Quick Poll: Best Books to Shape Contextual Ecclesiology
Written by Mark Van Steenwyk : August 9, 2006
I get to teach a course on applied ecclesiology again this year at Bethel Seminary. Last year I used Frost and Hirsch’s The Shaping of Things to Come, Craig Van Gelder’s The Essence of the Church, Alan Roxburgh’s The Missionary Congregation, Leadership, & Liminality, and David Fitch’s The Great Giveaway. This time around, I want to change up the readings. I’m definitely going to leave Van Gelder’s book out of the mix this year. It’s a great book but most of my students are decidedly low-church and Van Gelder’s book is more applicable to mainline folks. Any suggestions?
for further reading . . .
- None Found
I’ll give the book question a think…but I really just wanted to let you know that I am home now and that I am not playing ‘hard to get’…at least for a week. See you soon neighbor.
If you can teach McLaren without endorsing everything he stands for as of late, I would reccommend “Church on the Other Side” - Also, I know it’s not a class on Church planting, but “Planting Missional Churches” by Dr. Ed Stetzer is very good and talks a ton about contextual ecclesiology.
Have you considered Darrell Guder’s Missional Church?
I’m finishing it up right now. It covers both ecclesiology and North American cultural considerations.
An Unstoppable Force - Erwin McManus
As a comment on the McLaren book, that book seemed to be repackaged to make it more ‘postmodern’ not a bad work, but the update was not impressive. JVD
Haha, hopefully using a book in a course would never imply a full “endorsement” of anything.
I loved Guder’s Continuing Conversion of the Church.
I’m wondering which would be better between “Missional Church” and “Continuing Conversion of the CHurch.” Guder had his hand in both books, but I’m not sure which would be better for a sort of theological intro to missional ecclesiology.
I’ve not read Continuing Conversion, so I cannot speak to that book. Two points in favor of Missional Church: the book was written as a truly collaborative effort by writers from very different Christian traditions, yet there is a clear consistency and consensus. Also, they do a good job of laying cultural and theological groundwork for the principles and suggestions at the end of the book.
So, that’s my two cents.
I’ve only read a little of Missional Church, and I found Continuing Conversion to be less technical and easier to read - which is why I finished that one. *blushes*