THE MESSAGE OF THE CHURCH
Assemble the people before me
By Chris Green
IVP. 336 pages. £12.99
ISBN 978 1 844 748 785
Some say that evangelicals have no ecclesiol-ogy. We attend church, we give out and we receive at church, but what is the message of the church? That is the question Chris Green looks at in this book, which is a welcome addition to the BST Bible Themes series.
The author considers the doctrine of the church, starting by taking us on a journey ‘from eternity, to Eden, to exodus, to exile, to eternity’, focussing on key supporting passages from Ephesians, Genesis, Galatians, Colossians, Exodus, Hebrews and Matthew.
Having used these first chapters to clearly outline the biblical basis for the church, we are then given a survey of ‘various dimensions’ of the life and ministry of the church, starting in Acts 2. As our reading progresses we focus on the compassion, the meal, the praise, and unity of the church. This is a big task.
Missing topics?
The book is a survey of ‘the message of the church’ and this does mean that there are areas of church life and ministry that some readers will no doubt find are not given the attention they deserve. For example, those looking for a detailed analysis and discussion on the Lord’s Day and its observance will be disappointed. But this may not be the right way to approach the book. Probably that would have more to do with our own individual backgrounds and the churches and denominations that we belong to.
In the section ‘Putting it all together: Part two’, Green adapts and adds to Rick Warren’s ‘diamond diagram’ of the purposes of a church from his book The Purpose Driven Church. He readily acknowledges that Warren’s book has attracted praise and loathing in almost equal measure, and no doubt readers will have their own views on this. But Chris Green has taken what he has found to be useful and adapted it to his way of describing how churches organise themselves.
You may not agree with all that Green writes about church doctrine, or his comments on ‘worship’ or ‘calling’, but the essence of this book really makes the reader get back to thinking about ‘church doctrine’ and why we follow the practices we do. This is surely enough to recommend it.
The book was written while Chris Green was a lecturer at Oak Hill. He has since moved to St James Church, Muswell Hill, where he was appointed vicar in January 2014.
