Description: A movement manifesto for a more hopeful and Jesus-centered Christianity
Over five hundred years ago, the Western church underwent a period of massive recalibration that exposed abuses and theological blind spots and revived the historical foundations of Christianity. Today, signs suggest that we have entered another such religious reformation as new technologies, ecclesial scandals, and a crisis of biblical authority leave many Christians adrift or deconstructing the faith they once took for granted. The Christian story the church has been telling has become too small, and we are at a dead end.
There is hope. Author and pastor Meghan Larissa Good invites readers into a movement that is finding ways to tell a better Christian story--a movement that is already emerging spontaneously as a work of the Spirit in many different wings of the church. Along the way, readers will encounter core rediscoveries of this authentic, Jesus-centered Christianity: through Christ, God is breathing life among us, restoring creation, and reconciling all divided things. In this better story, isolation, intolerance, polarization, and death have no grip. This story satisfies our deep spiritual hunger, beckoning us to renew the church for the coming centuries and reignite a world-changing global movement.
Brief description: Meghan Larissa Good is lead pastor at Trinity Mennonite Church in Glendale, Arizona. She has degrees from Gordon College, Duke Divinity School, and Portland Seminary. In addition to being a passionate preacher and storyteller, she is in demand as a speaker on biblical hermeneutics, Anabaptism, and contemporary preaching. She is also the author of The Bible Unwrapped: Making Sense of Scripture Today.
Review Quotes: "Though it is still far off most people's radar screen, there is a grassroots movement of the Spirit around the globe in which individuals and groups are rediscovering the beauty of a Jesus-centered God who empowers them to live like Jesus in order to partner with God in transforming our world in a Jesus-kind-of-way. With this powerful and insightful book, Meghan Larissa Good gives voice to this rising movement, highlighting its distinctive convictions while addressing how it corrects distortions of the gospel in the past. In the process, she presents a vision of God, the church, and the world that is as refreshing as it is compelling. If you're one of the many who have lost hope in the church, or who just got bored, you owe it to yourself to read this remarkable book!"
--GREGORY A. BOYD, senior pastor of Woodland Hills Church in Maplewood, Minnesota, president of ReKnew Ministries (ReKnew.org), and author of Cross Vision