Multi Voiced Church

Multi-voiced Church argues strongly and persuasively for churches in which everyone is important for the well-being and growth of the community. The New Testament indicates that the early churches were multi-voiced, participative and expectant that the Holy Spirit would speak through all members of the community. First-generation renewal movements have typically been multi-voiced, recovering this New Testament characteristic. But institutionalization (often accompanied by clericalization) has persistently reduced such diversity of participation and resulted in many aspects of church life becoming mono-voiced or restricted to only a few voices.

Multi-voiced Church argues strongly and persuasively for churches in which everyone is important for the well-being and growth of the community. The New Testament indicates that the early churches were multi-voiced, participative and expectant that the Holy Spirit would speak through all members of the community. First-generation renewal movements have typically been multi-voiced, recovering this New Testament characteristic. But institutionalization (often accompanied by clericalization) has persistently reduced such diversity of participation and resulted in many aspects of church life becoming mono-voiced or restricted to only a few voices.

The New Testament indicates that the early churches were multi-voiced, participative and expectant that the Holy Spirit would speak through all members of the community. First-generation renewal movements have typically been multi-voiced, recovering this New Testament characteristic. But institutionalization (often accompanied by clericalization) has persistently reduced such diversity of participation and resulted in many aspects of church life becoming mono-voiced or restricted to only a few voices. This book surveys the history of mono-voiced and multi-voiced expressions of church, offers a robust biblical basis for advocating the latter, and explores ways of developing multi-voiced communities today. It offers resources that encourage multi-voiced practice in the areas of worship, learning, discernment and pastoral care.

How will the western church negotiate the demise of Christendom? Can it rediscover its primary calling, recover its authentic ethos and regain its nerve? If churches are to thrive--or even survive--disturbing questions need to be confronted and answered. In conversation with Christians who have left the church and with those who are experimenting with fresh expressions of church, Stuart Murray explores both the emerging and inherited church scenes and makes proposals for the development of a way of being church suitable for a postdenominational, postcommitment and post-Christendom era. With chapters on mission, community and worship, Church After Christendom offers a vision of church life that is healthy, sustainable, liberating, peaceful and missional.

Flexible Church proposes an ecclesiology for innovative expressions of church that is grounded in biblical texts whilst self-consciously and intentionally developed for the contemporary Western milieu. The result is a framework serves as a guide and auditing tool for pioneering church planters.

A variety of experienced church leaders, missioners and other practitioners share simple and effective ideas for enhancing the life, worship and witness of every local church. With humour, realism, real-life stories and top-tips for dealing with challenging situations, here is a welcome aid for all clergy and lay church leaders.

In this study, Teun van der Leer tells the story of the Believers’ Church Tradition, a tradition, mainly rooted in the so-called Radical Reformation, which prefers to be called a movement, or rather a renewal movement. Its name is a program, a vision, and a way of being church. Based on extensive source research, this book describes and analyzes the defining characteristics of this so-called “third type of church” and investigates its ecumenical value. With an extensive description of its nature of faith, the church, hermeneutical discernment, and mission, this book colors a movement within the church landscape that has never been mapped in such detail before. As such, the book provides an in-depth introduction to this ecumenically important but still a bit underexposed movement and makes a substantial contribution to the ecumenical ecclesiological debate about the church and its future.

While the transition from modernity to postmodernity has received a huge amount of attention the shift from Christendom to post-Christendom has not yet been fully explored. This book is an introduction: a journey into the past, an interpretation of the present, and an invitation to ask what following Jesus might mean in the strange new world of post-Christendom. Drawing on insights from the early Christians, dissident movements and the world church, this book challenges conventional ways of thinking. For those who dare to imagine new ways of following Jesus on the margins it invites a realistic and hopeful response to challenges and opportunities awaiting us in the 21st century.