As we embark on a new millenium, uncharted challenges await the church. This volume by one of today's most valued voices on modern church life offers a wealth of insight into the role of local churches in the twenty-first century. Rooted in solid biblical research and extensive experience, Marva Dawn's newest book will help churches and their leaders avoid falling into the temptations of contemporary secular culture, including the popular "success" models of church management. Dawn offers ground-breaking scholarship - from the first significant critique of Walter Wink's work on "the powers" to a relevant new translation of 2 Corinthians 12:9 - and challenges readers to rethink the goals and mission of the congregation, to develop practices that follow God's "hidden" way of weakness, and to expand their sense of what it means to be a faithful church. Complete with discussion questions, this book provides the trustworthy theological and biblical foundations necessary for building strong churches - and keeping them strong - in today's world.
Average Rating: 5 out of 5 stars(5 out of 5 stars)
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5 out of 5 stars
Reviewed by Nelson Banuchi (Glendale), October 20, 2005
I never thought a book could be so good. Marva has given me (1) the overall scheme of the demonic and how they work in the world; (2) a better understanding of my own frustrations within the local church; (3) a better focus on where to direct my energies in living as a believer in Christ.
It is my firm people that this bok should be required reading for every pastor, a reading that should be studied and discussed with other members of one's community. But I would not leave out the regular guy; he, too, should carefully read it.
The most personally convicting read was when Marva quotes Valentine Sventitsky, where the last part of it reads, "Anything wrong, distorted, and impure that we see within the Church is not the Church. To avoid associating with it we do not have to leave the Church enclosure, we must simply refuse to participate in that which is evil. Then will be fulfilled the words 'to the pure all things are pure' (Titus 1:5)" (p.122).
Her discussion on the "armour of God" and hospitality are excellent reads.
I am going to read it again more slowly, more studiously. Each chapter brought me to a greater height of spiritual understanding, like steps up a light that gets brighter and brighter as I get closer and closer.
5 out of 5 stars
Reviewed by david dark (nashvegas), March 30, 2001
This is the next step for anyone already taken with Dawn's insights elsewhere. Christ's victory made perfect our weakness and our call to suffering servanthood. If you have the creeping suspicion that the triumphal, quick-fix theology most loudly among American churches is killing us, this is what you're looking for. SO much of the tabernacling described (incidentally) is evident in Sarah Masen's _The Dreamlife of Angels_. check it out at sarahmasen.com
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