Learning the Way: Reclaiming Wisdom from the Earliest Christian Communities

How should the church respond to the changing cultural and societal changes going on around it? Should it reject the historical traditions that served the early Christian church or should it turn a blind eye to the changes happening in modern society? Neither, as Cassandra D. Carkuff Williams advocates--it should and it must recover and reclaim our foundations and reinterpret them in light of present-day realities. In Learning the Way: Reclaiming Wisdom from the Earliest Christian Communities, Williams suggests that the biggest problems facing the church today are the victim mentality created out of its own presumptions and that we have allowed our cultures and societies to dictate the way in which we lead our churches. Williams explores early Christian communities and their practices in order to create principles for discipleship formation. She then offers expert advice on how to approach modern-day issues of Christian education and the nurturing of disciples based on the examples set forth by our earliest forebears in the faith. As Williams states, "Discipleship is a way of being grounded in vocation, nurtured within community, and guided by tradition." This book provides an overview of the past in order that we might take the proven example and apply it toward our present and our future.

Cassandra Carkuff Williams, who holds an Ed.D. in Christian education, currently serves as the National Coordinator for Discipleship Resource Development with National Ministries, American Baptist Churches USA. She has over ten years experience developing Christian education materials, including working as an editor and writer for Bible Quest and We Believe (Presbyterian Church USA) Other publications include Children Among Us (Louisville: Witherspoon Press, 2003) and Children, Poverty, and the Bible (Valley Forge: National Ministries, 2007).