The Difficult But Indispensable Church

by Norma Cook Everist

Overview

Why is it so difficult to be church today? Of course, Christian community is marked by ennobling worship, mutual care, and joyful celebration. But just as often it is marred by staid routine, insularity, and disagreement over leadership, budgets, ethical stances, or even the shape of congregational prayer itself. Alienation, blame, and power struggles ensue. Is church worth it? In this volume of fresh thinking about life in Christian community, twenty-one theologians from Wartburg Seminary strongly attest to Christ-centered community, offering new views of church as the indispensable site of radical Christian commitment and an essential healer for a hurting world.

Reflective churchgoers will find here a virtual theological guide to church renewal. In part 1 the authors show how church can model an alternative vision of community, helping people achieve well-being and health, even as their differences are affirmed. Part 2 gets to the heart of Christian practice through creative discussions of belief, fellowship, encounters with Scripture, preaching, and moral deliberation. Part 3 finds the church in motion in new ways of understanding discipleship and mission near and far. Part 4 shows how a Christ-inspired openness can reveal new perspectives on tough issues of public policy, race and class, and ordination of gays and lesbians. Modeling what they espouse, the authors find unanimity in affirming the strengths of diversity, the unsuspected key to church renewal.

Contributors include: James L. Bailey, Karen L. Bloomquist, Norma Cook Everist, Roger W. Fjeld, Ann L. Fritschel, Paul Hill, Peter L. Kjeseth, L. Shannon Jung, Duane H. Larson, Elizabeth A. Leeper, David J. Lull, Craig L. Nessan, James R. Nieman, Daniel L. Olson, Winston Persaud, Duane A. Priebe, Ralph W. Quere, David A. Ramse, Gwen B. Sayler, Thomas H. Schattauer, and H. S. Wilson.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780800634780
Publisher:	1517 Media
Publication date:	05/22/2002
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	286
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.68(d)

About the Author

Norma Cook Everist is Professor of Church and Ministry at Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa. She is editor of The Difficult but Indispensable Church (2002, 9780800634780), and author of Open the Doors and See All the People: Stories of Church Identity and Vocation (Lutheran Voices, 2004, 9780806651613).

Table of Contents

Contributors

Foreword

Inroduction

PART ONE

Personhood in Community: Indispensability in Christ

Seeking Peace in the Assembly: God's Mission, Our Worship, and the World's Hope

Thomas H. Schattauer

Life Together Is Only in God: The Achievement of Personhood in Community

Duane H. Larson

The Psalms: Individual Laments as Communal Hymns

Ann L. Fritschel

The Well-Being of Individuals and the Health of the Community

Daniel L. Olson

Re-Membering the Body of Christ: Creating Trustworthy Places to Be Different Together

Norma Cook Everist

PART TWO

The Church's Heart: The Indispensable Power of Christ

The Pauline Letters as Models for Christian Practice: 1 Thessalonians as a Case Study

James L. Bailey

Believing in God through Others: Believing in God for Others

Duane A. Priebe

The Community of Faith as a Confessional Norm: Universalism and Evangelism

Ralph W. Quere

Living Together Faithfully with Our Different Readings of the Bible

David J. Lull

Practice Where You Preach: Conditions for Good Preachers

James R. Nieman

Communio as a Basis for Moral Formation, Deliberation and Action

Karen L. Bloomquist

PART THREE

The Church of God in Motion: The Indispensability of Mission

We Are the Body of Christ: Ecclesiology for a Church in Mission

Craig L. Nessan

The Church as Organism: Characteristics of a Young Church

David A. Ramse

Mission as an Oriental Fan: A Plea for Missionhood of All Believers

H. S. Wilson

Youth and Family Ministry as Congregational and Community Renewal

Paul G. Hill

Discovering Hope: Marks of Vitality and Practices That Form Communities for Mission

L. Shannon Jung

PART FOUR

A Church of All People: The Indispensable Challenge

American Civil Religion: A De Facto Church

Roger W. Fjeld

Imagining the New Community in Christ and the Challenges of Race and Class

Winston D. Persaud

The Body of Christ and the Issue of Required Celibacy

Gwen B. Sayler

Can This Community Live? A Historical and Contemporary Perspective

Elizabeth A. Leeper

After the Jubilee: The Church's Advocacy Role

Peter L. Kjeseth

Afterward

Notes