Why Church?: A Basic Introduction - Softcover

Sunquist, Scott W.; Mouw, Richard J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0830852387 ISBN 13: 9780830852383

Publisher: IVP Academic, 2019

Synopsis

• 2020 Outreach Magazine Resource of the Year ("Also Recommended," Church)

Is a church just something we create to serve our purposes or to maintain old traditions? Or is it something more vital, more meaningful, and more powerful? This can be hard to believe when we look at what happens in any one congregation or denomination. Certainly not all churches act like Jesus in the world, and many individual churches in the West are dying. When it's so easy to be confused, frustrated, or simply apathetic about the church, how should we understand its purpose today?In this appealing introduction to the nature of the local church, set in the context of Christian history and global diversity, historian and missionary Scott Sunquist shows us the church in motion. Why Church? clarifies the two primary purposes of the church―worship and witness―and unpacks what the church is (and ought to be) using five movements of worship:

• come together
• stand to praise God
• kneel to confess
• sit to listen to the Word of God
• go out into the world

Packed with stories and insights from experiences in churches around the world, this book explores cultural contextualization, the meaning of conversion, worship in both personal and communal aspects, and how mission combines telling the good news with being good news as a community.From Fuller Theological Seminary's renowned church-planting program, this primer is well suited to leaders and their core teams to read together and share with new attenders as they catch the spirit of the dynamic gathering that is the local church.

About this title

About the Authors

Scott W. Sunquist (PhD, Princeton Theological Seminary) is president of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Previously, he was a professor and dean of the School of Intercultural Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary, taught missiology and Christian history at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, and lectured at Trinity Theological College in Singapore. Sunquist is the author of Explorations in Asian Christianity, Understanding Christian Mission, and The Unexpected Christian Century, and a coauthor of A History of the World Christian Movement.

Richard J. Mouw (PhD, University of Chicago) now serves as professor of faith and public life after twenty years as president of Fuller Theological Seminary. He has written over twenty books on topics of social ethics, philosophy of culture and interfaith dialogue, including Uncommon Decency, The Challenges of Cultural Discipleship, Praying at Burger King, The God Who Commands, Calvinism in the Las Vegas Airport, The Smell of Sawdust and Talking with Mormons: An Invitation to Evangelicals.A leader in interfaith theological conversations, particularly with Mormons and Jewish groups, Mouw served for six years as co-chair of the official Reformed-Catholic Dialogue and as president of the Association of Theological Schools. For seventeen years he was a professor of philosophy at Calvin College and in 2007, Princeton Theological Seminary awarded him the Abraham Kuyper Prize for Excellence in Reformed Theology and Public Life.

Edition details

• Publisher: IVP Academic
• Publication date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0830852387
• ISBN 13: 9780830852383
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224