{"product_id":"who-is-the-church-an-ecclesiology-for-the-twenty-first-century-9780800698812","title":"Who Is the Church? an Ecclesiology for the Twenty-First Century","description":"\u003cp\u003eMany congregations today are beset by fears, whether over loss of members and money, or of irrelevancy in an increasingly pluralistic society. To counter this, many congregations focus on strategy and purposewhat churches \"do\"but Cheryl Peterson submits that mainline churches need to focus instead on \"what\" or \"who\" they areto reclaim a theological, rather than sociological, understanding of themselves.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTo do this, she places the questions of the church's identity and mission into a conversation with the primary ecclesiological paradigms of the past century: the neo-Reformation concept of the church as a \"word event\" and the ecumenical paradigms of the church as \"communion.\" She argues that these two paradigms assume a context of cultural Christendom that no longer existsfocused on the church that is gatheredrather than the missional church that is sent out.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePeterson suggests instead that we understand the church as a people created by the Spirit to be a community, and that we must claim a narrative method to explore the church's identityspecifically, the story of the church's origin in the Acts of the Apostles. Finally, here is a way of thinking of church that reconciles the best of competing models of church for the future of mainline Protestant theology.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=AUTH-6641622\"\u003eCheryl M. Peterson\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Fortress Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 05\/01\/2013\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 176\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.61lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.96h x 6.10w x 0.40d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780800698812\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0800698819\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBISAC Categories:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=CAT-REL\"\u003eReligion\u003c\/a\u003e | \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=BISAC-REL067050\"\u003eChristian Theology | Ecclesiology\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=CAT-REL\"\u003eReligion\u003c\/a\u003e | \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=BISAC-REL067110\"\u003eChristian Theology | Systematic\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e- \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=CAT-REL\"\u003eReligion\u003c\/a\u003e | \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/sureshotbooks-com.myshopify.com\/search?type=product%2Carticle%2Cpage\u0026amp;q=BISAC-REL108000\"\u003eChristian Church | General\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThis title is not returnable\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Fortress Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44522640048365,"sku":"9780800698812","price":41.17,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0550\/8097\/6621\/products\/img_76b72649-1637-43a7-a389-52d39cf21c38.jpg?v=1701305827","url":"https:\/\/sureshotbooks.com\/products\/who-is-the-church-an-ecclesiology-for-the-twenty-first-century-9780800698812","provider":"SureShot Books Publishing LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}