Baptists and the Emerging Church Movement 12+

📘 In Baptists and the Emerging Church Movement, David Rathel examines the major ecclesiological proposals of the emerging church movement. Though many theologians argue that the emerging church movement emphasizes epistemology, Rathel contends that its primary concern is ecclesiology. Emerging church leaders offer a number of important ecclesiological proposals, including restructuring traditional church leadership models to accommodate the rise of postmodernity, changing the mission of the church so that the church may strike a more ""missional"" tone in contemporary culture, removing the categories of ""in"" or ""out"" within the church body, and adopting the multi-site church model. In assessing these proposals, Rathel draws upon historic Baptist convictions about the nature of the church, using Baptists' ecclesiological distinctives and long history of ecclesiological thought as a helpful reference point. This book will not only serve as a guide for those who wish to learn of emerging church ecclesiology, it will also be an aid to Baptists who wish to evaluate recent trends in ecclesiology in light of their denominational distinctives.""David Rathel has put together an important work explaining why the gospel is central to understanding how to minister in and through the church in today's postmodern climate. His work is well researched, his conclusions sound, his advice helpful, and his writing style is both ac...