A Fellowship of Differents


Book Description

In this compelling book about diversity and community, McKnight shares his personal experiences and his study of the Apostle Paul to answer this significant question: What is the church supposed to be? Local churches matter far more than we often know because they determine what Christian life looks like for you. The church McKnight grew up in was a fellowship of sames and likes. Mostly white, same beliefs about everything, same tastes in music and worship and sermons and lifestyle. But the church God designed, says McKnight, is meant to be a fellowship of di­fference and di­fferents. A mixture of people from all across the map and spectrum: men and women, rich and poor, black and white, and everything in between. A Fellowship of Differents explores the church as God’s world-changing social experiment of bringing unlikes and differents to the table to share life with one another as a new kind of family, showing the world what love, justice, peace, reconciliation, and life together is designed by God to be.




Traces of the Kingdom


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Kingdom Conspiracy


Book Description

An Award-Winning Challenge to Popular Ideas of the Kingdom According to Scot McKnight, "kingdom" is the biblical term most misused by Christians today. It has taken on meanings that are completely at odds with what the Bible says and has become a buzzword for both social justice and redemption. In Kingdom Conspiracy, McKnight offers a sizzling biblical corrective and a fiercely radical vision for the role of the local church in the kingdom of God. Now in paper. Praise for Kingdom Conspiracy 2015 Outreach Resources of the Year Award Winner One of Leadership Journal's Best Books for Church Leaders in 2014 "This is a must-read for church leaders today."--Publishers Weekly "A timely resource for the missional church to reexamine some basic assumptions that impact church practice in the everyday."--Outreach




Kingdom First


Book Description

Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. There are few dreams more spiritually intoxicating than the dream of being used by God to start a new community of Christ that skillfully brings the restorative gospel to a lost and broken city. Something which feels like a spiritual landslide that starts with lostness and ends in an avalanche of new congregations multiplying and transforming community after community into which they unmistakably seep. Authors Jeff Christopherson and Mac Lake call readers to imagine a movement that vividly remembers the insubstantial days of a mustard seed with a sense of awe and wonder when looking at the indescribable harvest that stands all around. Though the kingdom of God can't be forced by superficial methods, the good news is that when you move past the threshold of your competency and comfort, you find yourself in the very spot where God can use you like no other. What wouldn’t you sacrifice to be a part of something that only could be described as a God-honoring gospel movement?




The Kingdom and the Church


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Desiring the Kingdom (Cultural Liturgies)


Book Description

Malls, stadiums, and universities are actually liturgical structures that influence and shape our thoughts and affections. Humans--as Augustine noted--are "desiring agents," full of longings and passions; in brief, we are what we love. James K. A. Smith focuses on the themes of liturgy and desire in Desiring the Kingdom, the first book in what will be a three-volume set on the theology of culture. He redirects our yearnings to focus on the greatest good: God. Ultimately, Smith seeks to re-vision education through the process and practice of worship. Students of philosophy, theology, worldview, and culture will welcome Desiring the Kingdom, as will those involved in ministry and other interested readers.




Redemptive Kingdom Diversity


Book Description

This book provides a comprehensive biblical and theological survey of the people of God in the Old and New Testaments, offering insights for today's transformed and ethnically diverse church. Jarvis Williams explains that God's people have always been intended to be a diverse community. From Genesis to Revelation, God has intended to restore humanity's vertical relationship with God, humanity's horizontal relationship with one another, and the entire creation through Jesus. Through Jesus, both Jew and gentile are reconciled to God and together make up a transformed people. Williams then applies his biblical and theological analysis to selected aspects of the current conversation about race, racism, and ethnicity, explaining what it means to be the church in today's multiethnic context. He argues that the church should demonstrate redemptive kingdom diversity, for it has been transformed into a new community that is filled with many diverse ethnic communities.




Listening to Your Life


Book Description

Daily meditations taken from the works of an acclaimed novelist, essayist, and preacher who has articulated what he sees with a freshness and clarity and energy that hails our stultified imaginations.




Insurgence


Book Description

Why does the allegiance that radical terrorists give to their false cause exceed the allegiance that most Christians today give to Jesus Christ? In Insurgence, bestselling author Frank Viola presents a radical proposal for Christians. Namely, that we have lost the explosive, earthshaking gospel of the kingdom that Jesus, Paul, and the other apostles preached. Viola argues that we've lost this dynamic, titanic, living gospel and exchanged it for a gospel of religious duty or permissiveness and "easy believism." In today's politically charged era, Christians on the progressive left as well as the conservative right both equate their particular viewpoints with the kingdom of God. Viola challenges and dismantles these perspectives, offering a fresh and revolutionary look at the gospel of the kingdom. Viola writes with gripping power, challenging Christians to embrace an unparalleled allegiance to Jesus Christ and his kingdom. This high-octane message is being reclaimed today, launching a spiritual insurgence.




The Church in the Power of the Spirit


Book Description

"This book, which in my opinion is Moltmann's best, can be recommended on the basis that it contains challenging and creative insights that can be used by the discriminating reader in the service of church renewal Moltmann represents the theology of liberation at its best, and those who wish to know more about this theology would do well to study this creative and searching theologian." --Donald G. Bloesch Christianity Today "Moltmann is perhaps unsurpassed among his contemporaries in keenness of insight and rhetorical power." --Daniel L. Migliore, Theology Today "Moltmann presents a stirring vision which every Christian community could well ponder With a missionary emphasis, he seeks to help the reader face the question of the church's identity in the light of the contemporary political, economic, and social scene." --Religious Education