The Church in Emerging Culture: Five Perspectives

by Leonard Sweet, Andy Crouch, Erwin Raphael McManus, et al.

Book Overview

What should the church look like today? What should be the focus of its message? How should I present that message? We live in as pivotal and defining an age as the Great Depression or the Sixties-a... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0310254876
• ISBN13: 9780310254874
• Release Date: October 2003
• Publisher: Zondervan
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 7.4" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Great resource for information on the Emergent Church

I have greatly enjoyed this book. The conversation format provokes thought and adds a level of depth and clarity that is rarely experienced (especially in books concerning the Emergent Church). Moreover, the contributors approach the topic from different views, which allows the reader to see different sides of the issue and make a decision for him/herself. If you are curious as to what the key issues are for this topic/discussion, this is the book for you!

Decent introduction of topic

The book gives five different perspectives, from five different authors, on how the church should respond to an increasing post-modern culture. It is in a sense a modern day discussion of H. Richard Niebuhr's classic text Christ and Culture. The five perspectives are introduced by Leonard Sweet with a four quadrant matrix. The matrix represents the church's response to cultural change on two axes, change in method/form/style and change in message/content/substance. The four quadrants are then described with the following four phrases: preserving message/preserving methods, preserving message/evolving methods, evolving message/preserving methods, and evolving message/evolving methods. The five perspectives then deal with each of the four options (with two taking up the first option of preserving message and preserving methods. List strengths of book. The main strength of the book is that it covers the topic very well, with good dialogue going back and forth between the five authors. The topics are discussed with great thoughtfulness and insight. I especially liked the use of the matrix mentioned above, in the introduction by Sweet. List weaknesses of book. While the book was very interesting to read it shared little practical advice for the church to actually engage the culture. The book would certainly have been strengthened with examples of theory that was shared by each author. Additionally, I found the chapter by Erwin McManus to be the weakest of the five perspectives, it seem almost incoherent at times.

A little annoying, but mostly interesting...

Two comments have already been made, but I would like to reiterate. The light gray, italicized, 6 pt font used for interjections by other authors during an essay is hard to read. McLaren talks way too much, especially when he says the same thing over and over and takes EVERYTHING personally. He thinks his point of view is the only one worth having, and seems rather arrogant in his intellect. Having said the few negatives, it is overall a good read. I would love to hear a more detailed view of what each author truly believes church should be like (which I know most of them have been published and anyone could read what they've written elsewhere). It also seems that the only real discrepancies are in their view of what "postmodernism" really is. As far as the actual workings of church, they could probably find a lot of common ground. But, they give very little actual advice on what church should be like. Overall, it is an interesting book full of interesting ideas about the current culture. Leonard Sweet's introduction must be read to truly understand the rest of the book, but it gets a little too flowery at times.

A Thought-Provoking and Engaging Dialogue

This book is not your usual book discussing some topic or idea within Christianity where a single author puts forward a point or idea and the reader is left to interact only with that one point. This work asks five writers to discuss how Christianity can reach out to present culture in the West (modern, postmodern, ultramodern, hypermodern or what-have-you) and engage it. Each author comes from a very different perspective and thus offers different ideas and critiques of what should be done, what will work and what may not work. What makes this book special, however, is that the other contributors have been allowed to insert comments into each essay. The author of the essay is them allowed a "final word" to address those comments. This creates a dialogue for the reader to see and engage with intellectually. Often, one of the other contributors offered a comment or criticism that I hadn't thought of that really helped me in my process of critically thinking through the issues at hand. I then got to see how the author of the essay responded. The book's very unique approach really allowed me to better work through the issues presented and I applaud the editor and contributors for having the courage, respect and humility to enter into the dialogue with those who don't agree with their perspectives. The result is a discussion that I found truly enriching.

Thought provoking journey

I was really impressed with this book. For some reason, I have not really heard it talked about or seen it advertised very much. I ordered it not knowing much about it and have been truly impressed. The book is sort of a modern day reflection of the classic book Christ and Culture. The book looks at different ways of addressing the issues the emerging is facing:1. preserving message, preserving methods2. preserving message, evolving methods3. evolving message, preserving methods4. evolving message, evolving methodsDefinatly check this one out. The author's don't always agree on what postmodernism is or how we should treat it.