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Recommended Books

Missional Church

The Forgotten Ways

Alan Hirsch

Hirsch offers some excellent insight into signifcant questions of ecclesiology. The Forgotten Ways offers insight into what Hirsch calls the "apostolic genius" and mDNA (missional DNA). It is thoughtful, biblical, and practical.

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The Great Giveaway

David E. Fitch

This is a searing but loving insider critique of the individualism that marks North American evangelicals. Fitch, senior pastor of the Life on the Vine Christian community in Arlington Heights, Ill., blames an embrace of modernism for attempts by evangelicals to "individualize, commodify, and package Christianity." He criticizes mega-churches that end up functioning like capitalist businesses with CEO-style pastors judging success by the number of "decisions for Christ" produced. Each chapter outlines the various ways evangelicalism has "given away" its influence and then offers concrete practices designed to help the church reclaim its mission. Fitch's most scathing criticism is saved for the evangelical willingness to embrace modern psychology, which he blasts as patient-centered rather than Christ-centered. He challenges evangelical churches to think smaller (in terms of congregation size), place less focus on coercive evangelism, return to communal catechesis, offer more liturgical worship and provide opportunities for small group intimacy where Christians can confess their sins, repent, read scripture and pray together regularly. Intellectually rigorous, this book's critical tone will undoubtedly upset many conservative evangelicals, but will point the way for the more moderate ones for years to come. (Oct. 15)

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The Kingdom of God

This Beautiful Mess

Rick McKinley

Rick McKinley, pastor of Imago Dei Community, our mother church, wrote The Beautiful Mess to explain what the gospel of the Kingdom looks like in our world today. He explores many of Jesus' sayings and parables about the Kingdom of God and illustrates with contemporary examples of the Kingdom manifesting today through the church. The book does an excellent job of fleshing out an 'already-not yet' theology of the Kingdom and helps clarify what the gospel of Jesus actually was.

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