SUGGESTED BOOK OF THE MONTH
What is the Mission of the Church?
by Kevin DeYoung & Greg Gilbert
First off, this book is an excellent piece of missiology. It does a wonderful job of defining the terminology used by the church to describe both its role and mission on the earth and, while the book itself is topical, it takes a definite exegetical approach in its arguments. It beautifully differentiates the difference between the role the church is to play in the world and what the mission of the church is (there is a difference-I’ll let the book explain the difference or you’ll be reading for a while). The book seems a little reactionary, maybe even a bit abrasive, in it’s opening chapters as it builds itself a foundation for why the authors had to define the actual mission itself that Jesus, by the authority of the Father, gifted to His church. It deals with the illusive meaning of cultural ideals, such as social justice, and reveals the effect that culture has had on the church through both spoken and unspoken expectations, resulting in a clouded understanding of what the mission of the church is in its most fundamental meaning. I’ll leave you with a teaser quote, “The alleviation of poverty is simply not the main story line of Scripture; the biblical narrative is chiefly concerned with how a holy God can dwell with an unholy people.”
Reviewed by Andrew Johnson