Description:
Something is not right. The witness of the church in North America is eroding.
Many Christians are alarmed by the decline in church attendance and seek a culprit. Too often, we point the finger away from the church, make culture the enemy, and build walls between us and others. But our antagonism and enemy-making are toxins that further eat away at our witness. Is there a better way?
Tara Beth Leach could easily be one of those millennials giving up on the church. Instead, she is a pastor who loves the church and is paradoxically hopeful for its future. In an era where the church has lost much of its credibility, Leach casts a radiant vision for Christians to rediscover a robust, attractive witness.
We need to name the toxic soil we've grown in, repent for past wrongs, and lean into a better way to become the church that Jesus proclaimed we would be. Leach casts down idolatrous false images of God to recover a winsome picture of a kingdom of abundance and goodness. We can be sustained by practices that will tune our hearts to God's and form us into the radiant communities God intends for us and those around us.
Brief description: Tara Beth Leach is associate pastor at Christ Church of Oak Brook, Illinois. She formerly served as senior pastor at First Church of the Nazarene of Pasadena ("PazNaz") in Pasadena, California. A regular writer for Missio Alliance, she is also the author of Emboldened and Radiant Church.
Review Quotes:
"If you're about to give up on the church, wait. Read this first. And don't be surprised if you begin to be drawn in by the beautiful and robust vision of Jesus' church for the first time, again."
--J. R. Briggs, author of The Sacred Overlap