The church isn’t about programs, buildings, or attendance, but about a community of people embodying God’s presence and purpose in the world.
Okay, but . . . then what? To truly embrace this statement leads to radically different ways of doing the daily work of ministry.
Preparing to discard the old ways. Saving Church is a prophetic call for the future that will help you reframe, retrieve, and reclaim the Church’s role as a healing force in the world.
The 21st-century Church is in a state of distress. In the pulpit and the pews, people are disquieted, disenchanted, and dispirited. Some are afraid the church they love won’t be there for the next generation, while others feel tired and desperate for something more. With skepticism on the rise and church attendance down, churches have a choice: cling to the way things were or stop and ask, ‘Could God want to do something new in and through us?’
Saving Church is a hopeful, authentic vision for the future of the Church, rooted in the convictions that: 1) The Church is still God’s chosen vehicle for accomplishing His purposes. 2) Things aren’t going back to the way they were – and they shouldn’t.
Combining the expertise and experiences of two giants of missional theology and the Fresh Expressions movement, Saving Church will give you a fresh perspective on what church can be and help you reframe, retrieve, and reclaim the Church’s role as a healing, saving force in the world.
Table des matières
Introduction ix
Narrative Glossary xi
Part One: Biblical Reflections
Matthew’s Great Commission 3
The Great Commission in the Gospels 19
Introducing the Idea 19
The Commission of Christ in Matthew 21
The Commission of Christ in Mark 25
The Commission of Christ in Luke 35
The Commission of Christ in John 47
Peter and Paul: Conversion and Call 52
The Holy Spirit of Mission: Three Studies in Acts 59
The Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-14) 61
Peter and Cornelius (Acts 10) 71
Changed Lives (Acts 16: 6-34) 82
Part Two: The Mission-Shaped Church
Mission: God, Church, and Evangelism 110
(For those who want to delve a bit deeper.)
Becoming More Evangelistically Mission-Shaped:
a Methodist, Wesleyan Perspective 127
(For all, but especially those for whom Christian tradition is significant and formative.)
Great Awakenings: Past, Present, and Future 152
If We Knew Then What We Think We Know Now 157
A propos de l’auteur
Kenneth H. Carter, Jr. is the resident bishop of the Western North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church. Along with the Cabinet, he gives pastoral and administrative leadership to over 1, 000 congregations, fresh expressions of church, campus ministries, andoutreach initiatives in an episcopal area that stretches across the 44 western counties of the state.Bishop Carter served as the president of the Council of Bishops of The United Methodist Church from 2018-2020, and he was one of three moderators of The Commission on a Way Forward, from 2016 to 2018. In addition to his responsibilities with the Western North Carolina Conference, he is bishop-in-residence and a consulting faculty member at Duke University Divinity School. He served as bishop of the Florida Conference from 2012-2022.Bishop Carter is the author of eighteen books, and his editorials have appeared in the Charlotte Observer, Greensboro News and Record, and Winston-Salem Journal. His commentary on Christianity in the United States has appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, and on National Public Radio.
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