This book is a short look at each of the sixteen Articles of Faith of the Church of the Nazarene. Written by various authors, it’s not intended as a comprehensive theology, but more of an introduction. For as concise as the book is, the depth of each short chapter is surprisingly insightful. It will certainly compel you to want to explore the doctrines of the church further. Reading through section 6 dealing with the Atonement written by Dr. Thomas Noble brought tears to my eyes.
I abolutely love it (and I believe God does as well) when believers who have been around for a while embrace, not criticize, what God is doing through a younger and emerging generation. Tom Sine, by his own admition, an aging author who is more modern than postmodern in style (pg. 28), is learning from a new generation, because he's not convinced that many older evangelical Christians got all the answers right. The questions he asks on pages 27 and 28 are right on - did we get our eschatology wrong? Did we get what it means to be a disciple wrong? Did we get what it means to be a steward wrong? Did we get what it means to be the church wrong? Did we get what it means to do mission wrong? His hope is "to provoke a serious conversation about what it means to follow Jesus in a changing world and a changing church" (pg. 28), and I think he succeeded in doing exactly that. Perhaps a bit redundant in just a few places, and not fully agreeing with all his geopolitical views, this is still a well researched book that will make you think long and hard about what it means to be an effective follower of Christ in today's changing world.
An absolute must read book for ministry leaders who want to better understand the process it will take for postmodern people to come to Christ. When I was a teenager, I went through Evangelism Explosion training at my church. Yet Evangelism Explosion doesn't resonate with people today, and unless we try to understand the 21st century mindset of post Christian people, our outdated evangelism efforts will continue to frustrate us. This is a very good book, a quick and very simple and easy to understand read about understanding how to relate and reach postmoderns for Christ
As I am preparing for the Centennial Celebration of the Church of the Nazarene on Sunday, October 5, 2008, I thought I'd I read this book on the founder of the church, Phineas Bresee. Good book, well researched, maybe a little too well researched. By that I mean there are many details (names, places) that are relevant to Bresee's story, but may be irrelevant to the reader. When I read a biography, I want to know more about the individual than I do circumstantial details that the author discretionarily decides to retain or omit from the book. In this case, I felt the author may have retained a bit too much information from his research. It's still a good book that I recommend for anyone who wants to know more about a great man of God in Bresee.
