A passionate, valuable, and knowing call for updating and improving church missionary outreach.
An expert in Christian missionary work offers advice on how to cope with the changing field in this spiritual book.
The crisis in the subtitle of this slim work is of course the Covid-19 pandemic, which has drastically reshaped the communal Christian experience in the regions of the United States that have enacted various measures and restrictions to stop the spread of the virus. Winders draws on his 50-year expertise in missionary work in order to help church groups clarify their decision-making. “Keeping the mission alive, finding followers for Jesus, and apprenticing disciples to find more followers to the next generation is imperative,” he reminds his Christian pastoral readers. “Managing any crisis can shift the focus away from the mission.” The Covid-19 catastrophe has sparked many fundamental changes, the foremost being that scientifically responsible communities have had to shift to online, livestreaming worship, and many churches have naturally had problems adapting. The author views this as a challenge for leadership, and the bulk of his book essentially deals with embracing online religious services and improving managerial practices—mainly by focusing on establishing and adhering to a healthy mission filter. “More than ever before,” he writes, “leaders need to clean out the wax of fear and complacency and really hear what their followers say.” Readers of all this will probably deduce that Winders himself was an exceptional missionary leader; his counsel, clear and forcefully written, is remarkably energizing at every stage of his work. At one point, the author asserts: “Prior to COVID-19, hospitality and welcoming in the church had a crew of greeters and connectors…During and after the COVID-19 pandemic, these approaches will need to evolve as we begin socially distanced in-person worship, as we continue live-streaming worship, and as both are happening simultaneously.” He refreshingly grounds all of his key points in Christian Scripture, pointing out that a clear mission filter example was shown by a youthful Jesus, preaching in the temple in Jerusalem even though he knew his parents were searching for him. If healthy churches are to survive this calamity and future disasters, they’ll do it using this kind of sage advice.
A passionate, valuable, and knowing call for updating and improving church missionary outreach.Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-66424-237-1
Page Count: 116
Publisher: Westbow Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
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