Becoming the Church: God's People in Purpose and Power

by Claude R. Alexander

Overview

Many today have given up on church. But God has not and does not give up on the church. The church is God's idea. And once we truly understand what God has in mind for his people, we can become who he wants us to be.

Bishop Claude Alexander shows how the original Christians did not always understand what the church was supposed to be, but God worked in them anyway to become the community that he intended. After the resurrection of Jesus, his followers were transformed from disillusion and doubt to become a people of conviction and new life. The book of Acts describes the unfolding purposes, principles, and practices discovered by the apostles as they gave themselves to Christ's call. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we too can be transformed by Jesus and model to the world what it means to know him—as the church.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781514005729
Publisher:	InterVarsity Press
Publication date:	12/06/2022
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Bishop Claude R. Alexander Jr. is senior pastor of The Park Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. He serves on the board of Christianity Today, Mission America Coalition, Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, and Movement.org. He is the chair of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary's board of trustees and a past president of the Hampton University Ministers Conference. He and his wife, Kimberly, have two daughters. He is also the author of Necessary Christianity.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Being and Becoming
1. If You Get Jesus, You Get the Church: Thomas
2. Second Chances: Peter
3. Called to Mission: Matthew
4. People of Purpose: Luke
5. A Divine Assignment
6. Empowered to Proclaim
7. A Community of Commitments
8. Transformed by Jesus: The Lame Man at the Temple
9. Offering a Word from God
10. Evident Boldness
11. Living in the Tension
12. How God's People Pray
13. Together in Everything
14. The Church at Its Worst
15. Growing into the Future
Epilogue

Questions for Reflection or Discussion
Notes

What People are Saying About This

Tom Lin

"Bishop Alexander's love for the church inspires us and challenges us. With thoughtful imagination and examination of the early church, he masterfully weaves together a tapestry of biblical voices that speaks to a beautiful vision of the church. This book is an essential guide for anyone wanting to help churches become what God intended, beginning with ourselves."

Editorial Reviews

10/03/2022

In this formally inventive treatise, Alexander (Necessary Christianity), a pastor at the Park Church in Charlotte, N.C., explores “what God intends for the church to be” by examining its the role in the gospels and the book of Acts. Writing in the first person as apostles Luke, Matthew, Peter, and Thomas, Alexander reflects on how their biblical stories reveal God’s vision for the church. For example, Alexander writes from the perspective of Thomas, “I did not understand... that Jesus called us both to himself and to each other,” suggesting that Thomas’s departure from the church following Jesus’s crucifixion failed to recognize Jesus’s intention for Christians to commune with God by connecting with other followers. Alexander switches to the third person to examine Acts, explaining that the church’s power derives from the Holy Spirit and should be used to spread the word of God. Alexander’s points about the community and evangelistic purposes of the church will be familiar to Christians, but the sections from the perspectives of the disciples make for a creative approach to exegesis. The imaginative presentation elevates the commonplace arguments. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

"Bishop Alexander's love for the church inspires us and challenges us. With thoughtful imagination and examination of the early church, he masterfully weaves together a tapestry of biblical voices that speaks to a beautiful vision of the church. This book is an essential guide for anyone wanting to help churches become what God intended, beginning with ourselves."

Tom Lin