Center Church: Doing Balanced, Gospel-Centered Ministry in Your City [Unabridged] [Audible Audio Edition] Author: | Language: English | ISBN:
B008YQ1R7M | Format: PDF, EPUB
Center Church: Doing Balanced, Gospel-Centered Ministry in Your City Epub FreePosts about Download The Book Center Church: Doing Balanced, Gospel-Centered Ministry in Your City Epub Free from mediafire, rapishare, and mirror link
Many pastors struggle to translate their theological beliefs into fruitful ministry in the places they are called to reach. It's not enough to simply know what to believe (theology), or on the other hand, how to do ministry (methodology) - they need something in between. They need help thinking about ministry in a culture that no longer believes Christianity is a force for good, let alone the source of ultimate revealed truth in the person of Christ.
This unabridged audiobook, a collection of 12 essays by Timothy Keller, outlines a theological vision for ministry that is organized around three core commitments:
- Gospel-centered: The gospel of grace in Jesus Christ changes everything, from our hearts to our community to the world. It completely reshapes the content, tone, and strategy of all that we do;
- City-centered: With a positive approach toward our culture, we learn to affirm that cities are wonderful, strategic, and underserved places for gospel ministry; and
- Movement-centered: Instead of building our own tribe, we seek the prosperity and peace of our community, as we are led by the Holy Spirit. A theological vision creates a bridge between doctrine and expression, a balance between cultural engagement and countercultural distinctiveness.
Written by a practitioner for practitioners, Center Church will provoke serious reflection, creative adaptation, and decisive action. It can be used by groups or individually and includes questions for discussion and reflection.
Download latest books on mediafire and other links compilation Center Church: Doing Balanced, Gospel-Centered Ministry in Your City Epub Free
- Audible Audio Edition
- Listening Length: 22 hours and 44 minutes
- Program Type: Audiobook
- Version: Unabridged
- Publisher: Zondervan
- Audible.com Release Date: August 17, 2012
- Language: English
- ASIN: B008YQ1R7M
The "secret" of Redeemer Presbyterian Church's fruitfulness does not lie in its ministry programs, according to Tim Keller in this book. Far more important than the particular forms of ministry expression are the process by which they are arrived at, a process involving thinking long and hard about the implications of the gospel, the culture of the city, and the sensibilities of both Christians and non-Christians in the city.
The book is essentially a manual for creating a theological vision for a city, being a faithful re-statement of the gospel with rich implications for life, ministry, and mission in a type of culture at a moment in history. The book starts by discussing what the gospel is, and what is involved in gospel renewal. It then discusses the importance of gospel contextualisation and how it relates to a city, and finally movement dynamics including mission, institutions and integrative ministry.
While leaders of established churches may not spend much time considering the theological implications of their church practices, church planters (unless they are merely following someone else's template) are inevitably faced with the task of thinking through what the new church is going to look like, how it is going to explain the gospel to the local people groups, and how it is going to embody Christian community. These are challenging theological issues, and the book provides excellent source material to assist in the process.
If you want a philosophy of ministry, I'm not your guy. I've written them. I've even assigned and graded them. I don't like most of them, though. Some are theological, but don't tell me much about ministry. Some are programmatic, and end up becoming too prescriptive. Neither is helpful.
What we need, according to Tim Keller, is middleware. Middleware is like the operating system on your computer. It's neither the hardware (like theology), nor is it the application (the programs). In the church, this middleware -- a theological vision for ministry, really -- is more practical than doctrinal beliefs alone, but more theological than "how-to" steps for ministry. It is, it turns out, exactly what we need, and it's what Keller aims to deliver in his tome Center Church.
Yes, it's a tome. The book is almost 400 pages, and the audiobook is almost 23 hours long. It's formatted like a textbook with lots of sidebars, and some tables and sidebars. As Mike Wittmer writes, "The only thing it's missing is a few pictures of U.S. Presidents, and I'd be back in high school." (The sidebars are one reason why the print version is superior to the audiobook or the ebook format. There's no real way for the sidebars to have the same flow on a Kindle, much less an audiobook.)
The book delivers exactly what you'd expect from Tim Keller: a scholarly but practical look at ministry. The book is broken into three sections: Gospel, City, and Movement.
First, he begins with the gospel, helping us think carefully about what it is and what it isn't. He also describes how the gospel renews the church. Chapter 6, "The Work of Gospel Renewal," is worth the price of the book itself for any pastor who wants to see the church revived.
Second, Keller writes on the city.
Book Preview
Center Church: Doing Balanced, Gospel-Centered Ministry in Your City Download
Please Wait...