A classic study of Jesus Christ and His ministry in the Church.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amazon reader review: A very good read. I am excited to see what the Lord is doing in the church in this hour!!! God is preparing the church for HIS Glory and Francis Frangipane does an excellent job with fantastic insights on what is yet to come for the church. This book will take you to a new level of focus. I know many Christians whose only objective is being raptured out of here, but I believe after reading this book people will be really moved to cooperate with the Holy Spirit to bring change as God brings us back to our "first love" so that the power that began in the early church talked about in the book of Acts will be manifested in this hour. I am so excited in the Lord. I recommend this book to anyone who is ready to elevate their thinking about the church today.

A house divided cannot stand. When churches unite in prayer and stand in the gap with humility and love, the Lord will build His house. Francis explains that it is out of obedience to Christ that His people must come together with a vision to see Christ Himself formed in the church, so that His people will be one, perfected in unity.

 

 

 

image not available

No description available.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amazon reader review: This book dawns with some definitions and clarifications. First Mr. Snyder contrasts the church as an "institution" marked by the characteristics of status, status quo, principles of human organization, etc. versus the divinely led "kingdom of God." This is a place that is both promised in our future (heaven) and present in our world today (the Church) offering redemption and reconciliation of people to God. He calls this understanding "kingdom consciousness." An excellent example of this contrast is summarized in this quote from Easum's book, "The Church too can be merely smooth-running machinery with a veneer of personalism. Or it can be a radically biblical, caring community of believers totally sold out to Jesus Christ." Snyder approaches the problems of today's protestant church from two fronts. He addresses the change in our world society that marks the end of the Modern Age. Like Easum (discussed later) Snyder challenges the Church to examine our paradigms and discover what prevents us from being relative to this generation.  The second front is really a different perspective of the first. First churches must separate what is the Biblically sound, mandated mission, values, and strategy of the Church (Kingdom of God) from the "sacrelized" institutions made by man. Then institutions, which serve a purpose for the church, may be created and maintained so long as they are relevant and useful. Since we understand the difference between them and the truly sacred "kingdom of God," when they cease to be useful, they may be eliminated.

Amazon reader review: In Radical Renewal Howard Snyder endeavors to examine the church from a biblical viewpoint within the context of modern culture. Based on Luke 5:37-39, Snyder sees the wine as the message of the gospel, which is essential and primary. He sees the wine skins as the way in which the church touches the culture with the gospel, which is secondary though necessary and useful. The problem comes when we take the ever-new gospel and try to contain it within the old wineskins of "outmoded traditions, obsolete philosophies, creaking institutions, and old habits." When we do, the powerful and life-changing gospel is constricted and must burst free. Snyder believes it is time for the church to update her wineskins. To remedy the problem, Dr. Snyder recommends a cataclysm that explodes the current church structures and creates new wineskins.

No description.

 

 

 

No description.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Amazon reader review:  Howard Snyder's third book in his series regarding renewed church life (The Problem of Wineskins and Community of the King) focuses on the contribution of John Wesley to the renewal of existing church patterns. After first giving a brief history of the conversion of Wesley and the growth of the Methodists, Snyder then brings Wesley face to face with today's church. The fundamental issues at stake in Snyder's arguments are 1) How do you renew the church without destroying it? 2) How do you gain an appreciation for the apostolic faith in a contemporary context? 3) How do you touch people that the current tradition of the church doesn't touch? Beautifully, Wesley addresses all of these. It is amazing that Wesley's voice is as fresh today as it was two centuries ago. In Radical Wesley, Snyder brings this voice out with clarity and alacrity to our current situation. I heartily recommend this to those who are searching to address the gospel in light of post-modernism.

The thesis of The Purpose Driven Church is that when churches think first about their health, growth is sure to follow. "If your church is healthy," writes Rick Warren, "growth will occur naturally. Healthy, consistent growth is the result of balancing the five biblical purposes of the church." These five purposes are to "Love the Lord with all your heart," "Love your neighbor as yourself," "Go and make disciples," "[Baptize] them," and "[Teach] them to obey." And those purposes can only be accomplished, argues Warren, when church leaders stop thinking about church-building programs and shift their focus to a "people-building process" involving fellowship, discipleship, worship, and evangelism.

 

 

Philip Yancey asks the question that haunts many believers: Why should I bother with the church? From growing up in rural Georgia in a fundamentalist church to his experience at LaSalle Street Church in inner city Chicago, Philip reflects on the church, his own perceptions of it, and the various metaphors the Bible uses to describe it. Yancey's own early church experience set his faith back by many years. In Church: Why Bother? he offers us a glimpse of his pilgrimage back to faith and to the church as a place of real community and spiritual vitality. This honest and insightful book will help you explore your questions about the place of the church in the life of faith and how to find spiritual connection and community.

 

 

If G.K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy: The Romance of Faith is, as he called it, a "slovenly autobiography," then we need more slobs in the world. This quirky, slender book describes how Chesterton came to view orthodox Catholic Christianity as the way to satisfy his personal emotional needs, in a way that would also allow him to live happily in society. Chesterton argues that people in western society need a life of "practical romance, the combination of something that is strange with something that is secure. We need so to view the world as to combine an idea of wonder and an idea of welcome." Drawing on such figures as Fra Angelico, George Bernard Shaw, and St. Paul to make his points, Chesterton argues that submission to ecclesiastical authority is the way to achieve a good and balanced life. The whole book is written in a style that is as majestic and down-to-earth as C.S. Lewis at his best. The final chapter, called "Authority and the Adventurer," is especially persuasive. It's hard to imagine a reader who will not close the book believing, at least for the moment, that the Church will make you free.