Description

What is the church really for? Some people are members of the church because it’s part of their family tradition or their culture or their identity. Others have left the church because that’s all it is in fact. Is it the best way to salvation or a way of coming closer to God? In any case, the church is not just for us or the benefits we get out of it. Very few of us would say that this is what the church is really for. There is surely something more here, something more generous, life-giving, outgoing, and gracious than what we personally get out of it.

This book is about the church’s outreach beyond itself—-its purpose beyond any benefits for those already its members. This book is not about a church looking inwards and worrying about itself, but about a church looking outwards. The local Christian community that we belong to is part of that much bigger, much more exhilarating project of the evolving realm of God.”

Contents

Part I: Perspectives | 1
1. What Is the Church For? | 3
2. Talking about Christianity in Public | 17
3. The Realm of God | 28
4. The Realm of God and Wellbeing | 41
5. Contemporary Impact of the Realm of God | 52
Part II: Mission in Contemporary Society | 63
6. Recent Mission Theologies | 65
7. Dangerous Missions | 80
8. Mission in a Secular Society | 89
9. Secularization | 104
Part III: Mission in a Pluralist Society | 121
10. Mission in a Pluralist Democracy | 123
11. Strategies of Local Church Mission | 138
12. A Local Theology of Mission | 152
13. Self-Critique | 165
14. The Next Step | 180
Bibliography | 183