Total Church: Gospel and Theology

Tim Chester and Steve Timmis, Total Church: A radical reshaping around gospel and community. Pub IVP, 2007

This was one of my summer reading books. I can't commend it highly enough, if you've already got the book, read it, if not buy it and read it.

Written from the experience of church in The Crowded House the authors write from a conviction that community is at the heart of the gospel and should be at the heart of church.

In the first section of the book they write of gospel and theology in relation to church.

p. 16 - gospel-centred means two things: word-centred and mission-centred. The gospel is a word to proclaim.

What a challenge to much of our church life in CofS! So often God's word is marginalised by our fighting over it and whatever we mean by mission we can hardly be described as mission-centred. Do we agree that the church is to be gospel-centred, and if so, is this what we mean by gospel-centred?

p. 18 "The theology that matters is not the theology we profess, but the theology we practise."

We are so good, and quick, to argue for our own chosen theological position and to defend the purity of our profession. What would happen, what difference would it make if we promoted our theology by our living? When, for example, we claim to hold to the doctrines of grace, why do we so seldom practise grace? Here's a theological challenge, why not, everytime we state to ourselves or in public a theological position we commit to immediately identifying a practise, a way of life implied by that theological position - and then living this theology in our lives day by day.

p. 36 writing on the difference between full-time and part-time in ministry - we need to model whole-life gospel-centred missional living.

We really have lost the thread of the ministry of the people of God, we diminish all ministry by thinking and speaking about full-time, or paid-ministry. Each disciple of the Lord Jesus should be whole-life engaged in discipleship, whole-life engaged in gospel mission. How do we model this? What does it mean in Scotland in 2009? Is whole-life gospel-centred missional living the age old plan of God to save the world one life at a time?

As you can see, I have been greatly challenged by this book. More to follow.