Confident Witness--changing World: Rediscovering the Gospel in North America

Front Cover
Craig Van Gelder
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1999 - Religion - 313 pages
International Bulletin of Missionary Research
"This is a bold book. The challenge to risk is first taken up by the writers, who model for us ways to begin revising outworn attitudes. Rethinking discipleship as radical love in a society that dismisses Christianity and reworking theological constructs in the light of the 'manifold nature of experience' are not easy tasks. Other voices need to be heard--and will be--as this book enables educators, pastors, and congregations to rediscover the Gospel in our changing world and respond with confident witness."

Library Journal
"With some care, 21 scholars and religious leaders negotiate the modern meaning of the scriptural obligation of mission for North America. Their replies to this complex question make for a fascinating cross-section of mainline Protestantism's view of itself and of contemporary culture: film, post-modernism, poverty, and the growing strength of Asian American Christianity. Recommended for all collections strong in the study of religion and for church study groups."

Southwestern Journal of Theology
"A collection of deeply thoughtful yet highly accessible essays. . . Those ministering within a North American context ignore the issues raised--and the answers suggested--by the book's contributors, only at their own peril."

 

Selected pages

Contents

Introduction
xiv
The Missionary Location of the North American Churches
3
Christian Living in a Fragmented World
16
The Gospel in a Digital Age
26
Reading Postmodern Culture through the Medium of Movies
39
From Christendom to Diaspora
67
Engaging the Powers in Urban North America
80
Syncretism in North American Christianity
94
Hearing the Gospel with AsianAmerican Ears
171
Witness to the Gospel and Refounding the Church
189
The Model of E Stanley Jones
203
The Prophetic Voice of Poverty
219
Gifts from the Global Church
232
The Church in a Postmodern Context
241
A Practical Approach to the Renewal of the Church
260
A Theology of Worship for the Church in Postmodern Times
270

A New Mission Situation for the Church 1 Peter 112 and 1725
110
Hearing the Gospel Again for the First Time
127
Models for a Missional Church in North America
141
Preaching to Postmodern People
155
How to Facilitate Change toward a Missionary Identity
283
Epilogue
301
The People of God as a Hermeneutic of the Gospel
303
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About the author (1999)

Craig Van Gelder is professor emeritus of congregationalmission at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota. His otherbooks include The Missional Church inPerspective and The Ministry of the MissionalChurch.,

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