What role do varied understandings of the church play in the doctrine and interpretation of Scripture? In The Church’s Book, Brad East explores recent accounts of the Bible and its exegesis in modern theology and traces the differences made by divergent, and sometimes opposed, theological accounts of the church. Surveying first the work of Karl Barth, then that of John Webster, Robert Jenson, and John Howard Yoder (following an excursus on interpreting Yoder’s work in light of his abuse), East delineates the distinct understandings of Scripture embedded in the different traditions that these notable scholars represent. In doing so, he offers new insight into the current impasse between Christians in their understandings of Scripture—one determined far less by hermeneutical approaches than by ecclesiological disagreements. East’s study is especially significant amid the current prominence of the theological interpretation of Scripture, which broadly assumes that the Bible ought to be read in a way that foregrounds confessional convictions and interests. As East discusses in the introduction to his book, that approach to Scripture cannot be separated from questions of ecclesiology—in other words, how we interpret the Bible theologically is dependent upon the context in which we interpret it.

JR Woodward and Dan White Jr. have trained church planters all over North America. In this interactive field manual, they help you and your team gain eight key competencies crucial for church planting so that you can create churches that flourish and launch their own sustainable missional and incarnational congregations.

The Church That Works: Democracy vs. Theocracy is a focus on how giving back His church releases followers of Jesus Christ to serve and unleashes God's power to back them. When authority rises from the people, the enabling power for ministry goes no higher than their heads. When authority flows from the Head of the Church through the offices He gave, it brings His power, all power in Heaven and earth, to bear on human needs. The church that works wins its own children, reaches its neighbors, blesses its community, and makes God known to its generation, and the next, around the world. That church necessarily will be one in which the people, not just the clergy, do the work of the ministry. More than a body of believers, the church is a body of Christian workers. When the people falter in ministry, the church fails in its mission. The church cannot work if the people who are called to lead are forced to follow or if those called to follow are trying to lead. The Church That Works explores giving Real Power to the People.

Rodney Clapp asks and answers the question, How can the church provide a significant alternative to the culture in which it is embedded?

Biblical scholar Robert Wall and pastoral leader Anthony Robinson here join forces to bring the Acts of the Apostles forward to our time as a resource for congregational renewal and transformation.Featuring both careful exegetical study and exciting contemporary exposition, the fifteen chapters of Called to Be Church each first interpret the text of Acts as Scripture and then engage Acts for today's church. The book dives into many of the most vexing issues faced by the church then and now -- such issues as conflict resolution, pluralism and multiculturalism, sexuality, money, church and state, the role of the Holy Spirit, and more.Enhanced by study questions at the end of each chapter, Called to Be Church will lend itself especially well to small-group study within congregations. Pastors, lay readers, students, and ordinary believers alike will find the book helpful and inspiring.

The face of America is growing rapidly more diverse, and many churches are wondering what it means to carry out the Great Commission in a community where different ethnicities are represented. Being the Church in a Multi-Ethnic Community is an introductory guide, a basic primer for pastors and congregation leaders who are wrestling with how to reach the ethnic groups next door and welcome them into the multi-ethnic body of Christ. Gary L. McIntosh and Alan McMahan offer a research-based overview of the issues, challenges, and essential principles for developing multi-ethnic churches in the United States. Rather than being a one-size-fits-all, this book describes a variety of approaches for bringing multiple ethnicities together into a single congregation. Learn how your church can be effective in welcoming disciples of all ethnicities.

The church is a believing family, a community of missionaries and worshipers. This book is a call to children and families to be God's people and to live as God has made them to be.