Great Giveaway : Reclaiming the Mission of the Church from Big Business, Parachurch Organizations, Psychotherapy, Consumer Capitalism, and Other Modern Maladies

by Fitch, David

• ISBN13: 9780801064838
• ISBN10: 080106483X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-11-01
• Publisher: Baker Books

Summary

"North American evangelicals learned to do church in relation to modernity," asserts David Fitch. Furthermore, evangelicals have begun to model their ministries after the secular sciences or even to farm out functions of the church whenever it seems more efficient. As a result, the church, too often, has stopped being the church. In The Great Giveaway, Fitch examines various church practices and shows how and why each function has been compromised by modernity. Discussing such ministries as evangelism, physical healing, and spiritual formation, Fitch challenges Christians to reclaim these lost practices so that the church can regain its influence. Pastors, leaders, and students who minister to the postmodern world will find in this book fresh insight that will stir the hearts of many and spark much-needed discussion about the evangelical church.

Author Biography

David Fitch (Ph.D., Northwestern University) is pastor of Life on the Vine Christian Community of the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Long Grove, Illinois, and is adjunct professor of ministry, theology, and ethics at Northern Seminary.

Table of Contents

Preface	9	(4)
Introduction: The Great Giveaway: Toward a Postmodern Evangelical Ecclesiology	13	(14)
How Evangelicals Give Away...
1. Our Definition of Success	27	(20)
When Going from Ten to a Thousand Members in Five Years Is the Sign of a Sick Church
2. Evangelism	47	(24)
Saving Souls beyond Modernity: How Evangelism Can Save the Church and Make It "Relevant" Again
3. Leadership	71	(24)
When Evangelical Pastors End Up in Moral Failure: The Missing Link between the Pastorate and the Virtues
4. The Production of Experience	95	(32)
Why Worship Takes Practice: Toward a Worship That Forms Truthful Minds and Faithful Experience (Not Merely Reinforces the Ones We Walked In With)
5. The Preaching of the Word	127	(26)
The Myth of Expository Preaching: Why We Must Do More Than Wear Scrolls on Our Foreheads
6. Justice (Our Understanding Of)	153	(28)
Practicing Redeemed Economics: Christian Community in but Not of Capitalism
7. Spiritual Formation	181	(20)
The Need for More Preaching (and Penance) in the Psychologist's Office, or Why Therapy Never Should Have Left the Church in the First Place
8. Moral Education	201	(26)
Evangelicals and the Training of Our Children to Be Good Americans: The Example of Character Education in the Public Schools
Conclusion: Let Us Return to the Practices	227	(4)
Notes	231