Defining the Church for Our Time - Origin and Structure, Variety and Viability

The church is broken and we cannot fix it. Faith in God is disconnected from churches. Mainline churches are deeply divided, and their budgets and congregations have diminished, with no agreement for recovery. So what shall we do? It is time to stop talking about the problems and to consider a new vision of the church for our time.

This book is a celebration of the church as the community of new life in Christ. It assumes Christ intended to create a community on earth embodying grace and holiness. It begins with a new and inclusive definition of the church as a community enduring in time. It affirms the great variety of churches, all as valid expressions of the new life, and explains how and why churches are formed in different ways. The goal is for churches to celebrate the saving power of Christ and to see the glory of God revealed in the world in our time.

About the author

Peter Schmiechen is president emeritus and professor of theology at Lancaster Theological Seminary. He is the author of Saving Power: Theories of Atonement and Forms of the Church (2005) and Gift and Promise: An Evangelical Theology of the Lord's Supper (2017).

Product details

• Authors: Peter Schmiechen
• Publisher: Wipf & stock publishers
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 12.06.2012
• EAN: 9781498214872
• ISBN: 978-1-4982-1487-2
• No. of pages: 184
• Dimensions: 157 mm x 235 mm x 15 mm
• Weight: 443 g
• Subject: Humanities, art, music > Religion/theology > Religious writings, prayers, songbooks, religious meditations