explores why the Church needs to recalibrate itself, rebuilding itself from the roots up. The case is built around real-life stories gathered from innovative missional projects from the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and England. These spirited experiments of Gospel community serve to point out just how varied a genuinely incarnational approach to mission can, and indeed needs to, become. They present vital nodes of missional learning for the established Church as it seeks to orientate itself to the unique challenges of the twenty-first century.
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
There are no customer reviews yet on Amazon.co.uk.
5 star
4 star
3 star
2 star
1 star
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2 reviews
Great book
3 Jan 2012
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
There are a lot of authors in the Christian who like to be thought of as "future thinking." These guys really are. It will challange you as you think about how to lead your church into a new world and the changes needed to get there. Thought provoking.
1 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Getting Frosty with Hirsch
23 Nov 2011
Format:Paperback
In The Shaping of Things to Come, the authors argue that the so-called missional church is incarnational (rather than attractional) in its ecclesiology, messianic (rather than dualistic) in its spirituality, and apostolic (rather than hierarchical) in its leadership. After the introductory chapters, the authors expand on these three attributes.
Yet one can easily see that this sort of terminology creates problems. An obvious temptation is to use these labels to suggest superiority - *my* church is incarnational, but that big successful church down the road, well they're *attractional*. Spit.
"Christendom" is similarly used in this book as a term of abuse. The belief that "the church belongs firmly in the town square, that is, at the heart of Western culture," (page 17) is dismissed as 'Christendom thinking'. Those who disagree with the authors are also accused of imprisoning the good news within church culture (page 42).
Frost and Hirsch are also weak on their view of the non-Christian. They discuss the 'existential searching' of a lady named Ostrow, and conclude (page 96) that "If the traditional-attractional mode of church gives no credence to "unchurched spirituality," it will have no answer to the very deep yearnings of a grieving woman like Ostrow."
Yet this is surely putting the pragmatic cart before the theological horse. Our view of the validity of various spiritualities cannot be be determined by what best enables us to answer people. Instead, we have Scripture as an objective standard with which we can compare and submit all spiritual experiences.
In a similar way, Frost and Hirsch promote the concept of a "centred-set" church, rather than the traditional "bounded-set" church which adds "artificial boundaries," (page 48). No-one should be considered unworthy of belonging, say the authors, just because "they're not married to their live-in partner," (page 49). Well, the New Testament does in fact have a lot to say, not just about Christians should behave, but also how those who do not meet a certain moral standard should be excluded from fellowship. Frost and Hirsch argue that we should not see people as "Christian or non-Christian, as in or out," (page 47) but Jesus went on record as saying to people (John 10:26), "You do not believe because you are not part of my flock."
Not everything about this book is bad - it does stimulate thought, and does present some great ideas concerning the church's mission in the world. Yet even here, the boundary between church and kingdom is somewhat questionable - perhaps some of the outreach work described in The Shaping of Things to Come is appropriate for citizens of the God's Kingdom to involve themselves in, but not necessarily the responsibility of the church.
Yet one can easily see that this sort of terminology creates problems. An obvious temptation is to use these labels to suggest superiority - *my* church is incarnational, but that big successful church down the road, well they're *attractional*. Spit.
"Christendom" is similarly used in this book as a term of abuse. The belief that "the church belongs firmly in the town square, that is, at the heart of Western culture," (page 17) is dismissed as 'Christendom thinking'. Those who disagree with the authors are also accused of imprisoning the good news within church culture (page 42).
Frost and Hirsch are also weak on their view of the non-Christian. They discuss the 'existential searching' of a lady named Ostrow, and conclude (page 96) that "If the traditional-attractional mode of church gives no credence to "unchurched spirituality," it will have no answer to the very deep yearnings of a grieving woman like Ostrow."
Yet this is surely putting the pragmatic cart before the theological horse. Our view of the validity of various spiritualities cannot be be determined by what best enables us to answer people. Instead, we have Scripture as an objective standard with which we can compare and submit all spiritual experiences.
In a similar way, Frost and Hirsch promote the concept of a "centred-set" church, rather than the traditional "bounded-set" church which adds "artificial boundaries," (page 48). No-one should be considered unworthy of belonging, say the authors, just because "they're not married to their live-in partner," (page 49). Well, the New Testament does in fact have a lot to say, not just about Christians should behave, but also how those who do not meet a certain moral standard should be excluded from fellowship. Frost and Hirsch argue that we should not see people as "Christian or non-Christian, as in or out," (page 47) but Jesus went on record as saying to people (John 10:26), "You do not believe because you are not part of my flock."
Not everything about this book is bad - it does stimulate thought, and does present some great ideas concerning the church's mission in the world. Yet even here, the boundary between church and kingdom is somewhat questionable - perhaps some of the outreach work described in The Shaping of Things to Come is appropriate for citizens of the God's Kingdom to involve themselves in, but not necessarily the responsibility of the church.
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
![bReaking the [E]vangelical pArty liNe](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51kDEFylTyL._AA60_.jpg)
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
