This is is a highly pro-scriptive book that tells us how our local church fellowships should work. He uses the life of Paul the Apostle, who wrote many of the Epistles in the New Testament, as a background for many of his own arguments. Scot McKnight has written many books, including THE JESUS CREED, THE KING JESUS GOSPEL, ONE LIFE, and THE BLUE PARAKEET. , as well as writing commentaries on Epistles such as Galations and 1 Peter. He is a Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary, Lombard, Illinois. He begins with two chapters that serve as prologues to the rest of the book ans set the tone for this book. He then breaks the book into six parts. Part 1 is covers grace. Part 2 covers love. Part 3 covers the Eucharist and is called "Table." Part 4 covers holiness. Part 5 covers the four qualities that should be form redemption in the life of the fellowship of a local church. The last part, Part 6, covers stories and illustrations showing what this renewed fellowship will look like. This book ends with an appendix, an afterward, notes for sources, a Scripture index, and a subject index.
This book is a quick read and I read it in a matter of only days. As it is heavily pro-scriptive and loaded with what we are to do to make church fellowships work, I found it easy to think "Yeah, yeah, yeah, this is what we should do. A bunch of principles to apply." The author does realize and addresses in this book that because of our very imperfection that trying to make his ideas work would be messy. I'm glad that he asserts that the most neglected people group in our local churches are widows/widowers. But we can add to the list of neglected people those with disabilities. They were not mentioned at all in the book even though the author mentions many other people who are typically invisible and marginalized in our local churches. Culturally Deaf people in the United States, those who communicate through American Sign Language (people in Deaf communities in other countries in the West communicate in other sign languages), usually worship in their own local churches with others in the Deaf community. Now I know of a local church in my own community which, to their credit, have set up a service which is targeted to those who communicate through American Sign Language. Though many may make fun of large megachurches and televangelists, some of them have integrated culturally Deaf people into worship and teaching through the use of Sign Language interpreters. Now I know that accommodating many people with disabilities into the life of local churches will cost money (interpreters, for example, are not cheap) and other "invisible" people cost no money to the local church to accommodate so this may be why the disabled got overlooked. I do not know. The author even devotes a chapter to sexuality and addresses the current hot-button issue of the Church as we confront homosexuality and the GLBT community. I could not tell the author's own position on same sex marriage and other "GLBT rights" as his approach is so positive that he indeed affirms the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman. This author cannot be accused of ranting about what he opposes because he is about shouting out for what he is for rather than screaming at what he opposes. He steers away from being controversial even when addressing hot-button topics with his positivity. This book is interesting reading and is pretty much what I expected. The title may indicate that this book is focused on accommodating those with recognized differences in the life of our local churches. He seems more concerned with integrating diverse people already in our congregations than with pulling new people in. It seems that he assumes that if we are united in diversity, we will pull new people in. One time, in a college course, I heard an international student say that what turned her off the the Christian Church was lack of unity. I have long felt that there is far too little diversity in our local churches, which seem to consist of mostly Caucasian, middle to upper middle class, affluent, educated, Establishment people. I have seen it in most local churches I have visited or belonged to. I wonder if part of that is because the way we "do church" turns off those who tend to stay away, such as the poor, working-class people, those with disabilities, and those of other races and ethnicities. This lack of diversity in our local fellowships seems to be be across-the-board and to be true in most denominations and non-denominational church bodies though I know there are always notable exceptions. Jesus prayed for unity in the Church but what He meant by Church are all believers, whether they meet in a church building or in countries with no organized church buildings, who follow Him and name Him as Savior and Lord. I was not satisfied with this author seeming to link the Church with the organized local churches in our communities within denominations.
I recommend this book for every Pastor and for all church leaders. I especially recommend this book for all who sit on church boards and who control the decision-making in local churches. The message of this book is badly needed. But I do not think they will find much here for how to pull in new people. This book is about bringing unity among those who are already in the pews. Because of this author's affirming and positive approach, I recommend this book for all types of churchgoers and followers of Christ of all different backgrounds who love Christ and want to see their local congregations become more diverse.
I received this book free of charge from Book Look Bloggers, in exchange for my honest review of this book. I was not required to give a positive review of this book.
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