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GOD'S COLONY IN MAN'S WORLD by George Williams Webber Kirkus Star

GOD'S COLONY IN MAN'S WORLD

By

Pub Date: May 9th, 1960
Publisher: Abingdon Press

In a few square miles known as East Harlem in New York City where the Grand Central tracks emerge before the 125th Street station, are packed all sorts and conditions of men under conditions that try their souls and simply crush Protestant parishes that try to maintain an inflexible ministry according to standard ecclesiastical patterns. Much as a laboratory can concentrate attention on a few things at a time under controlled conditions, and much as a hospital, with its attention so much on the sick nevertheless learns all sorts of things beneficial to the well, so the East Harlem Protestant parish has been a crucible wherein all sorts of answers have been sought, and some found, for some of the troubles that plague the Church's ministry today. God's colony is not the East Harlem parish, and this is not a book about that work. Rather, it is an attempt on the part of the author to share with the whole Church some of the things they have learned the hard way which will be of value in many other places, and may even have universal and eternal significance. God's Colony is the Whole Church, in its difficult and vital ministry to a lost world which surrounds it. The plight of the East Harlem Protestant Parish is not different in kind from that of other churches who also must preach, heal and save in a world where the Gospel will not adjust, and Christians are outnumbered. If you are interested in preaching, or the ecumenical movement, or how to teach the Christian faith, or how to conduct an evangelistic mission, or what the social significance of the Church can be, this is your book. It's all there in one very readable package, with some emergent theological ideas as well. You will find this book at once disturbing and fascinating; in fact, once you start reading it, you'll find it hard to put down.