center church is finished
I finished 'Center Church' by Tim Keller earlier today. It was fantastic. I plan on giving it a much more thorough review at a later date but here are some of my initial reactions: + the American Church has a HUGE opportunity in front of it when it comes to urban church planting + understanding the unique culture of your city, and specifically your neighborhood, goes incredibly far in your effectiveness at sharing the Gospel + working across denominational lines has never been as important as it is now + church planting should be a priority for every Gospel driven church + understanding where to encourage the culture is just as important as knowing where to challenge it + no one church model is a home run. We need to balance our ministry with the strengths of different models + the late modern individual finds it hard to understand the traditional ways of evangelism. We must define our terms and approach evangelism from a different angle + Gospel contextualization is vital to reaching both non-Christians and Christians + our worship and sermons should edify Christians and educate non-Christians at the same time + churches must equip people to live with Christian distinctiveness in the world. This means teaching people how to do their jobs from a Christian worldview + basic discipleship is not enough anymore. America is becoming more and more anti-Christian. + churches and Christians must be on mission at work, in their families, and in their neighborhoods + Gospel renewal must happen
There is so much more to review from this book. This is just a bit of what's bouncing around my head. You should give this book the next slot on your reading list, it's definitely worth the investment of time.