Guder, Hays and Barth on the missionary nature of the local church

“The reason Christians are formed into communities is because of God’s work to make a people to serve him as Christ’s witnesses.  The congregation is either a missional community–as Newbigin defines it, ‘the hermeneutic of the gospel’ (The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, 222ff.)–or it is ultimately a caricature of the people of God that it is called to be.”
Darrell L. Guder, The Continuing Conversion of the Church (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000), 136.

“If we ask, ‘What is God doing in the world in the interval between resurrection and parousia?’ the answer must be given, for Paul, primarily in ecclesial terms: God is at work through the Spirit to create communities that prefigure and embody the reconciliation and healing of the world.”
Richard B. Hays, “Ecclesiology and Ethics in 1 Corinthians,”  Ex Auditu 10 (1994): 32.  Cf. 31-43.

“As an apostolic Church the Church can never in any respect be an end in itself, but, following the existence of the apostles, it exists only as it exercises the ministry of a herald.”
Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics  4/1 (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1956), 724.  

Working bibliography of recent church and missiology books:

• 

  Alan Hirsch: The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church

• 

  Alan Roxburgh, Fred Romanuk, and Eddie Gibbs : The Missional Leader: Equipping Your Church to Reach a Changing World (J-B Leadership Network Series)

• 

  Craig Van Gelder: The Ministry of the Missional Church: A Community Led by the Spirit

• Craig Van Gelder, ed.: The Missional Church in Context: Helping Congregations Develop Contextual Ministry (Missional Church Series)

• 

  Darrell Guder, ed.: Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America (The Gospel and Our Culture Series)

• 

  David E. Fitch: The Great Giveaway: Reclaiming the Mission of the Church from Big Business, Parachurch Organizations, Psychotherapy, Consumer Capitalism, and Other Modern Maladies

• 

  Ed Stetzer: Breaking the Missional Code: Your Church Can Become a Missionary in Your Community

• 

  Ed Stetzer: Planting Missional Churches

• 

  Eddie Gibbs and Ryan Bolger: Emerging Churches: Creating Christian Community in Postmodern Cultures

• 

  Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch: The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the 21 Century Church

• 

  Neil Cole: Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens

• 

  Patrick Keifert: We Are Here Now: A New Missional Era

• 

  Paul Wesley Chilcote and Laceye C. Warner: The Study of Evangelism: Exploring a Missional Practice of the Church

• 

  Rick Rouse and Craig Van Gelder: A Field Guide for the Missional Congregation: Embarking on a Journey of Transformation

• 

  Thom S. Rainer: Simple Church: Returning to God’s Process for Making Disciples

Working bibliography of classic church and missiology books:

• 

  Andrew F. Walls: The Missionary Movement in Christian History: Studies in Transmission of Faith

• 

  David
  Jacobus Bosch: Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of
  Mission (American Society of Missiology Series, No. 16)

• 

  John Howard Yoder: For the Nations: Essays Evangelical and Public

• 

  John Howard Yoder: The Royal Priesthood: Essays Ecclesiological and Ecumenical

• 

  Lamin Sanneh: Translating the Message: The Missionary Impact on Culture (American Society of Missiology)

• 

  Lesslie Newbigin: The Gospel in a Pluralist Society

• 

  Lesslie Newbigin: The Open Secret: An Introduction to the Theology of Mission

• 

  Lesslie Newbigin: Foolishness to the Greeks: The Gospel and Western Culture

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