Christians can be adept at drawing lines, determining what it means to be ‘a good Christian’ and judging those who stray out of bounds. Other times they erase all the lines in favor of a vague and inoffensive faith. Both impulses can come from positive intentions, but either can lead to stunted spiritual life and harmful relationships. Is there another option?
The late missionary anthropologist Paul Hiebert famously drew on mathematical theory to deploy the concepts of ‘bounded, ‘ ‘fuzzy, ‘ and ‘centered’ sets to shed light on the nature of Christian community. Now, with Centered-Set Church, Mark D. Baker provides a unique manual for understanding and applying Hiebert's vision. Drawing on his extensive experience in church, mission, parachurch, and higher education settings, along with interviews and stories gleaned from scores of firsthand interviews, Baker delivers practical guidance for any group that seeks to be truly centered on Jesus.
Baker shows how Scripture presents an alternative to either obsessing over boundaries or simply erasing them. Centered churches are able to affirm their beliefs and live out their values without such bitter fruit as gracelessness, shame, and self-righteousness on the one hand, or aimless ‘whateverism’ on the other. While addressing possible concerns and barriers to the centered approach, Baker invites leaders to imagine centered alternatives in such practical areas of ministry as discipleship, church membership, leadership requirements, and evangelism. Centered-Set Church charts new paths to grow in authentic freedom and dynamic movement toward the true center: Jesus himself.
قائمة المحتويات
1. Drawing Lines and Erasing Lines
Part One: Defining the Paradigms
2. Bounded, Fuzzy, and Centered Churches
3. Responding to Questions About a Centered Church
Part Two: Foundation of a Centered-Set Church
4. The God of the Center
5. Foundational Elements
Part Three: Discipleship in Community
6. Centered Exhortation
7. Centered Character: Qualities of Jesus
8. Centered Intervention: Imagining Possibilities
9. Practicing Centered Intervention
10. Journeying Together Toward the Center
Part Four: Centered Ministry
11. Firm Not Bounded
12. Imagining Centered Alternatives
13. The Richness of the Centered Way
Acknowledgments
General Index
Scripture Index
عن المؤلف
Mark D. Baker is associate professor of mission and theology at Fresno Pacific Biblical Seminary. He is also the editor of Proclaiming the Scandal of the Cross.
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