The Church Between Gospel and Culture: The Emerging Mission in North America

Rating:
Summary: This is a consequential book.
Review: There was a time when a mouse was just a rodent, only spiders had Web sites, surfing took place at the beach and the church was the key force for shaping culture. Those days are gone. A new era is upon us and Christendom must 1) face reality; 2) develop a plan of action and 3)reengage our culture.

The reality we must face, for Hunsberger and Van Gelder, is this: the church has capitulated to the forces of Enlightenment (forces of the scientific world view) and has given up its key role as a cultural change agent. Wilbert Shenk summed it up by saying "Christendom is spent as a cultural force"; but, and this is a big BUT, Hunsberger and Van Gelder are hopeful that the church can redefine its mission and launch an new era of relevancy in the century ahead.

The Church between Gospel and Culture rings out a wake up call, heralding the arrival of a new era. 14 authors; all thinkers, theologians, anthropologist and culturist, are the harbingers for the new world to come. George Hunsberger and Craig Van Gelder (both professors of missiology) have collected and edited these significant and erudite voices. The Church between Gospel and Culture is arduous reading (due the novelty of concepts, the multiplicity of scholarly writers) and days, not just hours, need to be set aside to ponder and reflect on the significance of what these authors have to say about our culture, our era and the massive change that is upon the Christian Church. I was persuaded to rethink my role and mission as a healing missionary. The call of Christ not to be "in the world, but not of the world" was made anew to me. The Church between Gospel and Culture is worth the effort.

When Christianity was a cult (before Constantine 325AD) the people of "the Way" (Acts 24:14) were willing to be counter-cultural. They were mission to their culture, thus they challenged the "principalities and powers" of their society. "The Way" cult could do this because it was not "of the world, just in it". Atlas, in our world today the hope for those in Christendom that want to be real and relevant by their faith may find the only way is by apostasy; leaving a dying religious system and creating a new cult group that refuses to drink the cup of modernity and domestication.

When it comes to the future of the Western church I am not an optimist. In the words of Don Marquis the late U.S. humorist/journalist "an optimist is a guy who has never had much experience". To be optimistic about the future of Christianity is to be one who has not endured much of Christendom. I am closer to the thinking of both Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon who brand the contemporary Western Church as a church that accommodates the world, seeking to market "church" programs, clawing for a position in and among the other many agents of society.

This is a consequential book.

Rating:
Summary: This is a consequential book.
Review: There was a time when a mouse was just a rodent, only spiders had Web sites, surfing took place at the beach and the church was the key force for shaping culture. Those days are gone. A new era is upon us and Christendom must 1) face reality; 2) develop a plan of action and 3)reengage our culture.

The reality we must face, for Hunsberger and Van Gelder, is this: the church has capitulated to the forces of Enlightenment (forces of the scientific world view) and has given up its key role as a cultural change agent. Wilbert Shenk summed it up by saying "Christendom is spent as a cultural force"; but, and this is a big BUT, Hunsberger and Van Gelder are hopeful that the church can redefine its mission and launch an new era of relevancy in the century ahead.

The Church between Gospel and Culture rings out a wake up call, heralding the arrival of a new era. 14 authors; all thinkers, theologians, anthropologist and culturist, are the harbingers for the new world to come. George Hunsberger and Craig Van Gelder (both professors of missiology) have collected and edited these significant and erudite voices. The Church between Gospel and Culture is arduous reading (due the novelty of concepts, the multiplicity of scholarly writers) and days, not just hours, need to be set aside to ponder and reflect on the significance of what these authors have to say about our culture, our era and the massive change that is upon the Christian Church. I was persuaded to rethink my role and mission as a healing missionary. The call of Christ not to be "in the world, but not of the world" was made anew to me. The Church between Gospel and Culture is worth the effort.

When Christianity was a cult (before Constantine 325AD) the people of "the Way" (Acts 24:14) were willing to be counter-cultural. They were mission to their culture, thus they challenged the "principalities and powers" of their society. "The Way" cult could do this because it was not "of the world, just in it". Atlas, in our world today the hope for those in Christendom that want to be real and relevant by their faith may find the only way is by apostasy; leaving a dying religious system and creating a new cult group that refuses to drink the cup of modernity and domestication.

When it comes to the future of the Western church I am not an optimist. In the words of Don Marquis the late U.S. humorist/journalist "an optimist is a guy who has never had much experience". To be optimistic about the future of Christianity is to be one who has not endured much of Christendom. I am closer to the thinking of both Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon who brand the contemporary Western Church as a church that accommodates the world, seeking to market "church" programs, clawing for a position in and among the other many agents of society.

This is a consequential book.

Rating:
Summary: A great addition to any postmodern library
Review: This is a book for the technician. If you are looking for how to build a postmodern church in four easy steps, this book will disapoint you. If you are looking for a book that will challenge your worldview and help equip you with some of the questions and answers that we need to hear, then you will be interested in reading this "heady" theological look at the church and culture.

Rating:
Summary: A great addition to any postmodern library
Review: This is a book for the technician. If you are looking for how to build a postmodern church in four easy steps, this book will disapoint you. If you are looking for a book that will challenge your worldview and help equip you with some of the questions and answers that we need to hear, then you will be interested in reading this "heady" theological look at the church and culture.